SEC Company Response from DOVER DOWNS GAMING & ENTERTAINMENT INC (CIK 0001162556) — Apr 11, 2005
DOVER DOWNS GAMING & ENTERTAINMENT INC (CIK 0001162556)
Date: April 11, 2005 · CIK: 0001162556 · Accession: 0001104659-05-015971
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 001-16791
Referenced dates: March 28, 2005
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CORRESP 1 filename1.htm writer’s direct dial: (302) 426-2806 telecopy: (302) 426-3555 email: kbelohoubek@doverdowns.com April 11, 2005 Via EDGAR CORRESP and Regular Mail Linda Cvrkel Branch Chief United States Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Corporation Finance 450 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20549 Re: Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2004 SEC File Number 001-16791 Dear Ms. Cvrkel: Thank you for your comment letter dated March 28, 2005. As I have discussed with Ms. Claire Lamoureux, we have prepared Form 10-K/A and are prepared to file it with the Securities and Exchange Commission as soon as the Division of Corporate Finance advises us that it has no further comments to our response letter. Our response to your comment letter follows. For ease of reference, we first reproduce the entire comment in underlined text and then provide our response. Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 Management’s Discussion and Analysis - Liquidity and Capital Resources, page 18 1. We note that beginning in 2005 you will no longer be required to pay a management fee to Caesars to supervise, manage, and operate the video lottery machine casino. Please disclose if your costs will change materially due to either those functions not being needed in the future or the need to replace these functions with internal staff or third-party vendor. In this regard, the discussion in MD&A should not solely duplicate the Note (11) disclosure but also provide an analysis of the impact from this change, quantified to the extent practicable. Refer to the guidance in Item 303(a)(3)(ii) and Instruction 3 to paragraph 303(a) in Regulation S-K. We have reviewed the guidance in Item 303(a)(ii) and Instruction 3 to paragraph 303(a) in Regulation S-K and agree that additional detail concerning the expiration of our agreement with Caesars is appropriate. The additional disclosure is brief since we discontinued our reliance on Caesars and have no need to replace personnel, systems or procedures in connection with the termination of the Caesars agreement. We have revised the paragraph on page 18, under the heading Liquidity and Capital Resources, which discusses the expiration of the Caesar agreement to read as follows: “Since our video lottery (slot) machine casino opened in 1995, we have been party to a management agreement with Caesars, under which Caesars was our agent to supervise, manage and operate our video lottery (slot) machine casino. Effective December 28, 2004, that management agreement expired and we opted not to renew the agreement. During the year ended December 31, 2004, although we remained contractually obligated to pay a management fee to Caesars, Caesars did not have any of its personnel physically assigned to our facility and we did not rely on any Caesars personnel or any Caesars systems or procedures in connection with our operations. Accordingly, we do not expect to incur any material costs to replace functions for which Caesars had responsibility under this agreement. Beginning in 2005, we will no longer be required to pay to Caesars a management fee. Caesars’ performance-based fees were $4,448,000 for the year ended December 31, 2004.” Critical Accounting Policies - Accrued Pension Expense, page 20 2. Please expand your disclosure to include a sensitivity analysis that details the impact on pension expense for a 1% change in weighted-average discount rate and expected long-term rate of return on plan assets. In addition, also include any other changes in pension plan assumptions that would have a significant impact on your pension expense. We will replace the last sentence under the heading Accrued Pension Cost with the following text: “We evaluate these assumptions annually. The discount rate is the most significant assumption and is necessary to state expected future benefit payments at a present value on the measurement date. The discount rate assumption is based upon the yields on high quality bond rates for bonds with maturities that match our projected benefit payments. A lower discount rate increases the present value of benefit obligations and increases pension expense. A 1% reduction in the discount rate used would increase our pension expense by approximately $300,000.” Since a 1% change in our expected long-term rate of return on plan assets would result in about a $30,000 impact, we have not included any discussion relative to that assumption. Financial Statements Statement of Earnings, page 34 3. We note that interest expense is presented “net” in item 6. Selected Financial Data. Please supplementally tell us if interest expense is also presented net of interest income in the income statement. If the amount is presented “net”, please separately present interest income and interest expense to the extent the amounts are material. It appears interest income may be significant in view of the significant