The CEO of the Par-a-dice Hotel and Casino's parent company said the East Peoria property may rebound fairly quickly once Illinois reopens for business.
Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith said in a Tuesday earnings call that the Par-a-Dice and many other Boyd casinos draw most customers from a 10 to 15 mile radius, and are less reliant on tourists and hotel room reservations to turn profits.
"Many of those have very, very local markets. We have a couple, once again, where they come from far away. IP's with a large hotel base will probably be a little slower to recover," he said.
Boyd Gaming lost $18.3 million dollars in the first quarter due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Boyd Gaming furloughed most of its 700 employees at the East Peoria casino indefinitely earlier this month. All 29 of the company's properties are currently shut down.
Smith said casinos are part of ongoing reopening conversations at the state levels.
"Good dialogue's going on. I think we will see them reopen at their own pace," Smith said of states where Boyd operates casinos. "And we're certainly hopeful many of them are open by late May, and that as you look to late June, many more are open."
Boyd Gaming suspended all planned capital projects for this year, including a renovation of its East Peoria hotel.
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