Century Casinos' harvest is real — the U.S.-only pivot now has to retire the debt

Record Q2 EBITDA, a +93% Nugget quarter, and a long-promised international sale cycle investors are still waiting to close.

CNTY · Earnings Call · 2026-08-07

A record quarter from a U.S. machine

Century Casinos posted the strongest second quarter in its history — net operating revenue of $152M and adjusted EBITDA of $31.7M, both all-time Q2 records — and the engine is unmistakably North American. U.S. operations grew net revenue 5% and adjusted EBITDAR 12% in Q2, and the gap between the two is the real story: growth in Adjusted EBITDAR ran more than twice as fast as revenue, a margin story Lyle Randolph — the new EVP of U.S. Operations, on his first call — attributed to the payoff of years of operational work.

Adjusted EBITDAR grew more than twice as fast as revenue, demonstrating continued operating leverage across the portfolio. And that momentum extends beyond the quarter.
Lyle Randolph, President and Chief Operating Officer · 2026-08-07

The Nugget is the standout — revenue +16%, adjusted EBITDAR +93%, three straight quarters of growth, hotel occupancy up 19% and transient corporate room nights up more than 300% — while Missouri has now delivered seven consecutive quarters of year-over-year EBITDAR growth, and Central City nearly doubled first-half EBITDAR. Even the prior quarter's headline keyword, Cape Girardeau, quietly kept compounding (+9.6% EBITDAR) even as it faded from the call's spotlight — a sign of just how broad the consistency has become. This is the payoff of a multi-year capital investment build-out, and the fundamentals confirm it: Capital expenditure fell from a $17M peak quarter in 2024 to roughly $3M in the latest quarter, management guides full-year 2026 spend to ~$15M versus $18M last year, and free cash flow has recovered toward breakeven from a -$16M quarterly trough.

Poland drags, the U.S. pivots

The rub is Europe. Poland generated just ~$0.1M of adjusted EBITDA in Q2, caught between the June 2025 closure of the Hilton Warsaw casino, start-up losses at the new Wroclaw venue, and a table hold that ran significantly below historical averages in June, cutting gaming revenue by ~$1M. Hoetzinger's framing was blunt:

Poland spoiled the party a bit. That segment was underperforming due to the closure of the casino at the Hilton hotel in Warsaw as well as an unusually low hold on the gaming tables.
Peter Hoetzinger, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-07

The divergence is precisely why the company wants out. Management's plan is to monetize the international operations — Poland and Canada — to become, in Hoetzinger's words, a “fully U.S.-centric company” — Peter Hoetzinger, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-07 whose sale proceeds pay down the Term Loan B. Two groups are in due diligence on Poland (no exclusivity yet, clarity in "a couple of months"); Canada is being offered as two packages — the two racetracks and the two commercial casinos — with at least one expected to be publicly disclosed before the end of the year. Erwin Haitzmann was measured on Poland's earnings power: “the elements are there to come back to the $10 million, but it's hard to say how and how quickly” — Erwin Haitzmann, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-07 — a nod to the reality that the normalized run-rate is closer to $8M.

The debt, the tape, and the patience test

This is, at heart, a deleveraging story at a micro-cap. Net debt stands at $276M — 6.5x EBITDA, guided below 6x by year-end — while the market cap is roughly $36M, interest coverage is negative at -0.5x, and liabilities run at 102% of assets. No maturities until 2029 buy time, but the exit timeline has slipped before: a year ago management said “we do expect to sign a letter of intent with an Eastern European gaming group next week” — Peter Hoetzinger, Chief Financial Officer · 2025-08-08, and last quarter framed the same assets as “assets under exclusivity, so we expect decisions for divestitures fairly soon.” — Peter Hoetzinger, CEO · 2026-03-13 Neither closed. The equity is voting accordingly: the tape shows the stock down ~15% over the past 90 days and still ~92% below its 2021 peak. There is, however, a quieter macro tailwind management keeps flagging — guests staying closer to home on high airfare and elevated gas prices, a staycation dynamic that has kept the regional consumer "remarkably resilient." If July's momentum carries into Q3 — “July seems very much like another month with double-digit EBITDA growth” — Peter Hoetzinger, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-07, with Poland alone generating almost as much EBITDA in July as in the entire first half — the long-promised pivot from leveraged builder to U.S.-focused, cash-generating operator may finally start moving the equity.