Murray Wood: Who's scary... and who's scary good?
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week, in a specia...
It’s been a very strong post-pandemic recovery for the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA).
According to the organization’s annual report for 2022-23, SIGA matched pre-pandemic levels of revenue by bringing in $292.6 million for the year. It also recorded $126 million in profit.
“We’re pretty much back,” Zane Hansen, SIGA’s president and CEO, told Gormley.
“It’s kind of a year where we saw it as a transition year (and that) really is how it played out where things continued to strengthen and kind of get back to normal throughout the year. So we’re very pleased for the customer support and things coming around.”
SIGA operates seven properties across Saskatchewan including:
- Bear Claw Casino and Hotel near Carlyle;
- Gold Horse Casino in Lloydminster;
- Painted Hand Casino in Yorkton;
- Dakota Dunes Casino near Saskatoon;
- Living Sky Casino in Swift Current;
- Gold Eagle Casino in North Battleford; and
- Northern Lights Casino in Prince Albert.
Hansen said the record profitability is due in part to running a lean operation.
“Coming out of the pandemic we really had to do a lot of adjustments just to kind of survive and we know the impact it had on so many,” Hansen said. “So we entered the year with a bit of trepidation on how the markets would return and settle in and we were running quite lean coming into it. So that was part of the story.
“We probably saw the electronic slot side of things return more, and then things that were a little bit slower coming around (were) our table games and our food, beverage (and) entertainment side of things. Those are still a bit of a tail effect from the pandemic.
“Those are a little bit higher on the cost side too. So our margins were certainly stronger for the year.”
Hansen said he expects to see more reinvestment and a return to normalcy going forward.
“We’ve been seeing in the first quarter of this year our table games’ activity starting to strengthen and get back to where it was and more and more traffic flow will start supporting food and beverage (and) entertainment and we’re making some reinvestments on that front,” Hansen said.
Hansen said sports betting could help generate more activity. SIGA operates PlayNow.com, which launched in Saskatchewan last fall.
Hansen said about five months of revenue drawn from PlayNow are reflected in the annual report.
Fifty per cent of SIGA’s net earnings goes towards the First Nations Trust, which then gets distributed to First Nations across the province. Another 25 per cent goes to Community Development Corporations at Casino locations for the purpose of funding local initiatives.
