Red Rock Tavern Biz Approved, Nears Tussle with Golden Entertainment

• Gambling News
• 10 August 2024

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) recommended earlier this week that Red Rock Resorts' intention to enter the gaming bar market in the Las Vegas Valley be approved.

This paves the way for the casino operator to take on rival Golden Entertainment and independent tavern suppliers like Dotty's in even more direct rivalry. Red Rock's application to introduce the Seventy Six by Station Casinos brand will soon be taken into consideration by the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC). By the end of September, the gambling company hopes to establish its first bar with a limited license in North Las Vegas. Red Rock's gaming bar industry might grow quickly from there.

"So the first one will come online in September, the second one in January and the third in June of next year. So we have contracted 7 units,” said President Scott Kreeger on the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call last month. “We’re always out there looking and trying to cut deals on new development opportunities. So that’s an ongoing effort, but that’s the timing of the first 3.”

Gaming taverns in Nevada are restricted venues because they can only have a maximum of 15 gaming devices. They also have restaurants and drinks. The establishments do not offer live table games; instead, the machines offer video poker, slots, and keno.

Red Rock Pub Entry May Cause a Family Argument

None of Red Rock's venues are located on the Strip, making it one of the biggest operators of casinos catering to the people of Las Vegas. Because its Stations brand is one of the most well-known in the community, the business may be able to use it to its advantage in the gaming pub industry.

This might lead to a family conflict as well as more direct competition with Golden Entertainment, the biggest operator of gaming taverns in the Las Vegas Valley. Vice Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta and CEO Frank Fertitta III of Red Rock are the brother-in-laws of Golden CEO Blake Sartini. One of Sartini and his wife Delise's sons was even given the name Lorenzo.

In Nevada, gambling establishments operating under the Lucky's, PT's Gold, PT's Pubs, PT's Ranch, and Sean Patrick's names are owned by Golden's PT's Pubs units. Golden had 71 gaming bars at the end of the second quarter, and by the conclusion of this quarter, it hopes to have added at least one more.

With regard to Red Rock's plans for taverns, the Seventy Six brand alludes to the year that Station Casinos was established. In 1993, Frank Fertitta brought the business public, and today the Station brand is associated with four casinos in the Las Vegas area.

Competitive and Aware of Consumer Trends: The Las Vegas Tavern Business

Although Golden and Red Rock have the financial means to increase the size of their gaming taverns, competition still exists in the market. Rivals in Las Vegas included hundreds of independent stores and well-known brands such Jackpot Joanie's and Dotty's.

Many of these establishments' main clientele are macroeconomic trend-aware and frequently seek out simple, yet comfortable, familiar experiences.

During the second-quarter results conference call, Golden President Charles Protell stated that there was a decrease in lower-tier customer spending and visits at the company's Nevada casinos from April to June. This is significant since customer spending at gaming pubs is frequently influenced by those patterns.