Customers playing craps at Durango Casino Resort, where Station Casinos’ newest property fueled second-quarter financial success and expansion plans for Red Rock Resorts. (Image: Travis P Ball / Sipa USA)

Red Rock Resorts, the parent company of Station Casinos, was the first Las Vegas casino operator to report record quarter earnings this week. In addition to a great quarter financially, the company confirmed one expansion and teased even more in the future.

Station Casinos has a goal to double its Las Vegas footprint by 2030. The expansion started with Durango and will continue throughout the Las Vegas Valley for the foreseeable future.

Red Rock Resorts Second Quarter Earnings

Second-quarter earnings for Red Rock were strong. The company reported net revenues of $486.4 million for the quarter. This was a 16.9% increase from the same period last year.

Most of Red Rock’s business takes place in Las Vegas and this area was even stronger than the overall earnings. Las Vegas operations generated $483.2 million of the total revenue. This was good for a 17.1% increase from 2023.

While gaming is typically the company's strongest revenue generator, non-gaming amenities were a highlight in Las Vegas. Hotel rooms and its food and beverage departments saw record revenue and profitability in the second quarter.

The company continues to see that targeting “high net worth” individuals in high-growth areas of Las Vegas is working. This is leading the company to expand its newest casino.

Durango Casino Success Story

Durango appears to be a smashing success for Red Rock out of the gate. During the earnings call, Red Rock executives touted Durango Casino's performance since opening in December 2023.

Stephen Cootey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Red Rock Resorts, detailed the success of Durango:

"With two full quarters under our belt, the property increased visitation and net theoretical win in the surrounding Durango area by approximately 90% and 88%, respectively, while signing up over 55,000 new customers to our database over the same time period. While it's still early days, Durango continues to ramp and remains on track to become one of our highest margin properties over the medium and long-term as well as generate a return consistent with or in excess of our prior greenfield developments."

Red Rock is putting its foot on the gas pedal for Durango with increased revenue and customer growth.

At Least One Durango Casino Expansion Planned

Red Rock is already planning to expand the casino located in the rapidly growing southwest area of Las Vegas.

Phase two of Durango should begin construction before the year is over. Red Rock’s president, Scott Kreeger, refers to this as the North Phase expansion.

This will be a relatively modest and pragmatic expansion for the company. Kreeger says these updates will be “entertainment-focused and day trip focused for the weekends.”

He mentioned Durango will possibly add a movie theater or possibly “a country western dance hall.” Last year Stoney’s North Forty opened at Santa Fe Station.

This expansion of Durango will add over 25,000 square feet of casino space. This new gaming floor will include a new high-limit slot and bar area.

Altogether, Durango will add about 230 slot machines. The new high-limit room will have 120 slot machines.

The company will be adding another parking garage with almost 2000 spaces. This part of the expansion has already been approved by Clark County. 

The garage is a pivotal part of Durango's future. During the earnings call, Cootey said that this garage would provide “flexibility for future expansions at Durango.”

That's right, Red Rock is already thinking about Durango Phase 3. These renovations would add weekday amenities mostly geared to non-locals. Kreeger mentioned this phase could include a hotel expansion, spa, and meeting space.

These additions would make Durango a fully integrated resort on par with Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch.

Tavern Expansion

During its first-quarter earnings call representatives said the company would get into the gaming tavern business. While less sexy than full-service casinos, this could help boost Red Rock's bottom line in the future. 

There are hundreds of bar restaurants with a limited number of bartop gaming machines located throughout the Silver State. PT’s is probably the most popular tavern brand in Nevada.

The company teased this expansion saying it has plans to open seven taverns. Details on the tavern expansion are limited.

One thing we do know is that the first tavern is tentatively slated to open somewhere in Las Vegas in September. Two more taverns are slated to open next year.

We reached out to Station Casinos for more information and were told “We have some info we plan on sharing in the coming weeks on Taverns.”

Inspirada Casino Coming Soon

Durango’s expansion and adding a handful of taverns are just part of Station Casino's growth story. The company owns land throughout Las Vegas.

Preparations to build numerous casinos are already underway. Kreeger said “ We have several options that we can entertain and we're driving all of those projects through their entitlement process.”

The next casino in the pipeline appears to be in the Inspirada section of Henderson. Kreeger says this is one of the fastest-growing and highest net-worth areas in Las Vegas. Sounds similar to Durango.

According to initial and updated plans from last year, Inspriada will be similar to Durango. 

The hotel at Inspirada will have just 200 rooms, the casino floor will be less than 60,000 square feet, and there will be three full-service restaurants and a food hall. One difference in the plans is that Inspirada could have a bowling alley.

If construction begins later this year the property could open by 2025, though this seems unlikely as no groundbreaking has been announced, 

More Station Casinos In The Pipeline

Inspirada could be one of the smaller Station Casinos to open in the future. The company has a six plots of land and a total of 445 acres of land to use throughout Las Vegas for future casinos:

• Las Vegas Blvd South of Cactus - 128 acres
• Viva (opposite side of I-15 from New York-New York) - 96 acres
• Losee - 67 acres
• Town Center - 58 acres
• Inspirada - 49 acres
• Skye Canyon - 47 acres

Phase two of Durango is still the focus on growing the casino business for now. While the company prefers to work on one casino at a time Kreeger says there is a “possibility of doing joint development as we go forward.”

Upgrades Not Acquisitions

Some casino operators look to acquire other companies to grow. That’s not the case with Red Rock.

The company has all of the land above to build new casinos throughout Las Vegas. It’s also reinventing its existing properties.

Over the past few years, the company has upgraded the high-limit gaming areas at Red Rock Casino, Green Valley Ranch, and Santa Fe Station. Sunset Station has a renovated casino floor and new sports book.

Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch have also added a slew of new restaurants while removing the buffet at each property.

The modifications to the properties are drastic. Walking into the east entrance of Red Rock Casino with the new bar and restaurants feels entirely different than entering on the west side property.

Red Rock can keep its existing casinos feeling fresh with constant updates.