Each day is like the ides of March for Caesars World Inc.

Each day is like the Ides of March for Caesars World Inc.

Caesars World Inc., the Century City-based casino and hotel operator, has met its Brutus on Wall Street.

In late Big Board trading last week, Caesars fell to $14 a share, off 67.6 percent from its 52-week high of $43.25 a share. Total market capitalization for Caesars World plummetted to $336.6 million from $1.07 billion a year ago.

The market is troubled by Caesars World's continuing weak financials, and a July 26 report from influential gaming analyst Hal Vogel of Merrill Lynch.

Vogel wrote that "competitive pressures...are severe," and he cut his rating of the stock to "neutral" from "above average."

Company officials, including Henry Gluck, chairman and chief executive, were not available for comment last week. "We are not granting interviews at this time," said Jack Leone, Caesars spokesman.

The major problem for Caesars, once the premier operator of huge casino-hotels in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Lake Tahoe, is the emergence of new and bigger entrants into the gambling world, said analysts last week.

In Las Vegas, Caesars Palace is in a battle with the newly opened, 3,049-room Mirage casino-hotel and The Excalibur, a behemoth, 4,032-room casino-hotel reminiscent of a gambler's Disneyland in medieval drag. The Greco-Roman style Caesars Palace, where waitresses wear togas and gold jewelry, was built in 1966 and has 1,604 rooms.

And in Atlantic City, the 644-room Caesars New Jersey casino-hotel is up against the new $1 billion Taj Mahal gambling palace built by Donald Trump. The Taj Mahal, opened April 9, is squeezing other casinos, said analysts.

"In effect, the newly opened Taj Mahal is just muscling in on market share and not creating any new demand," Vogel said. "The total market has seen little or no expansion."

Said Chriss Street of the Seidler Amdec brokerage house in downtown Los Angeles, "It (Taj Mahal) is not baking a bigger pie as some said it would; it is just slicing the pie into smaller pieces."

Caesars New Jersey is getting hurt: According to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, in the first six months of the year Caesars New Jersey posted revenues of $142.7 million, off 3.6 percent from $148.1 million in the same period of 1989.

Average daily gambling revenues are down to $788,336 a day, off 3.7 percent from $818,299 last year, according to the New Jersey commission.

Merrill Lynch's Vogel estimated that Caesars New Jersey revenues are off 8.5 percent this July from a year ago.

Caesars' spokesman Jack Leone said that the company opened a 2,500-stall auto garage in July, which will bolster Caesars New Jersey patronage in coming seasons.

Comparable figures for Caesars World casinos in Las Vegas of Lake Tahoe are not available, as the Nevada Gaming Control Board does not release revenues by individual casino.

However, Las Vegas does appear to be growing; revenues for all casinos on "The Strip" section of Las Vegas rose to $195.9 million this May, up 10.6 percent from $177.2 million in May last year, reported the Nevada board.

What is not growing are Caesars World profits.

In the first three quarters of this year, Caesars World reported a net of $29.4 million in revenues of $646.6 million, off 41.8 percent from a net of $50.5 million on revenues of $666.4 million in the year-earlier comparable period. And in the first three quarters of 1988, Caesars netted $60 million on revenues of $616.6 million.

In earlier interviews with the Business Journal, Caesars' executives blamed the good luck of certain "high rollers" who play the game of baccarat for the bad luck of Caesars'shrinking profits.

Roger Lee, Caesars' senior vice president of finance and administration and a board member, said in June that "the largest played on bacarrat, and that can swing our financial results in the short-term. That's where you get the volatility."

Caesars press releases for the first three quarters have spoken of lower "win percentages" with Atlantic City getting the blame in the first quarter, Las Vegas in the second quarter, and Lake Tahoe in the third quarter.

In response to Caesar's new competitors and the luck of high rollers, Vogel reduced his earnings estimate for fiscal 1990 ended July 31 to $1.70 a share from $1.75, and for fiscal 1991 to $1.85 a share, down from $2.25 a share in his previous estimate.