Monarch Casino Reports Record Third Quarter Results

Monarch Casino & Resort, owner of the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, has announced record quarterly results for net revenue, income from operations, EBITDA (1) and diluted EPS.

The Company reported record net revenues of $41.9 million, a 9.3% increase over the comparative quarter in 2005, and announced that each of its revenue centers delivered record results. Specifically, casino, food and beverage, hotel and 'other revenue centers' drove revenue increases over the same quarter of the prior year of 9.1%, 7.1%, 11.0% and 10.7%, respectively.

The Company announced Income from operations of $11.4 million, EBITDA (1) of $13.5 million and diluted EPS of 38 cents, each of which were also all-time records. Excluding the effects of $489,000 of share-based compensation, the Company would have posted income from operations of $11.8 million, EBITDA (1) of $14.0 million and diluted EPS of 40 cents. Compared to the same quarter of the prior year, the results excluding the effects of share-based compensation represent increases of 6.2%, 5.4% and 8.1%, respectively.

The Company reported a $2.0 million, or 20.9% increase in selling, general and administrative expenses over the same quarter of the prior year. The drivers of this increase were share-based compensation resulting from the implementation of FAS 123R in the first quarter of 2006; increased marketing and promotional expense; increased payroll costs; increased legal fees; higher bad debt expense and higher energy costs.

Monarch's CEO and Co-Chairman John Farahi commented on the Company's performance: "These record results are a tribute to our team and demonstrate our ability to continually raise the performance bar on the strong results we have delivered in the past. We will continue the push toward peak performance from our existing facility as we proceed with its expansion. We are on schedule with the expansion plans we announced last May and expect to break ground in the first quarter of 2007."