CEO: Business must continue ‘at some level’ despite shutdown
Workers at casino, other operations will be paid through closure; outlets to stay open at 50% capacity
As his employees scrambled Friday afternoon to temporarily shut down the massive Bethlehem casino at midnight, Wind Creek Hospitality President and CEO Jay Dorris said the company was disappointed but understood the need to curtail the surge of coronavirus cases with a statewide order.
What he wanted to stress, however, is that since Wind Creek Bethlehem reopened in late June, the casino has been mandating masks, maintaining social distance among guests and operating at even less than the allowed 50% capacity.
“We just want everybody to know that the steps that can be taken, we’ve been taking them and we’re enforcing them,” Dorris told The Morning Call. “Wewould respectfully suggest that all businesses can’t be treated the same. Where you can take steps to mitigate and to slow this thing down, it needs to be done and it needs to be enforced.
“At some level, business needs to be able to operate so we can continue keeping our people employed and they can earn a paycheck. Collectively, we all want to get out of this thing. We’re prepared to make sacrifices, but we also want to come out of it with enough of our people intact and ready to move forward.”
For the three-week shutdown, which is set to expire at 8 a.m. Jan. 4, Wind Creek has committed to paying its roughly 1,600 employees even as its casino, restaurants and hotel temporarily close. The Outlets at Wind Creek Bethlehem, however, will remain open, operating at no more than 50% capacity, per the state’s new order on in-person retail.
It is the second time this year that Wind Creek and the state’s other casinos will be forced to close in an attempt to stem the virus’ spread.
A little farther north, Mount Airy Casino Resort said in a statement Thursday night that its casino, hotel, spa, golf course and restaurants will be closed to the public during the shutdown. Essential staff will remain on-site to assist with cleaning, sanitizing and maintaining the property. Mount Airy, in Monroe County, also said it will pay its employees during the shutdown.
During the first shutdown, which forced Wind Creek to close March 15, the casino paid its then-2,400 employees through the end of May. But, as the downturn entered its third month, Wind Creek furloughed 2,095 workers June 1.
After more than 100 days, Wind Creek reopened with fewer slot machines, a reservation system and enhanced cleaning efforts. About 1,400 employees were called back to work for the reopening, and Wind Creek hoped to recall more as capacity and business increased.
In July, the casino’s first full month since that reopening, Wind Creek logged gambling revenue of $28 million, which was a 38% year-over-year decline. That was the casino’s lowest full month of gambling revenue since January 2011, when the then-Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem was only about six months into offering table games.
By late September, Wind Creek cut about 450 jobs — about 20% of its payroll — due to significantly lower business volumes. The facility also permanently closed Emeril’s Fish House as part of the reduction.
Dorris called those cuts “painful,” but noted no further reduction has happened since.
“We’ve been beating our budget, which is a good thing,” he said. “We’re not back to where we were at this time last year, but considering the situation we’re operating in, we’ve been doing OK.”
In October, the last month for which state data are available, Wind Creek recorded gambling revenue of $33.1 million, a 16% decline from $39.6 million a year earlier.
For Wind Creek Hospitality, which is the gambling and hospitality arm of Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Dorris said the company “took a hit” in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The company’s other properties, aside from its casino in Curacao, remain open and the goal, he said, is to do better in the 2021 fiscal year, which Wind Creek is more than two months into.
“This particular shutdown, it is what it is,” Dorris said. “When we get reopened, we’ll pick up from there, and we’re still going to try to do better than we did in our fiscal year 2020.”
A growth area for the Bethlehem property is expected to come from online gambling, an offering that launched in late July and recorded about $596,000 in revenue in October.
And last month, Wind Creek opened its sportsbook in the space formerly occupied by Buddy V’s Ristorante. But the casino has yet to launch its online sportsbook, something Dorris hopes will happen by the end of this month or early January.
Since the state’s shutdown order does not affect online gambling, Dorris said it “puts even more of a spotlight and emphasis on making sure our online offerings are up and running.”
The pandemic also has delayed Wind Creek’s timeline for major developments at the Bethlehem property.
When 2020 began, Wind Creek had hoped to break ground on its planned $100 million hotel expansion in the spring.
Dorris said Wind Creek remains committed to the project and he, in fact, signed the construction contract recently.
Wind Creek, however, is still reconsidering a $250 million vision to transform the old Bethlehem Steel No. 2 Machine Shop into an indoor water park and entertainment complex.
“I do think mid-part of next year with the vaccine, we can start to talk about coming out of all this,” Dorris said. “But we’ve got to get through this, and assess what makes sense there.”