Century Casinos Eyes Alberta Exit Amid Record Quarter

A Strong Quarter with an Asterisk

Century Casinos had what president Peter Hoetzinger called “a strong solid quarter” when the company reported its second-quarter 2026 results on Friday. Record revenues. Record cash flow. North American properties humming along. Then there was Poland.

“Poland spoiled the party a bit,” Hoetzinger said on the earnings call, according to CDC Gaming. The Warsaw casino closed in June 2025, and low table-game hold dragged on results from the remaining Polish operation. Still, North America carried the load, representing 90 percent of total company results. Hoetzinger specifically called out a “tremendous performance” at the Sparks Nugget and strong showings in Missouri and Colorado.

Joining Hoetzinger were co-CEO Erwin Haitzmann and the company’s new vice president of US operations, Lyle Randolph, who was making his Century debut on the call.

The Numbers Behind the Narrative

Randolph laid out a picture of an operation starting to see the returns on several years of investment. Cash flow grew 16 percent in the first half of 2026, well ahead of the five percent revenue increase. “That consistency and growth are the real story,” he said, as reported by CDC Gaming.

Other metrics backed that up. Coin-in at slot machines was up six percent. Hotel-room revenue jumped 36 percent. Room nights hit a three-year high, including 300 percent growth in corporate sales. The number of guests spending $400 or more per night grew 20 percent.

Century’s two Missouri casinos posted seven straight quarters of cash-flow growth, with revenues up eight percent. Century Caruthersville was drawing 15 percent more customers from beyond a 50-mile radius and had the highest revenue growth of all 13 gambling venues in Missouri. Out in Colorado, the Cripple Creek and Century City properties delivered 11.5 percent more revenue and 32 percent higher cash flow. Randolph described Chamonix, a newer Cripple Creek competitor, as more of an opportunity than a threat, saying Century was well-positioned to compete for guests “in a larger and more vibrant market.”

Mountaineer racino in West Virginia was the highest-revenue Century property in the quarter, even as the state offered “more gaming options than ever before,” according to Randolph. Sports betting, igaming, and horse racing all helped offset softer spots, with horse racing revenue up 40 percent as the property marked its 75th year of racing events.

Alberta’s Uncertain Future

Chairman Erwin Haitzmann reported that all four of Century’s Alberta casinos were up for the quarter, with one surpassing its own records. He called the Canadian performance “solid,” noting 2.2 percent revenue growth and growing customer awareness of the company’s new Canadian sports bars, a concept Century plans to leverage for igaming and online sports betting.

But then came the headline. Hoetzinger raised the possibility of exiting Alberta altogether, according to CDC Gaming. The source does not detail the specific reasoning beyond the company saying it is “monitoring its long-term impact” of online gambling on the market.

On the question of whether igaming had been eating into foot traffic at Alberta’s brick-and-mortar casinos, Haitzmann was more philosophical than alarmed. “No, we didn’t. Maybe it’s not happening at all. Maybe it’s a natural fertilization instead,” he told analysts.

That framing, cautiously optimistic about online gambling’s coexistence with physical casinos, sits in interesting tension with Hoetzinger’s suggestion that the province could still end up without Century entirely. The company’s potential departure from Alberta would be a meaningful shift for one of the region’s larger casino operators, and the reasoning, whether regulatory, financial, or strategic, remains only partially visible from the outside. What the Q2 numbers make clear is that any such decision would not be made from a position of weakness. Century is, by most measures it shared Friday, doing well enough to have options.