“It’s always a lot more fun to make these calls when things are looking good,” Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI) CEO Peter Carlino said at the outset of the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
Carlino continued, “We sit in a very enviable position,” coming off a quarter that saw significant growth in profits and revenue. The CEO described the year to date as solid with rent coverage for the real estate investment trust (REIT) “very, very strong. I would remind you that there is no transaction we need to do. Our customers may be in the gambling business, but we aren’t.”
Toward the end of the call, the subject of $2 billion Bally’s Las Vegas was raised. “I’d love to tell you our answer [to that question] has changed,” said COO Brandon Moore. “The stadium is progressing nicely.”
As for Bally’s resort component, it was described as trailing the stadium, as intended. Bally’s “has some decisions to make,” Moore continued. GLPI’s participation, if any, was still to be determined. He expected the resort proper will “come into focus in the next six months or so.”
Asked whether GLPI would invest in Atlantic City where casinos were described as scared, GLPI executives were less equivocal. Carlino said the Boardwalk was “pretty risky, looking at what’s on the horizon” in New York City. The addition of casinos in northern New Jersey was not, he thought, optional.
“It’s not a happy time to be in Atlantic City today,” Carlino opined. “It’s not a market that’s looking for more investment.”
The matter of a potential buyout of GLPI tenant Caesars Entertainment also loomed over the call. “We feel pretty good that we have our hands around that [rent] coverage,” company spokesman Carlo Santarelli said of Caesars’s properties.
Moore continued that GLPI had only a “few” conversations with Caesars about the buyout prospect. If the current management stays in place after a transaction, “it’’s neutral to positive for us.”
“I don’t think we know enough about the potential of that transaction,” added Chief Development Officer Steven Ladany.
The thought was raised that a post-buyout asset spinoff might give GLPI a chance to pick up more Caesars assets. Moore said that would depend on whether Caesars went into a new master lease with GLPI. Saying no asset was too small to consider, he remarked that the possibility was still unclear.
“As long as it’s accretive, we’ll do it,” interjected Carlino, saying no deal was too big, either. However, “We’ll take a bunt if the spread is worth it.”
Recent GLPI-funded developments had “been pretty positive,” according to Ladany, going back to the new Hollywood Joliet, which was “incredibly additive.” Live Virginia’s temporary casino in Petersburg was said to be doing $15 million in revenue a month and similar things could be said of new Bally’s Baton Rouge, described as growing its market.
“Those data points give us a lot of comfort,” Ladany said. M Resort, outside Las Vegas, was “outperforming in that market and appears to be taking some share” from the competition following the opening of a GLPI-funded second hotel tower.
Given the the recent travails of Las Vegas, Carlino was asked if he would continue to lean into that market. He disputed the characterization. “I don’t think we were ever leaning in Las Vegas. We have no special focus on Las Vegas at all.” Regional casinos instead were “the safest place to put capital by far.”
“After a malaise over 2025,” Ladany said GLPI was “incredibly encouraged” by the performance of regional casinos operated by Penn Entertainment, Churchill Downs, and Boyd Gaming. “Our rent coverage is still in an incredibly solid place.”
GLPI execs were also sanguine about the chances of $2 billion Bally’s Chicago to stave off oncoming slot routes in the Windy City. CFO Desirée Burke said the project was underwritten with that possibility in mind. She added that it was on track for an opening by June 2027, with the hotel tower and podium level topped off. “The timing of our spend is coming in quicker.”
Moore was asked if a pullback in the capital markets might require GLPI to rescue $4 billion Bally’s Bronx. The COO replied that he hadn’t seen any such caution, although “I can’t speak to [capital markets’] ability to show up at the finish.”
He continued that there had been “no seismic shift in the landscape. The same handful of people are looking at transactions.”
Added Ladany, Bally’s Bronx was “the one unique animal in the bunch” in New York and Bally’s was “in an enviable position” for fundraising. Any GLPI involvement would be more relationship-driven than impelled by monetary need.
Carlino jumped in to say, “There may be several layers of opportunity [in New York City], to say the least.” He was confident GLPI would have a seat at the table.
On the subject of tribal expansion, it was noted that Acorn Ridge, a GLPI-financed tribal casino, had just opened in California. Burke fended off questions about a possible acquisition by saying it was early in GLPI’s five-year loan to the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, too soon to be thinking about converting it into a lease.
“We have dialogue with the chairwoman there and she’s very broad-minded about this,” Moore added. “We’re cheering them on and anxiously awaiting further dialogue.” Ladany observed that there was much tribal expansion in California and it was growing the market, “given the sheer size” of the Golden State.
“We look at a lot of stuff,” remarked Carlino with regard to possible non-gaming purchases. “We kiss a lot of frogs, but we still haven’t found a princess” outside of casinos.
