Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas loses $58.5M in 3Q

By OSKAR GARCIA

LAS VEGAS

The flashy new Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip lost $58.5 million during the third quarter as its restaurants, bars and hotel rooms proved far more popular than its gambling.

It also wasn't as lucky as it expected.

The resort said Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had $126.6 million in net revenue during its third full quarter of operations since it opened last Dec. 15.

Nearly half -- $68.9 million -- of the Cosmopolitan's revenue came from its restaurants, bars and lounges. Just 16 percent, or $23.9 million, came from gambling. The hotel-casino spent $22.2 million during the quarter on promotions. The resort said it had $49.3 million in room revenue and $6.8 million in entertainment, retail and other revenue.

The posh resort, which cost owner Deutsche Bank $3.9 billion to build, said it didn't win as much money as expected from gamblers. Its hold percentage for table games during the first nine months of the year was 9.4 percent, well below the 12 percent to 15 percent it expected.

Hold percentage is the amount a casino can expect to win given amounts wagered, based on the mathematics of gambling and the house advantage.

The percentage of revenue that came from gambling was 3 percentage points lower during the third quarter than during the first nine months of 2011 overall.

Officials said the Cosmopolitan needs more people to play table games like blackjack, baccarat and craps.

"The volume of table games play has remained fairly consistent over the nine months and our focus continues to be on supplementing the level of table games play at the property," officials said in the filing.

Casino officials said they expect a new high-limit area with 15 tables to be finished this month, and help the company's earnings during the first half next year.

The Cosmopolitan reported $31.4 million in cash on hand and $3.5 billion in debt for its construction as of Sept. 30.

The Cosmopolitan is not publicly traded. It reports its quarterly earnings by agreement with gambling regulators in Nevada.

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Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia.