The vote by National Football League (NFL) team owners on Monday to allow the Oakland Raiders franchise to relocate to Las Vegas has inadvertently helped some of the Nevada city’s largest casino operators to increase the value of their shares.
According to a report from the MarketWatch financial information service, Wynn Resorts Limited, which runs the luxury Wynn Las Vegas property on the Las Vegas Strip, saw the price of its shares rise by 0.1% immediately following the 31-1 vote for a 2.5% gain on the week.
“You can talk about all the acts that come to Las Vegas and all the concerts but they don’t get televised to tens of millions of people,” Steve Wynn, Chief Executive Officer for Wynn Resorts Limited, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Similarly, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which is responsible for The Palazzo and The Venetian Las Vegas venues, reportedly saw its shares post a 0.8% increase on the back of the Monday vote for a weekly gain of 2.6% although the news pushed the value of shares in Macau casino giant Melco Crown Entertainment Limited down by 2.2%.
MGM Resorts International, which owns multiple Las Vegas casinos including the Bellagio Las Vegas, the Mirage Las Vegas and the MGM Grand Las Vegas, was reportedly the biggest winner as the value of its shares swelled by 1% on Monday with a weekly advance of some 4.5% while the firm behind the city’s Main Street Station Casino Brewery And Hotel, California Hotel Casino Las Vegas and Fremont Hotel And Casino, Boyd Gaming Corporation witnessed a 0.3% spike in its share value.
The news moreover saw the value of shares in Penn National Gaming Incorporated, which runs the Tropicana Las Vegas, reportedly go up by 0.6% while even the owner of Cactus Pete’s Resort Casino in the small northern Nevada community of Jackpot, Pinnacle Entertainment Incorporated, posted a 0.7% improvement.
“Despite recent share price weakness, the underlying Las Vegas end market remains just as healthy as it was a quarter ago and should continue to benefit as the largest convention market in the country,” read a statement from investment bank Macquarie Group posted prior to Monday’s NFL vote.