Boyd Gaming Corp (BYD) 2002 Q1 法說會逐字稿

My name is and I'll be your conference facilitator. At this time I'd like to welcome everyone for the first quarter, 2002, conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remark, there will be and answer period. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone key pad, and questions will be taken in the order they are received. If you'd like to withdraw your question, push star, then the number two on your telephone key pad.

I will now turn the call over to Ellis Landau, executive vice president, and vice chief financial officer. Thank you, you may begin your conference.

OK, thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to our first quarter conference call. Before I start, let me say that the discussion today may contain some forward looking statements, where actual results may vary from what's contained in those statements. The variances could be material, and we will refer you to our public filings for the risk factors you need to know before you invest.

We announced our first quarter results about an hour ago, and needless to say we are very pleased and very proud of what we reported. It has exceeded everyone's expectations. We reported record earnings, and not slightly surpassing our old records, but greatly surpassing them. Our games are broad based across our properties. Our big earning properties made more money. Our properties with our banking back, the two particularly made more money.

And Delta Downs opened and made money. Below the line we were helped by lower interest rates. And an accounting change that lowered our amortization expense. We reported 31 cents a share, fully diluted, in the quarter before pre-opening expenses. That compared to ten cents per share in the first quarter of last year. Just to refresh your memories, our four quarters last year were 10 cents, 14 cents, nine cents, and 15 cents. So you can see how this quarter really moved us to a new level.

On the EBITDA basis, we reported EBITDA after corporate expense of 71 and a half million dollars. That was 30% ahead of last year's first quarter. On the same sale basis, when you take out Delta Downs, that measure was up 22%. As I said, the gains were broad based. Seven out of our eight units that were operating both years reported increased EBITDA on the quarter. Only the Stardust fell short. The three big producing properties, Blue Chip, Paradise, and the downtown properties in Las Vegas, all reported nice gains in revenue and nice gains in their EBITDA margin.

Two of them, Blue Chip and Paradise set records for quarterly EBITDA. And the third group, the downtown properties had a second best quarter ever, only behind the preceding quarter, the fourth quarter of last year. Of the two Sam's Town our Sam's Town Las Vegas and Sam's Town , that have revenues and much improved profits, because they reduced their heavy promotional spending, and personnel costs after their expansion and renovations. And are run, being run much more efficiently at this time.

Margins also were improved at Treasure Chest, at the El Dorado and Jokers Wild. And were close to flat at the Stardust. Overall when you look at all the properties on a same store basis, we improved our EBITDA margins by four and a half percentage points. From 19.7% to 24.2%. Let me just summarize something for you that may be helpful, by looking at five categories to describe where they, just about all that 21 cent per share gain came from over last year's first quarter. The three big producers I mentioned, Blue Chip, Paradise, and downtown, accounted for, per share gain, came from over last year's first quarter.

The three big producers I mentioned, Blue Chip, Paradise, and downtown, accounted for six cents of the gain. The two Sam's Towns, together accounted for six cents of the gain. Delta Downs, we pointed out in the release, added two cents. The interest savings, our lower interest costs added four cents a share. And no longer advertising the, our intangible assets, added two cents a share. That gives you a sense of how we made such large strides in the quarter.

I won't go fully property by property, since the numbers are already released. But let me just say a few things. Blue Chip and Paradise had great performances. They were helped by good weather in the Midwest. And as I mentioned they both set records. The downtown properties did a great job with their Hawaiian business. The charters we bring in from Honolulu nonstop to Las Vegas every day were essentially full all quarter. And that unit keeps getting more and more efficient on the expense side.

Sam's Town Las Vegas have gotten their expense levels in line. The property's in great shape, and I think customer levels and customer satisfaction continue to improve. Things are going very well again at that property. Sam's Town Two in as you know is in a tough market, but that property has also gotten their expense levels in line. And they're concentrating on building their business back, officially.

Treasure Chest is steady in the New Orleans market. Some of the heavy promotional spending by our competitor has subsided. El Dorado and Jokers Wild are steady as a rock, as usual. And the Stardust, which, on the Las Vegas strip, as you know things aren't all the way back to normal yet. It really did hold in there with a 90 percent occupancy. And four and a half million dollars of EBITDA in the quarter. As for our growth situation, let me talk about Delta Downs for a minute.

