On a quarterly earnings call on Thursday, Century Casinos’ co-CEOs suggested they are open to selling off their Canadian operations.

Colorado-based Century operates four casinos in Alberta. The firm sold the real estate assets of Century Casino & Hotel Edmonton, Century Casino St. Albert, Century Downs Racetrack and Casino and Century Mile Racetrack and Casino to VICI Properties in 2023, leasing them back from the buyer.

As well as those four casinos and the 11 it operates in the U.S. across Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada and West Virginia, Century also holds a controlling 66.6% stake in Casinos Poland Ltd., owner and operator of seven Polish casinos.

However, executives confirmed on Thursday that they are looking to divest those Polish operations and a similar exit route could be considered in Alberta.

“With regard to the non-U. S. properties, divesting of those entities is an option and is under consideration,” said co-CEO Erwin Heitzmann.

“For a very long time, both Canada and Europe had a very positive impact on EBITDA and cash flow,” added fellow chief executive Peter Hoetzinger. “Now, this impact is much lower and that’s why we’ve taken the decision to divest Poland, and we are considering Canada.

“Management owns close to 15% of the company, so our interests are aligned. Being a public company, anything is possible in terms of the future. Some other people are knocking on our doors, as you can imagine, with a low share price. So we are doing what we can and then we’ll see what others say.”

If that did happen, it would open the door for another operator to take over the day-to-day running of the properties. Something similar happened in Alberta in December, when Indigenous Gaming Partners (IGP) bought the operating assets of Pure Canadian Gaming. Pure’s casino real estate has also been owned by VICI since 2023.

Century’s SVP of Operations, Canada, Geoff Smith, told Canadian Gaming Business that “if the price is right and if it is beneficial for the shareholders, every property is available, be it in Canada, Europe or the U.S.”

“As the business volume of our Canadian operations is relatively small in comparison to the U.S. segment, we are not surprised that the question comes up,” he added.

Century’s Canadian revenue dips

On Thursday, Century presented a 4% year-over-year drop in operating revenues to $137.8 million and a 388% jump in losses to $36.2 million for the last quarter. Net loss attributable to shareholders for the quarter was $64.9 million, a change of 500%.

A factor in that was the one-time $43.7 million impairment the company took on the value of Nugget Casino Resort in Nevada, attributed to “estimated market conditions and performance.”

In Canada, revenue was down by 7% for the quarter and EBITDA dipped 17%, which executives put down to lower table hold (down from 17% to 15%) as well as “strong headwinds.” Century’s Canadian operations reported a quarterly profit of $3.6 million, and net operating revenue in Canada was up 1% across the full year of 2024.

The overall decline in fortunes has seen Century’s stock price drop in recent times, as alluded to by Hoetzinger.

Their comments on divestiture were made during the Q&A session after one irked shareholder questioned the company’s business model and suggested it may be time to focus on the U.S. operations and “leave all this other nonsense behind over in Poland and these Canadian assets.”

For now, Century preparing for Alberta iGaming

Although an Alberta divestiture may be a possibility, for now, Century Casinos is preparing for the eventual arrival of a commercial online gaming and betting market in the province.

“The short answer is we just don’t know what will be happening,” acknowledged Heitzmann. “There is much talk, but nothing is definitive yet on how and when, so we can’t really make any decisions. What we can say is that if it comes, it is very unlikely that if we do it ourselves, we very likely would take a third party like we’ve done in the past.” The co-CEOs said the company would take the same approach in Missouri’s upcoming online sports betting market.