Colorado’s weather is warming.
And that means the Centennial State’s abundance of outdoor pursuits is transitioning from winter to summer mode.
There is no shortage of indoor goings-on as well.
Following is a roundup of some of the latest headlines, happenings and events at Colorado’s casinos.
Century Casinos posts Q1 profit
Century Casinos is off to a solid start in 2022.
The Colorado Springs-based company recently reported a first quarter profit of $218,000. That computes to one cent per share.
The earnings were reported May 6 in the company’s first quarter news release.
It certainly was a marked turnaround from the same quarter a year ago.
In the first quarter of 2021, Century suffered a loss of $1.42 million/five cents per share. Much of that loss is attributed to the COVID-19 closures of the company’s Canadian and Polish casinos during that timeframe.
With those casinos open in 2022, Century’s revenue was up 42 percent to $103.1 million over the first three months of the year.
“We are very pleased with the results of the first quarter,” Century co-CEOs Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger said in the news release. “Revenue grew in each of our three reportable segments (U.S. Canada and Poland) with overall growth of 42 percent compared to the first quarter of 2021. All of our properties are now operating with very few COVID-19 restrictions.”
Century also updated the status of its ongoing purchase of the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nev.
On April 1, Century completed the initial step in the $195 million acquisition by buying a 50 percent interest in Smooth Bourbon, LLC — the company that owns the Nugget casino, hotel and land — for approximately $95 million.
Century is now awaiting approval from Nevada state regulators to acquire the property’s operating company, Nugget Sparks, LLC. That purchase is expected to total approximately $100 million.
According to the Century news release, that acquisition is expected within the next year.
Century Casinos currently operates 17 casino/racetracks in the United States, Canada and Poland, including the Century Casino and Hotels in Central City and Cripple Creek.
Ante up for the Bally’s Poker Open in Black Hawk
There’s some added buzz in the Bally’s Black Hawk poker room.
The Bally’s Poker Open is in full swing.
The event, featuring a variety of competitive tournaments, got underway May 10 and will run through Sunday, May 22.
It’s all taking place in the Bally’s Black Hawk West 17-table poker room. The casino’s five-table overflow room is being used as well.
Highlighting the 13-day schedule are four days of $1,400 Main Event tournaments. Those are scheduled — along with satellite events — for this Thursday through Sunday.
The $600 Mystery Bounty tournaments took place last weekend, but there and an assortment of other tourneys still on the itinerary, including Seniors Only, Ladies Only, Ante Only All In or Fold and PLO events.
Here you can see the complete Bally’s Poker Open schedule.
All players must be 21 or older, of course, and have a valid photo ID and a Bally’s Casino Players Card to enter.
Per event rules posted on the Bally’s Black Hawk website, multi-day tournament registration will open two hours prior to the start of the event. All other event registration will open one hour beforehand.
Ameristar BlackHawk giving away Avalanche playoff tickets
The Colorado Avalanche opens its best-of-7 Western Conference playoff series Tuesday night by hosting the St. Louis Blues.
Tickets, naturally, are tough to come by.
But Black Hawk’s Ameristar Casino Resort & Spa is giving away a pair of Game 1 ducats on its Instagram account.
Black Hawk’s largest casino posted the entry details on social media Monday afternoon:
- Entrants must be 21 or older
- Download the @mychoice.rewards app
- Follow @ameristarbh on Instagram
- Like the ticket giveaway post
- Tag a friend you’d like to take to the game in comments
One winner will be selected at random in a drawing to be conducted at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
