Nevada Gaming Control Board recommends Bally’s takeover of Tropicana Las Vegas
The Nevada Gaming Commission will make a final ruling this month.
US.- The Nevada Gaming Control Board has unanimously recommended the approval and licensing of Bally’s Corporation to acquire the operations of the Tropicana Las Vegas casino and hotel on the Strip. The deal is expected to close if the Nevada Gaming Commission approves the recommendation at its September 22 meeting.
Gaming and Leisure Properties sold the iconic venue to the Rhode Island-based company for $308m in April 2021. The sale of the nearly 1,500-room hotel, casino, theatre and convention property also involves a sale-and-leaseback transaction relating to Bally’s Black Hawk, Colorado and Rock Island, Illinois. Bally’s has a 50-year lease for Tropicana starting at $10.5m annually.
“Over the last several years, we’ve been very busy growing Bally’s footprint,” said Bally’s president George Papanier, who oversees the company’s casino resort division. “We view Tropicana Las Vegas as an opportunity for a flagship property for our western region.”
According to The Nevada Independent, Control Board members spent nearly all of the two-hour hearing discussing Bally’s compliance program and asked questions surrounding the company’s interactive division. Papanier detailed Bally’s rapid development, including the company’s winning bid to develop the first hotel-casino venue in downtown Chicago.
Papanier said there wouldn’t be any changes to the Tropicana’s restaurant operations, and the casino will eventually be converted to the Bally’s player database. Dan Reaser, outside legal counsel for Bally’s, told regulators the company will develop a marketing plan for the first 90 to 120 days of ownership.
The property is expected to undergo a name change to the Bally’s brand, as has happed with 13 of Bally’s 14 casinos, including its Evansville, Indiana, property, formerly known as Tropicana Evansville.
Nevada reports $1.31bn in gaming revenue for July
Nevada casinos saw their 17th month in a row with over $1bn in gaming revenue in July. According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB), casinos collected $1.31bn in gaming revenue, down by 3.2 per cent year-on-year but up 28.4 per cent against pre-pandemic July 2019.
Clark Country generated the majority of revenue at $1.12bn, down 3 per cent from the prior-year period, when revenue was $1.16bn. Within Clark County, Las Vegas Strip revenue was down 3 per cent year-on-year to $773.3m. Downtown and North Las Vegas revenue amounted to $60m and $24.5m respectively, year-on-year declines of 16 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.
Washoe County, which includes casinos in Reno, Sparks, and North Lake Tahoe, saw revenue decrease 5 per cent year-on-year. South Lake Tahoe revenues fell 1.3 per cent.
