Pennsylvania-based real estate investment trust (REIT) Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. reported first-quarter results following the stock market close on Thursday.
Revenue grew 5.1 percent to $395.2 million, although profits narrowed by $9.1 million to $170.1 million. Operating income remained virtually flat, up $1.2 million to reach $258.8 million. Cash flow grew substantially, from $333.4 million in the comparable period of 2024 to $360.1 million.
“Our solid first-quarter financial results reflect GLPI’s recent acquisitions and financing arrangements, contractual escalators, and growing base of leading regional gaming operator tenants, which together are expected to drive growth throughout 2025,” said CEO Peter Carlino in a prepared statement.
As one benchmark, Carlino cited GLPI’s ongoing underwriting of the conversion of Belle of Baton Rouge from a riverboat casino to a land-based facility for Bally’s Corp. The transition is expected to be finished in the fourth quarter of 2025.
GLPI also renewed the leasing of Belterra Park, an Ohio racino, to Boyd Gaming for five extra years, through April 2031. The REIT also committed as much as $150 million to the erection of a land-based casino superseding Ameristar Council Bluffs, in Iowa, a development announced earlier on the 24th.
“These fundings and lease extensions reflect our commitment to delivering creative financing solutions and supporting our tenant partners,” continued Carlino. He also cited $18.4 million in financing to the Ione Band of Miwok Indians’ Acorn Ridge casino development near Sacramento. That’s the first alliance between a Native American tribe and a REIT and is closely followed by Wall Street.
In Chicago, GLPI is helping to finance the construction of $1.7 billion Bally’s Chicago, now in progress. “GLPI is also providing Bally’s [with] our decades of casino construction and development expertise in addition to our project financing commitment.”
Carlino concluded, “With our opportunistic approach to portfolio expansion, the proven long-term resiliency of our tenants’ revenue streams, and comfortable rent coverage ratios, we expect to continue to deliver strong capital returns and yields for our shareholders.”
