For almost a year, Las Vegas’s “Big Three” casino giants — Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts, and Caesars Entertainment — have been navigating increasingly challenging market conditions. Yet, among them, Wynn has consistently stood out, reporting the strongest profits in the city for multiple consecutive quarters.
As seen in Q2, Wynn once again delivered impressive results in Q3, while MGM and Caesars struggled with weak demand and admitted to missteps in pricing strategies.
Wynn’s Las Vegas casino revenue rose 11% year-over-year to $161.5 million for the quarter, placing the company 15% ahead of its 2024 performance at the same point. Across all key metrics, Wynn showed growth in Q3 — table game win climbed 11%, slot win increased 10%, and poker rake was also up 11%. Year-to-date, each of these categories has improved by at least 4%.
In contrast, MGM reported a 5% decline in Las Vegas casino revenue for Q3. Although slot win increased by 3%, this was offset by a 6% drop in table game win, leaving overall casino revenue flat for the year. Caesars performed even worse, with its Las Vegas casino revenue plunging 11.5% year-over-year, pushing its year-to-date results down 4%.
Stock performance reflects these trends. So far in 2025, MGM’s stock has slipped 2.5%, and Caesars’ shares have tumbled 40%, while Wynn’s stock has surged 55%.
All three operators offer similar games in the same city, but Wynn’s strategy — prioritizing premium guests and maintaining disciplined pricing — continues to set it apart from its rivals.
High-value clientele buoying Wynn in Las Vegas
Brand positioning and customer focus are key reasons Wynn continues to outperform its Las Vegas casino rivals. Unlike Caesars and MGM, which operate a mix of upscale and budget-friendly resorts, Wynn targets the high-end luxury segment almost exclusively — a strategy that has proven especially resilient in 2025’s challenging market.
This year, Las Vegas has seen declining visitor numbers and unstable gaming revenue, with tourism remaining soft and monthly results swinging unpredictably. Broader economic factors such as persistent inflation, high interest rates, tariff pressures, and an ongoing federal government shutdown have weakened spending among mid- and lower-tier consumers. However, affluent players — Wynn’s core clientele — continue to visit and spend, insulating the company from broader market volatility.
“Mass gaming and average daily rates are naturally tied to visitation because they depend on how many people walk through the doors each day,” explained Wynn CEO Craig Billings during last week’s earnings call. “High-end gaming is entirely different — it’s driven by equity markets, host-to-customer relationships, one-to-one selling, and personalized service for each guest.”
By doubling down on its luxury brand and maintaining strong relationships with elite players, Wynn has successfully positioned itself to thrive even as competitors struggle with fluctuating demand.
‘Unrelenting when it comes to value for their dollar’
Caesars and MGM face the challenge of appealing to a broad range of customers and delivering value across multiple market segments. Wynn, on the other hand, enjoys the advantage of focusing on a more defined, high-end clientele — allowing it to tailor every aspect of its offering to meet elite expectations.
While much of the conversation around Las Vegas in 2025 has centered on “value,” Wynn CEO Craig Billings believes his company stands apart by delivering exceptional experiences that justify premium pricing.
“Wynn Las Vegas isn’t designed for guests on a tight budget,” Billings told analysts. “Our customers aren’t driven by cost alone — they’re relentless about value. Their expectations for what they receive in return for their money are extremely high.”
Industry expert and retired casino executive Buddy Frank told iGB that Wynn’s outperformance is unusual in such a competitive market, given that casino volumes and hold percentages typically balance out over time. However, he noted that dynamics shift when a property attracts high-value players.
“The exception comes from casinos with a strong share of high-roller guests — or ‘whales’ — and those offering highly volatile games like baccarat,” Frank explained.
While all three major operators — Wynn, MGM, and Caesars — cater to affluent players to some extent, Frank emphasized that “a single player or group of players can dramatically influence overall results.” Wynn, it seems, has been particularly effective at identifying, attracting, and retaining these high-value guests — giving it a decisive edge over its competitors.
Most Las Vegas operators leasing real estate from REITs
From a business standpoint, Wynn stands apart from other major Las Vegas casino operators due to its decision not to participate in the widespread sale-leaseback trend that has reshaped the industry.
While competitors like MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment have opted to sell their properties and lease them back from real estate investment trusts (REITs), Wynn continues to own its Las Vegas real estate outright. This ownership structure gives the company a major financial advantage, eliminating the burden of escalating rent payments that weigh heavily on others.
Leading gaming REITs VICI Properties and Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) now own most of the city’s casino real estate. These arrangements provide immediate capital to operators but saddle them with long-term lease obligations that grow annually.
For example, Caesars currently leases 24 casinos—18 from VICI and six from GLPI. In its latest 10-Q filing, the company acknowledged that a “significant portion” of its liquidity is tied up in “debt service and payments associated with our leases.” Its projected lease expenses for Q4 alone total $338 million.
MGM has gone even further, selling all nine of its Las Vegas properties. According to its 10-Q, the company has paid $571 million in lease costs so far this year and holds $25 billion in total operating lease liabilities. It anticipates an additional $460.7 million in lease payments for Q4.
By contrast, Wynn still owns all of its Las Vegas casino properties, meaning it pays no lease costs in the market. Moreover, the company controls an undeveloped 34-acre plot on the Las Vegas Strip — a prime asset that provides flexibility for future expansion without the financial constraints facing its rivals.
Early moves saving money later for Wynn
In recent years, Wynn Resorts has made clear and deliberate moves to narrow its focus on its core land-based casino operations, a strategy that has simplified its business and trimmed unnecessary costs.
Between 2023 and 2024, the company made a decisive exit from the online gaming market by dissolving its WynnBet brand entirely. In 2025, Wynn also withdrew from the New York casino licensing race before even submitting an official bid — a move that minimized its expenses and avoided the costly bidding process that competitors Caesars and MGM later abandoned as well.
Meanwhile, both Caesars and MGM continue to pour significant resources into their digital gaming divisions, though neither has come close to challenging market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings in sports betting or iGaming.
Caesars Digital has experienced steady growth in 2025, but analysts widely expect the division to be spun off or sold as it begins to outpace the company’s traditional retail operations. BetMGM, a joint venture between MGM and Entain, is also reporting its strongest year to date, generating positive cash flow back to its parent companies. However, it still has not achieved profitability since its launch in 2018.
In the New York casino race, Wynn initially proposed an ambitious $12 billion mixed-use development in Manhattan, the largest potential investment among the early contenders. However, Wynn chose to withdraw before entering the formal bidding stages. By contrast, Caesars and MGM continued through the process, only to face setbacks later.
Caesars was rejected by a local community board in September, while MGM, once considered a leading candidate, pulled out in October. According to its filings, MGM’s late withdrawal led to $93 million in non-cash write-offs and a $256 million goodwill impairment charge, underscoring the financial risks Wynn successfully avoided through its disciplined decision-making.
