Las Vegas-based Golden Entertainment reported year-over-year declines from the company’s continued operations stemming almost entirely from the lack of Super Bowl business.
Las Vegas-based Light & Wonder has announced a multimillion-dollar agreement with the Buffalo Thunder and Cities of Gold casinos in New Mexico to modernize their casino systems and operations.
The tribal properties, operated by the Pueblo of Pojoaque, were early adopters to iView Pro S, Light & Wonder’s newest casino hardware system.
The player interface enhances the gaming experience by displaying dynamic content and enabling customer interaction. The system will be deployed across 1,400 slot machines and is designed to streamline operations, reduce information technology overhead, and make gameplay more enjoyable for players.
“Buffalo Thunder and Cities of Gold casinos provide excellent gaming experiences to their players,” said Jon Wolfe, president of Global Systems and Services at Light & Wonder. “We’re excited to take the next step with them to deploy a modern, connected gaming environment that their patrons will love.”
Golden Entertainment’s first quarter financials
First-quarter earnings were in line with expected results for Las Vegas-based Golden Entertainment, with reported year-over-year declines from the company’s continued operations stemming almost entirely from the lack of Super Bowl business.
Further complicating the YoY comparisons in the first quarter was Golden’s divestiture of its Nevada distributed gaming operations, which closed in early 2024 and generated nearly $6 million in revenue and $500,000 in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
Overall, Golden Entertainment, which operates The Strat hotel-casino, two Laughlin properties, a casino in Pahrump, as well as the Arizona Charlie’s and PT brands of local gaming establishments, reported nearly $161 million in revenue during the first three months of 2025, down 4.3 percent from 2024.
Hotel room occupancy was down 5 percent at The Strat for the quarter, with a bulk of that attributable to a 12 percent YoY decline in February. Las Vegas hosted its first ever Super Bowl in February 2024. Occupancy was up last month and trending up in May.
“Our focus on customer experience and operational efficiencies allowed us to generate strong financial performance despite uncertain macroeconomic conditions,” said Blake Sartini, chairman and chief executive officer of Golden. “Our business remains resilient, and we intend to continue to opportunistically repurchase our common stock under our current buyback authorization.”
Colorado sports betting
A change in Colorado’s sports betting laws will ultimately result in more money being available to the state’s water projects.
The state Senate’s approval of an amendment to a sports-betting law will gradually reduce the amount of money sportsbooks can deduct when offering free promotional wagers.
Under state law, sportsbook operators were allowed to deduct a certain percentage of promos handed out to bettors based on their monthly handle. But under the amendment, all promotional deductions will end by July 1, 2026. Promotional deductions will end over time with deductions being reduced to no more than 2 percent of handle between July 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2025, no more than 1 percent of handle between Jan 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026, with all promotional deductions ending July 1, 2026.
Voters were asked to remove the cap on promotional deductions on November’s ballot.
The tax on sportsbook revenue is dedicated to water projects in Colorado.