Delta Downs opened it's casino, it opened it's slot casino with approximately 15 hundred slot machines on February 13th. So we had half a quarter of slot operations. Business was very strong at first, as you know, and remains well above revenue expectations for the quarter. You saw the numbers that were reported by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board. We did just over 300 dollars win per slot per day for the quarter.

But as we said in the release, we will keep running at that level. But we are expecting to stay ahead of most of yours, and our, expectations for slot win, which I believe are in the range of about a 175 to 200 dollars a day. And we are running, expect to run, above that level. Even though not at the levels reported in the first quarter.

Our costs were high when we opened. The personnel costs were high, marketing costs were high, we needed to introduce the product to the marketplace, and to service our customer. We're still working hard to get more efficient. Personnel costs were high, marketing costs were high. We needed to introduce the product to the marketplace. And to service our customers. We're still working hard to get more efficient, as we learn more about who our customers are, what works, what doesn't, and so forth.

In general we're very pleased with Delta Downs. And think it will continue to be a real contributor for us, as it matures. As you saw it was lucrative, GPS right out of the box. And like our other acquisitions in recent years, we do expect a good return on invested capitol with Delta Downs. Speaking of acquisitions, we did a thorough analysis at the beginning of this, at the beginning of the quarter. The analysis that's required under the new accounting standard 142.

And the result was that the only, that only the Stardust which we acquired in 1985 needed an adjustment to it's good will. And we did take that, we wrote totally, that was 8.2 million dollars. All of our other acquired properties had no intangible asset impairment, and we're quite proud of that. On the debt side, we ended the quarter with one billion, one hundred and fifty five million dollars in debt. That was up only nine million dollars from the year end balance.

Good earnings and low maintenance capex as it turned out helped that bring that about. In the first quarter we did have to spend some money. We completed for now our Borgata investment. We put our final 37 million dollars into that joint venture, and that's the last we need to do until the middle of next year when there's a 25 million dollar requirement. So we're done for now. We also, in the first quarter, put the last few million dollars into Delta Downs.

So for the rest of the year there are no plans for anything major. And we should get our debt balances down nicely from these levels. We just completed issuing 250 million dollars of eight and three quarter percent senior subordinated ten year notes in the private placement. These will be in a change offer shortly to exchange them for public registered notes. And we took the proceeds and we paid down our bank debt. We even upsized that issue from 200 million to 250 million when it was priced. Our bank debt will be done shortly.

We're beginning to work on that, we were working with our existing bank group to do that. And that, when it's done, should get our capitol structure in great shape for many years to come. The new bank facility will provide both the flexibility to the leverage. And the liquidity for the refunding of the 200 million dollars of senior notes, which are due in October of 2003. Things are going well in Atlantic City, with the Borgata development. Don will talk a little more about that in a moment.

But let me just say that we remain confident that the Borgata will be built within this budget. And that it will open in the summer of 2003. We also feel good about how the operating planning, operations planning is coming together. We are looking forward to the Borgata's opening, and the positive effects we think it will have on our company. Let me give you a couple of statistics here. The first quarter capital expenditures were eight million dollars.

Amounting to four million maintenance capex, and four million dollars too, for the Delta Downs. The cash at the end of the quarter was 77 million dollars, that's nonrestricted cash. And that's the same as it was at December 31st. And our cap interest during the quarter was five million dollars, breaking down the three and half million dollars related to the Borgata, and a million and a half relating to Delta Downs.

I assume you'll agree with me when I say there's really nothing not to like about this report. Your question is, will I be able to give the same report in future quarters? And I guess the real answer is I, I don't know for sure. But let me just say that the fundamentals we have right now should stay in place for a while. There's no new supply coming into any of our markets. The economy should be fairly steady for a while. Interest rates should stay stable for a while, even though we did, when we issued our bonds, and extend the maturities, we went to some higher rate debt with that.

