Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. is Slowest-Growing Casino
Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. is looking for more ways to increase profits by at least 10 percent by year 2008. Pinnacle at its slowest-growing casinos is setting up to attract more gamblers through their doors, said the chief executive of Pinnacle Thursday, August 3.
One of the smaller casino operators is the Pinnacle which was dominated by companies as big as Harrah's Entertainment Inc.
Pinnacle Entertainment is based in Las Vegas, but they doesn't have a casino there. They are planning to build more casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana and St. Louis.
For the meantime, Pinnacle is investing $30 million for a centralized marketing team and hope that promotions and such will help them increase revenues.
Chief Executive Daniel Lee said, "Do the entertainers we bring in, bring in people who gamble? If they are bringing in people who don't gamble, then that's the wrong entertainer."
Pinnacle reported earnings of $54.5 million for the second-quarter; they are up by 80.2 percent from year ago.
After gambling, marketing costs are the second-largest expense for the company, Lee said. Pinnacle, who owned casinos such as the L'Auberge du Lac and Boomtown New Orleans in Louisiana, is now increasing expenses in energy, construction and insurance costs.
Lee said, "We are paying three times as much for less insurance than we had before the storm. We are probably at the worst possible moment."
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