Is Wynn finally feeling squeeze of larger Las Vegas struggles?

Wynn Resorts largely avoided the headwinds affecting the broader Las Vegas market for much of 2025. But they were too much to bear in Q4 earnings, as the company posted declines in that sector despite overall growth driven by Macau.

Results published on Thursday showed $688.1 million in Las Vegas revenue for the quarter, a year-over-year decrease of 1.6%. For the calendar year, revenue was flat at $2.5 billion.

Las Vegas adjusted EBIDTAR fell 10% for the quarter ($240 million) and 5% for the year ($904 million). Casino revenue rose 8% in 2025 but hotel and food and beverage revenue fell 4% and 2.5%, respectively.

On a quarterly earnings call, Wynn CEO Craig Billings was optimistic on the city’s outlook while also highlighting the company’s growth plans elsewhere. He began the call by outlining the operator’s global worldview in “an increasingly multipolar world”, which Billings said was affecting everything from economics to geopolitics. The three central wealth hubs are the US, China and the Middle East, Billings said, which aligns with Wynn’s core markets.

The Wynn Al Marjan Island resort in the UAE is one year away from opening in the first quarter of 2027, and the company hosted an investor presentation there in December. Despite that optimism, the Las Vegas lag is what dominated analyst questions on Thursday.

“We feel good about our ability to perform really, really well [in Las Vegas] in 2026,” Billings said. “By any historical standards, Wynn Las Vegas is absolutely crushing it. So we don’t see anything at the moment that would change our view on our ability to continue to do so.”

CEO confident Wynn can overcome occupancy dips

Of all the Las Vegas casino operators, Wynn is the most reliant on high-value customers. This has benefitted the company in the sense that wealthier patrons are more resilient to short-term economic headwinds.

As overall visitation continues to fall, the sustainability of that model is increasingly called into question. But Billings was firm in dismissing those concerns for Wynn’s wealthy clientele.

“I would humbly say that we have continued to distance ourselves in the market, and we provide the best option for those high-value customers,” the CEO said. “You’ve seen those high-value customers hold up, even as folks who are in a different income strata have not, and I think that we have been a real beneficiary of that.”

On a granular level, Wynn Las Vegas table game performance slid in Q4, with table game win and win per unit per day both decreasing more than 15% YoY. High-limit baccarat is a primary driver of the Strip economy, though the game can be highly volatile given the large average wager size. Wynn was not immune from these swings, even for the full-year; its table game win and win per unit were both down 2% in 2025.

Encore renovations to disrupt parts of 2026, 2027

Hotel performance was also down for the calendar year, with average daily rates and revenue per available room decreasing 1.5% and 4%, respectively.

This will likely be further impacted by planned remodels in Wynn’s Encore tower, which the operator said will start in mid-May and run for about 12 months. The mid-year scheduling means the operator will see disruptions across both 2026 and 2027.

The remodels were originally planned for last year but later delayed in response to uncertain market conditions and rising costs from tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. No numbers were offered for the potential performance impact, but one analyst’s estimate of $50 million in EBITDA was “a little high”, per Billings.

“We stage and stagger the renovations as we’re taking out floors, such that they occur in the lowest demand periods,” Billings said. “So that’s one of the ways that we mitigate the impact of those renovations, thereby allowing us to pick up the highest rate periods.”

Despite concerns about occupancy and the Las Vegas consumer overall, the CEO said prioritising rates over volume is an “incredibly intentional” strategy, “not one that’s being foisted upon us”.

What will become of Wynn’s vacant Strip land?

This extended Las Vegas conversation inevitably led back to a topic Wynn has faced for several years running: what will it do with its extensive and yet-unused real estate holdings on the Strip? The company purchased about 38 acres adjacent to its two existing towers for $336 million in 2017 and has sat on the property since then.

Analysts estimate the land could fetch $1 billion or more in the current market, given that developer Tilman Fertitta purchased a 6.2-acre Strip parcel nearby for $270 million in 2022.

Wynn is among the most conservative developers in gaming, yet Billings expounded on the topic unprompted on Thursday. The Strip is a hard market to crack, as evidenced by struggles from recent entrants Fontainebleau and Resorts World Las Vegas, but some kind of action related to the land was not dismissed.

“You have to choose the right time to flex that land bank,” Billings said. “If you look at the last two openings in the market, they have had to be share-takers, because market visitation did not change with those two openings. But over the very longer term … we think the demand for our products will allow us to take advantage of that expansion. It’s just a question of when.”

Wynn Q4 2025 earnings by the numbers

Wynn posted group revenue of $1.87 billion in Q4, a 1.5% increase YoY, while its full-year revenue total was flat at $7.1 billion. Overall adjusted EBITDA fell 8% for the quarter to $568.7 million and its year-end total of $2.2 was 6% below 2024.

While revenue and EBITDA were within single digits, Wynn saw its net income plummet, much like chief competitor MGM Resorts. Q4 net income of $100 million was about a third of the $277 million posted in the same period last year. The full-year total of $327 million was well off 2024’s sum of $501 million.

Wynn Palace and Wynn Macau largely buoyed the operator in Q4, as those segments saw quarterly revenue gains of 6% and 2%, respectively. Full-year results were not as kind to those businesses, however: Wynn Palace’s adjusted EBITDAR declined 7% in 2025 and Wynn Macau declined 9%.

Total cash on hand was $1.46 billion, compared to total debt of $10.5 billion. The company contributed $79 million in cash to Al Marjan Island during Q4.

Shares were up about 6% in trading Friday to $114. Wynn stock is up 42% over the last year but only about 2% over the past six months.

Jess Marquez

Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.