But the rates of the floating rate debt should stay, appears to be staying stable for a while. Our properties are all in, in good shape. And we continue to make improvements on them as we go along. We have the same management, the same efficient operations. We do have the, some seasonality, but not that much. And it's bound over our diversified property mix. The first quarter was fortunate in that it had March in it, and that's usually our best month. And with five weekends it was truly an exceptional month this year.

But we learn to deal with that every year. I can say that things are going very well right now. So if you see me walking around with a smile on my face, you'll know why. And with that I'd like to turn it over to our president, Don Snyder.

Thank you Ellis. And good afternoon to all of you. Now to state what may seem a bit obvious and somewhat redundant with what Ellis has already said, these truly are great numbers, and we're really very pleased and proud to report them to you today. We're especially pleased with what they say in terms of the basic strategy that we have shared with you in recent years. And very importantly how our property managers have executed. And importantly, we feel very good about how the company is positioned for the future.

Some of the things that Ellis has talked about. It's also nice to see that the market is recognizing those things. And that the share holders are being rewarded for their confidence and for their patience. Strategically we have said consistently in recent years that, that our primary focus was on improving and diversifying our operating foundation. To, to strengthen the financial structure of the company. And to generate focused strategic growth opportunities.

These results, today, especially the results since post September 11th, are very positive reinforcement both at strategy and the great execution throughout the company. While great weather in the midwest and low interest rates enhanced the first quarter results, our property management, how we delivered our corporate support to the properties has served us extremely well, and again positioned us very well as we look through the rest of this year, and into 2003.

To touch maybe a little bit more on some of the properties just to provide my perspective. We really are especially pleased with the progress at the two Sam's Town properties. Those, as you know, did suffer from the disruption, the construction provided. And it took a while for those properties to come back. But the progress is being made at those two properties, it's something that we really do feel good about, and as a result of very focused management attention.

Our downtown properties continue their strong performance. And with the type of results that we've now been producing there for a number of years. We feel very good about that business, and, and how it's able to perform going forward. We continue to be extremely pleased with Paradise and the Blue Chip property. We have just completed some renovation of the buffet and the fine dining at Paradise. And the early signal, the early indications there are good, that those are nice enhancements to the property that already produces very strong results.

And we think it's an important part of keeping that property to, to the point where it can continue to provide the type of results it has. At Blue Chip we're working on a relatively small project, but a significant project in terms of adding some additional gaming space on the third deck of the river boat. That will give us more table games, and give us a poker room which we have not had. And we think that that's expanding the facility in a way that will enhance the overall business.

In terms of growth opportunities, Ellis has touched on these already. But Delta Downs, particularly, as we continue to get quarter after quarter of results out of that, the business is going to add a good solid growth in the near term to the company. We feel very good about how that looks at this point in time. And that really then gets us to the other significant growth opportunity that you're all very much focused on as we are, and that's the Borgata, our billion dollar joint venture project with MGM Mirage.

That project, as Ellis just said, is on time, on budget. We continue to have contingencies available that will help us through the final stages of that project. Approximately 95 percent of the construction work has now been purchased. If you haven't looked at it on the, on the construction cam recently online, you would be surprised at how much progress has been made. We are now complete throughout 36 floors, with the tower concrete. We're working on the 37th or 38th floor as we speak.

The exterior glass is going up. We're in the, into the 20th, over the 20th floor with the exterior glass installation, and that's going extremely well. We're starting to work on the interior of the building, and the low rise is moving ahead extremely well. All aspects of that project feel extremely comfortable to us, and again, we welcome you viewing that property on line. With that we'd be happy to answer any questions that you have, and elaborate in whatever depth is necessary.

At this time I'd like to remind everyone in order to ask a question press star, then the number one on your telephone key pad. Please hold one moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from of .

Congratulations on a great quarter. A couple questions. One, do you have any long term plans for the Stardust, you know, is it going to join the next phase of growth in Vegas, you probably have to start thinking about that now. Any, any thought?

Well as we've said in the past, we've considered for the past several years that the Stardust and the 61 acres that it sits on is a long term strategic asset. And, and we continue to feel that over time, the long term aspects of that are, are coming closer. We're, we're encouraged by what is planning. We'd like to see that come out of the ground. From our point of view, we also want to get the Borgata finished. But, but we feel very good about adding the 61 acres and the flexibility that it provides us as the development on the Las Vegas strip moves to the north with the project.

And also, significantly, as we've said in the past, it's not just a Steve Wynne's project. It is the fashion show mall that is working through it's very major expansion. Doubling the size of that with eight major anchors is going to provide a tremendous major retail presence close to us. And that helps to energize the area. And just other things, like the expansion of the convention center, and the condominiums, provides a lot of activity that, in the next few years, is going to give us opportunity.

But to say that we specifically decided when and what, we have not done that, but it's certainly on our radar screen.

Now there's supposed to be a special session in Indiana to take one more shot at dockside gaming. Any word on that, because it would be a benefit to Blue Chip.

It would be a nice benefit, but it's really too early to, to tell what's going on there. Certainly there are, are fiscal challenges in the state that certainly open the door to the right type of dialogue. Hopefully, and we would expect that if there was a tax increase we would have the flexibility to operate more efficiently with dockside. So we'll have to see how that goes, but it's really too early to predict.

Is the special session a definite? Or you don't know?

It's close to being a definite. But I don't think it's been signed off on by everybody that has to. But a date has been picked, and I guess May 14th.

OK, and I guess the last question would be, what's a reasonable longer term margin for Delta Downs?

I don't know, it's hard, it's really hard to predict. I mean we did say it'll get better, the more unusual circumstances in that took it where it was. But, it's, I don't want to predict. I think when we were looking at this early on, most people were looking at it, at least in the mid-twenties in general consensus among analysts. But that's, it's hard to predict. I think over time we're going to just keep getting better at it.

As is typically done when you learn more and can improve what needs to be, what needs to be improved. So we'll just have to see how it evolves and hope it keeps getting better over time.

Thanks guys, good earning.

Your next question comes from of Deutsche Bank Securities

I just have a couple of quick questions here for you. Can you just give some more cover on did pretty well there. Is the market, you know, just getting any more rational from a competitive standpoint? And secondly, can you talk about maybe the customer profile of Delta Downs and where they're coming from, et cetera?

Thanks Joel, let me, this is Don Snyder, let me talk about first. The market continues to be soft, I think as, as you know, and I think over time perhaps as things get more rational, or people get better at managing that. And I think that we certainly have, and we're seeing, we're seeing some signs that things are perhaps moving in the right direction. Certainly from our point of view, the things that we can control, we're feeling increasing good about our marketing programs.

Dialing those in to have the desired effect. And certainly as we look forward into the next quarter, there's some things that we think do help the market for us as well as for the, maybe, total market. Things like the river, River Run, which is a motorcycle event that will probably bring something in the neighborhood of six thousand motorcycles in the first week in May, is significant.

Memorial Day looks real good with the activities and the early reservations are quite strong there. And so we feel that that will help. Then they Tyson, the Tyson-Lewis fight is something that that market will benefit from. And we, specifically, feel good about the role that we will play. We will basically host the Lennox Lewis camp. And that means that his camp and his, and, and the press from Britain will be there. We'll have a lot of activities built around the event.

And as you know, those things have a tendency to cover several days. And so we think that the market is increasingly, and we as a company are getting better at positioning both the marketing programs and doing a better job of minding our data base, but also trying to put some dents into that marketplace that we think will help and enhance everyone's position. And then your second questions was, with regard to Delta Downs and quite frankly I don't remember the question.

Yes, I just wanted to get kind of the customer profile. You know, where they're coming from, whether it's Houston or closer to Lake Charles.

Houston is clearly the market that we built that property for. Opened that property for. And so the bulk of the business does come out of Houston. But we're also please to see that the surrounding area that we hoped would consider the Delta Downs to be more of a local place is happening. It's a good local market, it's a good regional market in terms of Houston, and we feel very good about the type of customers that we're getting in that regard.

Just one more follow up. How many net positions are you going to have with the Blue Chip expansion, and how much does that cost, and when does it come on line?

The Blue Chip expansion will cost about three million dollars. And it's adding nine table games, and it's adding a poker room. And right now I don't remember how many poker tables.

