Caesars Entertainment loses $643m in “another solid quarter”

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corporation lost $643m in Q3, leading its CEO to celebrate “another solid quarter of performance.” Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

The ephemeral entity known as Continuing CEC – which doesn’t include the still bankrupt Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC) – saw revenue edge up 3% to $986m in the three months ending September 30, while adjusted earnings rose 9.3% to $269m. Operating income fell from $88m in Q3 2015 to a $44m loss.

Caesars’ accounting records have been a dog’s breakfast of acronyms and asterisks ever since CEOC filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2015, and just when you thought things were getting easier, the company’s Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) unit sold its Playtika social and mobile games business for $4.4b, guaranteeing at least another 12 months of inelegant comparisons.

Caesars used to report CIE revenue as a part of the Caesars Growth Partners (CGP) division, which also controls six brick-and-mortar casinos, real-money online gambling operations and the World Series of Poker brand. Caesars now says that the Playtika sale means CIE is no longer considered a separate reportable segment from ‘CGP Casinos,’ so it’s combining those numbers under CGP.