Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCRI) (the "Company") today announced record net income, earnings per share, casino revenues and net revenues for the third quarter ended September 30, 2003. Net income for the Company increased 5.7% to $3,665,814, or $0.39 per share (diluted), for the third quarter ended September 30, 2003, compared to $3,467,460, or $0.36 per share (diluted), for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002. The Company also reported casino revenues of $19,893,383 for the quarter, an increase of 4.8% over the $18,979,642 in the third quarter of 2002. The increase in casino revenues was partially attributable to an increase in slot machine win, as well as improved Keno and poker room revenues. Net revenues reached record highs for the 2003 third quarter, increasing 2.6% over last year's third quarter. Contributing to the record net revenues were increases in food and beverage (3.6%) and other (18.8%) revenue centers over the third quarter of 2002. Hotel revenues suffered a slight decrease of 1.3% in the third quarter ended September 30, 2003 as compared to the third quarter ended September 30, 2002. EBITDA (1), meanwhile, remained relatively unchanged in the third quarter ended September 30, 2003 as compared to the third quarter ended September 30, 2002, declining $36,376 from $8,834,010 in the 2002 third quarter to $8,797,634 in the 2003 third quarter.

John Farahi, Co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch commented on the results: "Once again, we achieved record numbers despite continued tightness in the Reno market. This, I believe, speaks for the quality and location of our product as well as the strength of our management staff and the friendliness of our employees. We also continued our aggressive approach in reducing our debt load: we payed down our debt by $4.8 million during the third quarter of 2003, and by $11.9 million since December 31, 2002. Our record earnings were driven by a 35% reduction in interest and stockholder guarantee fee expenses over last year's third quarter. Our operating income was flat in the third quarter amid tightness in the local market and increased gaming taxes. This increase in the gaming tax rate took effect August 1, 2003, and had a $138 thousand impact on our bottom line." Mr. Farahi added, "we could not have achieved our results if not for the strong efforts of the entire Atlantis team and the continued loyalty of our guests."