Twelve.

12 poker tables. We're not, we're not talking about removing any of the tables downstairs. And so it's not going to increase the slot count at all, except for a few that are placed in the bar, in the new VIP section.

OK, thanks a lot guys.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from of Lehman Brothers.

I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit about some of the operational initiatives that allowed you to see such strong margin improvement, especially at the two Sam's Towns. It sounds like a good part of it was changes in your marketing strategy. I'm wondering if that was the or if you could point to other things.

Well that, that was a major part of it. Also just cost control and, and just running the business a bit tighter from that point of view. And particularly at Sam's Town Las Vegas the, if you look at the employee count, it is down substantially from where it was a year ago, perhaps 250 positions as we've rationalized how that business is structured and, and so it is management of the cost side, but it is also, importantly, it's management of the marketing side as we fine tune programs and get a better feel for what was working the market, and what wasn't.

And then as part of that, direct mail has served us well as we've fine tuned how we, how we market to our database.

OK, then a follow up for Ellis. It sounds like you're reasonably encouraged, but you're going to see strong results. I guess if you did 31 one cents this quarter, even if you have a little bit of seasonality, would it be crazy to be thinking that you could do almost 30 cents in, kind of the, remaining quarters of this year? Or you're not willing to be that cozy with your guidance?

Good try Joyce. You know we typically don't give specific forecasts. I do say we feel good about this thing, how things are going. We do have full quarters of Delta Downs coming up, versus a half a quarter. That's good news. But just a lot of things went right in this quarter. And I just wouldn't want to suggest that all the stars will be aligned every quarter going forward. But as I mentioned, the sentimentals are there, and you know, I just wouldn't want to suggest that all the stars will be aligned every quarter going forward.

But as I mentioned, the sentimentals are there and, you know, if it, if it starts with a three again, I'll be thrilled again. But it's hard to make a forecast.

OK. And then can you also just give me a sense of what was your average cost prior to all this refinancing. Where do you expect it to be:

You say the, the overall cost?

Yep.

Yes, the, when we did the last financing we traded bank debt with probably in the four and a half percent range for eight and three quarter percent debt, and 250 million dollars of that. So you can see the interest costs from that alone would go up by result of that. We'll do some swaps back to floating rate. We have a little bit too much fixed rate debt.

Right now we 900 million in fixed rate debt. And only got 250 million in the floating rate debt. So we can improve some of that, what we lost, by doing floating for fixed swaps. But there will be, I think, about a few million dollars that will be the overall cost to extending our maturities. We can go into sub-debt, and instead of senior debt going to ten year, ten or 15 to secure the sub debt. And then going out to ten years was a good thing to do. But it will cost us something.

OK, thank you.

Your next question comes from of State Street Research.

Just curious as to the Borgata, whether you're plans for this casino are firmed up to use cashless slot machines, or whether, you know, you've even considered that at this stage?

We have considered it and it's been a matter of getting those type of devices licensed in Atlantic City. We're hopeful that they will be by the time that, by the time that we're ready to install our machines. We think it's a, it would be a nice enhancement to the property in that market place. And, and we're hopeful that we can do that. But it's still too early to say that if in fact we'd be able to or not.

And the reason you'd be interested in that, is there, you know, any likelihood you'd be moving to that in your Las Vegas properties? Or is there not the competitive pressure to do it?

Well we're, you know, we're working with those type of machines in some of our markets to get experience with. We think there's probably, it's probably easier to open with that type of technology in place, than to convert it. And that's why we're looking at it. And it's just maybe a bit too premature to say what we will do. And it's certainly premature to say what we're going to do more company wide.

It's obviously a trend in the industry that is a significant trend. And we're going to continue to work with it and develop what our longer term plan will be. But it's, it's, we're just not there yet.

But for a new casino, if it's legal, it's kind of a no brainer decision.

I'm not sure it's a no brainer decision, but it certainly, it certainly speaks to a product that is being accepted by customers, and it's certainly an operationally efficient way of delivering that product. And so we, we think that it is something that deserves very serious consideration, and we're hopeful that we have the flexibility to do it in Atlantic City. But we're not quite there.

