LAS VEGAS – Golden Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: GDEN) (“Golden Entertainment” or the “Company”) today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.
Blake Sartini, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Golden Entertainment, commented, “Our financial performance quickly recovered from the impact of the mandated shutdowns in March reflecting the benefit of our diversified portfolio of local and regional gaming operations as well as adjustments we made to managing the business. Our third quarter results demonstrate the continued strong operating trends at most of our properties since reopening as we generated the highest third quarter Adjusted EBITDA in the Company’s history.
“Third quarter financial performance was led by our Las Vegas locals casinos which achieved double-digit revenue growth and collectively doubled their Adjusted EBITDA contribution compared to the same period last year. Strong performance also continued at our Laughlin and Pahrump casinos, which increased Adjusted EBITDA by 8% and 40%, respectively, for the third quarter compared to the prior year. Our Maryland property also demonstrated meaningful improvement with third quarter Adjusted EBITDA increasing 27% compared to the prior year. For our total casino operations including The STRAT, our focus on continued expense management drove an Adjusted EBITDA margin improvement of approximately 1,000 basis points year over year to over 37% in the third quarter.
“Our Montana distributed gaming business also continued to grow revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, while our distributed gaming business in Nevada was challenged from the mandated reclosure of bar-areas from July 10th to September 20th. We have since reopened bar-areas at all of our tavern locations and have seen more normalized operating trends across our portfolio.
“Even as The STRAT continues to improve and our Nevada bar-areas were closed for most of the quarter, consolidated Adjusted EBITDA increased 5.5% over the prior year to $45.4 million. In addition, third quarter total Company Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 440 basis points on lower revenues reflecting reduced labor and marketing expenses at our properties.
“Also, during the third quarter we repaid the remaining $10 million drawn on the Company’s $200 million revolving credit facility which remains available to us for future liquidity needs. Looking forward, we are focused on sustaining financial performance, cash generation and reducing leverage to position us for future opportunities.”
