When land-based casinos began shutting down as part of the worldwide effort to mitigate the deadly COVID-19 virus a ripple effect on casino-related businesses was all but inevitable. Last week, two major casino technology and service providers illustrated that impact in a pair of grim earnings calls to investors.
Both PlayAGS and TransAct Technologies hosted earnings calls that were spelled out exactly how bad things are getting, but also offered a few glimmers of hope as businesses across the world gear up for whatever re-opening looks like.
PlayAGS president and CEO David Lopez painted a picture of an industry turned upside on his earnings calls. He said he’s expecting some major consolidation due to the fact that plenty of smaller suppliers simply won’t be able to weather the storm. PlayAGS is hoping to stay ahead of that trend by saving cash and reducing staff.
While he’s optimistic about the future, he also took a realist’s view saying, “The ramp-up’s going to take a number of weeks and months. Even when a casinos — or all casinos — are open 100 percent, it doesn’t mean 100 percent pre-COVID revenues will be in place.”
TransAct Technologies chairman and chief executive Bart Shuldman painted a similar picture of a relatively weak recovery saying, “Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still causing massive disruptions across the world with widespread closures, and we expect this to continue to negatively impact our casino and gaming business as well as most restaurant and food service locations for the foreseeable future.”
The future of both companies, and indeed every business on the planet, hedges both on whether lockdowns are lifted and whether or not consumers will return to businesses once they are. It’s a challenging situation that will certainly leave some casino suppliers standing while others are simply unable to make it at all.