And should you be able to do it, do you think it might enhance margins more than, you know, opening with the conventional technology?

It's, it is certainly cheaper to support that type of an operation. So I think that yes, the judgement would be that it does help the margin.

Great, thanks very much.

Your next question comes from of Boston American Access Management.

Yes, I had a question about Delta Downs, the 15 hundred slots. The play has been higher than normal. We've seen a lot of racinos increase the number, you know, of machines as the play is higher than normal. What are the rules and regulations with Louisiana as to increases in the number of machines? Is that possible? Or is there a limit, and you have to go back to the commission?

There is a limit and we're at the limit. I mean, designing the casino to maximize the number of machines that we could get in to the square footage we're allowed, it took us right up to the maximum. So we feel that we have what we're going to have, and we're going to try to find ways to operate those as efficiently as we can.

Is there any provisions for increasing machines in the future, under certain conditions?

It would take a regulatory or legal, a legislative action to do that. And so certainly in the short term we don't expect that. Over time, you know, perhaps things can happen. But it's certainly not something that we're planning on or expecting.

And then finally, what have you been, I mean it sounds like you've been minding your data bases pretty well, on some of your tracking systems with how are you tying in any of your machines, or is there any plans with that as a la Harrah's, you know, with it's systems, which are across multiple properties? And then particularly pertaining to say Paradise and, you know, your Indiana boats, whether you're trying to do any cross marketing in that area since they're reasonably close to each other.

I think that generally speaking we're trying to do whatever we can to cross market properties that are in generally compatible markets. And the two that you just mentioned are a good example. Downtown Las Vegas is a good example. Our current systems do not link our properties together with the the parts system. But we're certainly putting in place the flexibility to do that. At least where it makes sense, crossed properties, and more common market like downtown.

But we're not, we're not there yet. But we're, we're certainly, we've taken steps to enhance our flexibility and to enhance our short term capability of minding the databases more effectively.

And then finally, the final question is on the, you know, on advance bookings in, you know, Atlantic City. When could we expect, you know, some information on that, a la, you know, some other bigger properties that have opened up across the country? And do you plan to disclose, you know, anything ahead of time? You know, when you start taking bookings or, you know, doing them. And also you might address the issue of whether, you know, whether you've got convention space in that facility or not.

Well first of all the operating plans are starting to be developed, are being developed as we speak. And key operating management is being put in place. And we're really excited, not just about the property and what, physically, it's going to do. But, but the, that property is attracting a tremendous amount of interest from people that want to work there. At senior levels, at mid levels, and at lower levels.

And so we're to the point where we're starting to get operational, to, we don't have a date set for when we're going to start taking reservations. We, we do, we do feel very good about opening this project on the schedule that we talked about, which is the summer of, of 2003. But we're also absolutely committed to not opening the property until it's ready to open. And so we're going to get a little bit closer before we start putting ourselves into a, into a box where we have to be open on X date.

And so we want to make sure that we, we know what that date is, and then we'll start to market more aggressively. But we feel very, very good about how it's coming together and, and the key people who are becoming part of the Borgata team.

Is there convention, smaller convention facilities in it?

Yes, you have to, we have meeting space. How much do we have? I don't remember...

Yes, we're about 70 thousand square feet in terms of meeting and, and banquet, convention type space. So we, it's, it's a decent size. We're not very far from the big convention center in Atlantic City, so the city books major conventions, we could be a major, a convention hotel for that. That new connector puts us only about two minutes away.

Thank you.

OK thanks, yes.

Your next question comes from of Vendor Capital.

Hi. Just a couple questions. How much have you contributed to Borgata to date?

182 million dollars. As has our partner, MGM Mirage, they've also put in 182 million dollars.

OK, and how much additional do you anticipate contributing?

We have 25 more to go, each of us. And the plan is that we now borrow from our bank, there's a bank credit facility in place that will handle the next 621 million dollars of spending. And then we each put in 25 at the end. And that comes out at the end to be a 60/40 debt, equity ratio.

OK, so when all is said and done, on top of your, I'm sorry, you put in 182 million.

we put in 182, they put in 182, that's...

