Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden told CNBC on Tuesday that the company is experiencing a strong recovery in its properties, as Covid vaccines make people feel more comfortable returning to casinos.
“What we’re seeing right now in the business … is revenue and volumes that I haven’t seen in years. March has been amazing,” Snowden said in an interview with Squawk Box.
Penn National, which this week joined the S&P 500, has 41 gaming and racetrack properties in 19 states. After facing the closure of casinos in the early days of the coronavirus, Snowden said the reopening of the spring and summer of 2020 was mixed: attendance was low compared to non-pandemic levels, but the commitment of those who ventured there was high.
“We saw a very high expense per visit when people came, but the visit was still very low year after year because those over 65 didn’t come back,” Snowden said.
As of Monday evening, just over 69% of U.S. residents age 65 and older had received at least one dose of Covid vaccine and 42.5% of that population had been completely vaccinated, according to data from the Control Centers. and Disease Prevention. Nearly 25% of people in America have received at least one shot, including 13.5% of the entire population that has been completely vaccinated.
Three vaccines have been approved for emergency use in the United States. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines each require two injections to fully protect immunity. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a single dose.
Rising vaccination rates in the United States, about 2.5 million shots a day, are considered key to helping the economy continue to dig out of its pandemic-induced recession, allowing people resume activities that have otherwise shunned during the health crisis. Penn National is observing these effects, Snowden said.
“What we’re seeing now is that spending per visit was still much higher than it was before covid, but the current visit levels in March are very similar to 2019, so you have those two things working. together, “he said. “We’ve had one of the biggest weekends this past weekend we’ve seen in years.”
However, even with increased Covid immunity protection against vaccinations and high levels of previous infection, the seven-day average of new cases increased by 5% or more in 27 states, as of Sunday, according to a CNBC data analysis compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Penn National also has a partnership with Barstool Sports to offer the Barstool Sportsbook app, which allows online betting so far in three states: Pennsylvania, Michigan and, more recently, Illinois, in hopes of launching more states this year. year.
Through the Barstool Sportsbook, Snowden said there was a lot of interest in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, known as March Madness, which has experienced a lot of discomfort in the early rounds.
“All the bets that took place in the Super Bowl, we almost surpassed that amount in Pennsylvania and Michigan … on the first day of March Madness,” Snowden said. “We went through, almost double, what we saw in the Super Bowl during the first two days of March Madness.”