M Resort’s near doubling of room capacity in December with the opening of a new tower has accomplished what Penn Entertainment Inc. set out to do — expand revenue from gaming and group business in Las Vegas.
The Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based regional casino giant on Thursday said that it expanded retail revenue by 6.3 percent to $137.6 million for its western division of properties with much of that attributable to record gaming volumes in December resulting from the opening of 375 rooms, bringing hotel capacity to 765.
Penn CEO Jay Snowden told investors in a fourth-quarter earnings conference call Thursday morning that the company capitalized on minimizing labor costs by having much of its hospitality infrastructure in place before the doors of the new tower opened Dec. 1.
“We’ve obviously got housekeeping, front desk and hotel valet and the M Resort property was built for more hotel rooms,” Snowden said.
“We didn’t have to invest in expanding any of those areas as part of that project,” he said. “A lot of unmet demand we couldn’t handle at the M Resort. And we were cultivating these relationships with many of these groups and conventions that would come through. And then it would just outgrow us because we only had 390 people.
“We’ve essentially almost doubled the capacity pretty close to 750 total rooms at M now, and so we’ve got groups both coming back and new large groups coming in (so) for the first time we can deliver a level of service and personalization that they just won’t find on the Strip because those hotels are so large and those groups sort of can get lost.
“If you look at the M Resort results, which we do every day, and you look at occupancy and you look at (average daily room rates) you almost don’t even realize we doubled the number of rooms because the occupancy has been almost as strong as it was prior year with half the rooms. So we’re feeling really good about the M Resort.”
Snowden, without specifically naming the groups, said there were two events in December that proved the point. The new tower actually opened weeks earlier than initially planned, giving the resort the opportunity to serve guests for early December’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and to accommodate New Year’s Eve revelers at the end of the month.
The company said group sales were up 20 percent from the previous year.
The M tower success and the company’s relocation of its Hollywood casino in Joliet, Illinois, in August boosted Penn revenue from $1.67 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $1.8 billion in 2025 and cash flow went up from $165.2 million to $225.8 million.
Because of debt and other expenses, the company still showed a net loss of $73.4 million, 55 cents a share in 2025, compared with a net loss of $133.3 million, 88 cents a share, in 2024.
Snowden said the favorable results from Penn’s latest capital expenses encourages him for the future with the relocation of the Hollywood Aurora casino in Illinois and construction of a new tower at Hollywood Columbus in Ohio, both coming in the second quarter of 2026, and the relocation of the Hollywood Council Bluffs property in Iowa in late 2026 or early 2027.
Snowden also noted that winter weather also has affected the company’s operations with properties in New England having to close briefly as a result of recent snowstorms in the first quarter.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at [email protected] or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
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