Gotcha, gotcha.

We'll eventually put in another 50 together, which is b 414, and that's, that's 40 percent across. And then 621 is 60 percent across, and that gets us to the billion 35 budget.

OK, so when all is said and done, there will be 620 million in debt on top of your equity.

Correct.

OK. And then just secondly, in terms of, in, in terms of the race track. You had 15 hundred slots you said?

Just under 15 hundred, yes.

OK. And I'm not familiar with the regulatory process down there. What would have to happen for you to increase that number?

Yes, there would have, there would have to be a legislative action taken to increase the amount of square footage that could be allocated to slot machines. And then a regulatory approval process would need to take place. There are no active conversations going on in that regard. So again, we're not counting on having more machines, we're perhaps hopeful that down the road we can, but it's a, but what we have is what we've got, and we're really pleased that those are producing as much revenue as they are.

And you said that was roughly how much one per slot?

In the first quarter it was about three hundred dollars win per machine per day.

OK great. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from of Baron Capital.

Yes, hi. I have a quick question. I understand in Louisiana that you're actually able to open up OTW's around, within a 50 mile radius of your track. And have video poker machines there. Is that something that you're considering?

We're not, we're not actively considering anything in that regard. We're very pleased with what we have. And, you know, we have two hundred acres of property around Delta Downs which gives us a lot of flexibility to, to do things to enhance the race track operation and the casino operation that we have. And that's where our focus is.

OK, thank you.

Your next question comes from of .

Hey guys, great quarter. I was wondering if you could just provide a little color on how April has been trending at Delta Downs. And have you seen that win per unit per day of 290 to 300 decrease yet? Or is that still, has that kind of sustained itself?

Yes Steven we said that, in the release, that we don't expect to keep up with the level that we achieved in the first quarter in terms of win per unit per day. That was, we think boosted up by the initial surge of visitation, and we think that that number will fall lower. So there's really nothing more than we can say. We don't know where they will end up in a steady state. But I didn't want to have any, any thoughts as to what has been a Q1 number would give an expectation going forward. That said, we did say we'd be ahead of our initial expectations.

Which more geared off of the results that came out of, that were coming out of Lake Charles, they were a couple of hundred dollars a day.

Competitively, Isle and Harrah's in particular, are fine tuning their marking programs just as we are. And certainly the addition of Delta Downs had increased the attention on the marketing side of the business. And so I think over time, as, as Ellis says, we got some early height from having opened. And the competition, as they have continued to exercise their strategies, will perhaps pull some of that business back their way.

But the market has grown substantially, but those are probably not realistic numbers to, to expect to go forward with.

Well as I said, while the revenue might be down, we expect margins over time to be better than they were initially. So the, the lower revenues shouldn't have a total negative implication for profitability.

Any comment on how April trends have been?

Now we, as we've said it's not, it's running below the level that you saw .

OK great, alright, thanks Ellis.

Your next question comes from of Financial Management Advisors.

Yes, just on the balance sheet, in the bank field, can you just tell me, perhaps I missed it, what you've got available now in terms of liquidity?

Yes we, as of today, and we haven't redone our bank deal yet. But as of today we just had a revolve, where we've paid off our term loans with the proceeds of our, our institutional term loans with the proceeds of our recent bond offerings.

Is that 250 drawn on the revolve at this point.

Right, that's exactly right. We have about two, about 250 drawn, a little under that. We have the revolver, reducing revolver. So right now it's 468 million total availability. And there's, so there's over two hundred million dollars that is about, a little bit more than two hundred million dollars that is available as of today.

And with respect to the new facility that you're working on doing, will that have a specific cause out for the refinancing?

What it'll be is we'll have, we'll always have the two hundred million dollars available. The funds are required to refund the, the senior notes. And as a specific provision that we can draw on the revolver to repay the senior notes. So we'll, we'll always keep the, the answer is yes. We'll always keep enough availability for it, and we'll be carved out from transaction.

OK, great.

At this time there are not further questions.

OK, well I want to thank all of your for your attention, and as we mentioned, we're very pleased with the way things came out. I hope you are too, and I look forward to doing this again. Thanks.