amount of cash on your balance sheet, Refer to the guidance in Rule 5-03(b)(7)-(8) of Regulation S-X. While we do have significant amounts of cash on our balance sheet, we have had no interest income for several years. We did not recognize any interest income during the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 or 2002 because we did not have any investable cash during the period. The majority of cash reported on our consolidated balance sheet (93.3% and 94.5% as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively) represents non-interest bearing cash held in our casino vault and video lottery 2 (slot) machines. The remainder of our cash is held in other non-interest bearing accounts. Interest expense is presented “net” in Item 6. Selected Financial Data but not in our consolidated statement of earnings and comprehensive earnings due to the fact that we only had interest income during the year ended December 31, 2001 and the six months ended December 31, 2000. 4. From disclosure in note 3 (revenues and expense recognition), we note that other operating revenues represent the aggregation of your non-gaming activities. In accordance with the analogous guidance in Topic 11L of the Staff Accounting Bulletins (SAB) please disclose the hotel room and food and beverage revenue producing activities and the expenses attributable to each of these major revenue producing activities separately on the face of the consolidated statement of earnings. In this regard, this SAB provides that separate major activities should be presented without regard to the 10% materiality threshold cited in Regulation S-X, as the purpose of this detailed presentation affords an analysis of the relative contribution to operating profits for each major revenue activity. In your circumstances, the contribution to operating profits significantly varies. As a percentage of its respective gross revenues, your “gaming” expenses approximate 77-80%, while “other operating” expenses only approximate 31-40% during the three-year financial statement period. Therefore, as the “other operating” category contribute significant amounts to consolidated operating profits, separate disclosure of its major revenue producing activities should be set forth. Please revise accordingly. We considered the guidance in Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) Topic 11L and Regulation S-X (Rules 5-03.1 and 5-03.2) when preparing our consolidated statement of earnings. We believe there are two questions to be answered: (1) Is revenue presented properly? and (2) Are the associated expenses presented properly? Pertaining to question (1), the Regulation S-X Rules require the presentation of revenues and related costs and expenses applicable to major revenue producing activities. Specifically, 5-03(b) states that “each class which is not more than 10 percent of the sum of the items may be combined with another class”. As shown in the chart below, all “other” operating activities combined represent no more than 6.7% of total net revenues for any of the years presented. As for question (2), we believe (SAB) Topic 11L requires that the expenses be broken down in the same manner as the revenues in order to allow for an analysis of the profit contribution by each major revenue stream. We do this on the face of the statement of earnings. As a racetrack with slot machines (commonly known as a racino), the composition of our total revenue and operating profits is very different than a traditional casino-hotel. Though we have hotel, food & beverage and horse racing activities, our revenue and operating profit consists primarily of video lottery casino win. The following table sets forth our net revenues and contribution to consolidated operating earnings by activity, excluding non-recurring charges and before general and administrative and depreciation expenses: 2004 2003 2002 Net Revenues: Gaming $ 193,922,000 93.3 % $ 175,023,000 93.3 % $ 193,723,000 93.8 % Other 13,822,000 6.7 % 12,509,000 6.7 % 12,752,000 6.2 % Total $ 207,744,000 100.0 % $ 187,532,000 100.0 % $ 206,475,000 100.0 % Operating Earnings: Gaming $ 41,197,000 98.1 % $ 36,600,000 93.3 % $ 44,906,000 94.9 % Other 809,000 1.9 % 2,610,000 6.7 % 2,401,000 5.1 % Total $ 42,006,000 100.0 % $ 39,210,000 100.0 % $ 47,307,000 100.0 % 3 It is important to use net revenues in this analysis, as each expense line already reflects the elimination of interdepartmental activities (shown as the contra-revenue line item “promotional allowances”) and the allocation of the cost of those activities to the gaming department. As such, net revenues must be used when assessing the profitability of each activity. Contributions from all other operating activities combined represent no more than 6.7% of total net revenues or operating earnings for the periods presented. Most traditional casino-hotels derive a considerably larger portion of their revenue from non-casino activities. For example, other revenues at Mandalay Resort Group exceeded 50% of net revenue for the year ended January 31, 2004 while other revenues for Caesar’s Entertainment for the year ended December 31, 2003 were 27.9% of net revenues. Given the immaterial nature of all of our other operating activities, both individually and in the aggregate, we believe that revenues and expenses