More St Louis casinos for Penn after $2.8b Pinnacle buyout
Gambling giant Penn National Gaming has expanded its casino portfolio with the US $2.8 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment.
The sale brings two properties in the St Louis area under Penn’s management – Ameristar St Charles and River City Casino in Lemay.
Penn already operates Hollywood Casino St Louis in Maryland Heights and Argosy Casino Alton in Metro East.
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According to regulatory filings, the deal included Penn offering 26.3 million shares of its stock and $1.25 billion in cash to stakeholders of Pinnacle.
To avoid any anti-trust issues, Penn agreed to offload four of Pinnacle’s casinos – including Ameristar St Charles – to Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming.
Boyd made the $563.5 million buy and consolidated the purchase by entering into a master lease agreement with Penn, who still owns the real estate attached to the project.
In a related development, Reno’s Eldorado Resorts completed its planned acquisition of Tropicana Entertainment on October 1.