applicable to our major revenue producing activities have been properly disclosed in our consolidated statement of earnings in accordance with SAB Topic 11L and Regulation S-X (Rules 5-03.1 and 5-03.2). We have added a further discussion of the components of and changes in other operating revenues and other operating expenses to Item 7 as follows: “Other operating revenues were $33,795,000 and $32,476,000, respectively, for 2004 and 2003 and included $19,973,000 and $18,667,000, respectively, related to promotional items provided to customers without charge. The increase in promotional allowances is primarily due to the Company’s expanded marketing efforts to attract more casino customers to the hotel by providing additional complimentary and discounted hotel rooms. Other operating revenues, net of promotional allowances, were $13,822,000 in 2004 as compared to $13,809,000 in 2003. Food and beverage revenues, net of promotional allowances, increased by $922,000 to $9,098,000 from $8,176,000 in 2003, primarily due to an increase in cash sales and a reduction in the amount of complimentary beverages being offered to patrons. Additionally, the Company promoted an outdoor concert for the first time in 2004 that generated revenues of $840,000. Partially offsetting these increases was the receipt of $1,300,000 in 2003 related to the settlement of a business interruption insurance claim and a decrease in hotel rooms revenue, net of promotional allowances, due to the change in the Company’s marketing efforts which focused on providing a higher percentage of its hotel rooms to customers on a complimentary basis. Other operating expenses increased by $3,114,000, or 31.5%. Expenses related to our food and beverage operations were $9,480,000 in 2004 as compared to $7,350,000 in 2003. The increase resulted primarily from higher payroll and related costs and food costs necessary to support added amenities at the Company’s facility and the addition of higher quality menu items. Additionally, less food and beverage expenses were transferred to the gaming operations through interdepartmental charges in 2004 since a lower percentage of food and beverages were provided to gaming customers on a complimentary basis. Concert promotion expenses of $1,212,000, relating to a large outdoor concert promoted by the Company in the third quarter of 2004, represented the remainder of the increase in other operating expenses.” 5. We note that the amount of cash on the balance sheet is significant to current assets. Please disclose the details of any amounts other than cash included in that line item (i.e., cash equivalents). Also refer to the guidance in paragraphs 7-9 of SFAS 95. Please refer to our response to comment number 3 above. Cash reported on our consolidated balance 4 sheet represents cash held in our casino vault, video lottery (slot) machines and other non-interest bearing accounts. We did not maintain any cash equivalents as of December 31, 2004 or 2003. Notes to the Financial Statements General 6. We note from the Proxy Statements dated 3/29/04 that the combined ownership percentage of Henry Tippie and the Estate of John Rollins, for which he is the executor, exceed 50% of the voting stock of the Company and have the effective power to control the vote on substantially all significant matters without the approval of other stockholders. Please revise the footnotes to the financial statements to disclose the existence of this potential control relationship with respect to your outstanding common shares. Refer to the requirements of paragraph 2 of SFAS 57. The voting control which Mr. Tippie enjoys with respect to the Company is already described in considerable detail in our proxy statement as is the common management control. We have added several paragraphs to the end of Note 10 — Related Party Transactions that adapt language from our proxy statement and reads as follows: Mr. Tippie controls in excess of fifty percent of the voting power of the Company. This means that Mr. Tippie has the ability to determine the outcome of the election of directors at the Company and to determine the outcome of many significant corporate transactions, many of which only require the approval of a majority of the Company’s voting power. Mr. Tippie’s voting control with respect to the Company emanates from his personal holdings of Common Stock and Class A Common Stock, from his status as executor of the Estate of John W. Rollins, our largest stockholder, and from certain shares as to which he has voting rights pursuant to a voting agreement with another one of our directors. As of March 25, 2005, Mr. Tippie has control over approximately 51.1% of the voting power of the Company. Patrick J. Bagley, Kenneth K. Chalmers, Melvin L. Joseph, Denis McGlynn, Jeffrey W. Rollins, John W. Rollins, Jr., R. Randall Rollins and Henry B. Tippie are all Directors of both companies. Denis McGlynn is the President and Chief Executive Officer of both companies, Klaus M. Belohoubek is the Senior Vice President – General Counsel and Secretary of both companies and Patrick J. Bagley is the Senior Vice President – Finance and Chief Financial Officer of DVD. Mr. Tippie controls in excess of fifty percent of the voting power of DVD. We note that in our discussion of various shared services involving