The Nevada Gaming Commission is poised to give regulatory approval to route operator J&J Gaming related to financing, following its acquisition of the assets of The Curo Group in Illinois and Nebraska. The Commission will consider the matter Thursday.
Curo is a longtime partner of J&J Gaming, with a relationship dating back to 2012. The company’s relationships with several national multi-location groups have allowed it to establish gaming operations primarily in Illinois and Nebraska.
J&J said these relationships have presented a pipeline of hundreds of locations in potential new states where distributed gaming could be introduced in the near future. J&J Gaming, including its subsidiaries and affiliates, calls itself “the national leader in distributed gaming,” providing gaming-as-a-service to such locations as restaurants, bars, taverns, grocery and convenience stores, and truck stops in various regulated jurisdictions.
Headquartered in Illinois and majority-owned by funds managed by southern California-based Oaktree Capital Management, the company now operates in Illinois, Nevada, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. Oaktree is the owner of the Casablanca Resort and Virgin River Hotel & Casino in Mesquite, Nevada.
The company is requesting approval for the continuous issuance or redemption of non-voting preferred equity units that would help streamline the processes without having to return to regulators in each instance. It would give the company flexibility to obtain more funding from approved members, according to company gaming counsel Erica Okerberg.
Ed Farrell, chief financial officer for J&J Gaming, said 2025 saw a record performance for the company in terms of revenue and earnings. It’s doing more than $1.4 billion a year in gross gaming win from 30,000 slots at 4,200-plus locations in multiple states.
“We’re confident in our outlook for 2026 – all four of our big markets have higher projections this year and expect to be over $1.5 million in revenue,” Farrell said. “It’s only been six weeks, but we’re off to a good start,” Farrell told the Gaming Control Board. “Critical to our 2025 results was the Curo acquisition. The assets were primarily in Nebraska, but they were a long-time sales partner of J&J in Illinois and participated from a commission standpoint in a lot of our accounts. They were really critical accounts, big corporate multi-location establishments, a lot of the major truck stops and convenience stores. It did three really big things for us. It locked up a lot of corporate relationships for the company going forward as we continue to grow. It gives an increase in earnings of over $30 million and strengthens our in-house sales team by putting us in a better position across the country. The impact of the transaction was immediately to leverage us up a little more, but cash flow came through as we expected. We have been able to deleverage since August when we closed the transaction. It’s good financially and strategically.”
Since its acquisition of Golden Route in Nevada in late 2024, it has integrated those operations along with those from Montana. J&J has started a new business in Nebraska, which became a regulated market and has grown as the top terminal operator, the company said.
“Overall, we increased our run rate since picking up the Nevada business by over $50 million annually,” Farrell said. “We continue to explore new opportunities as they arise. Multiple states are looking into expanding into distributive gaming, and we’re in a good position financially in terms of liquidity and equity owners that are willing to put more money into the business if opportunities make sense. We expect to stay financially flexible and take opportunities as they come.”
Since the acquisition of Curo, the company announced in January it has acquired Midwest Amusement, a $10.5 million deal done with cash off the balance sheet. That operator managed more than 420 gaming devices in 101 locations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Wyoming, focusing on convenience stores and truck stops.
In Nevada, when J&J acquired the operation, it was a $20 million business that dropped to $16 million to $17 million in 2025. It’s expected to return to $20 million in 2026, Farrell said.
“We’ve done a lot of integration, and the systems in place weren’t robust enough and up to speed, so we’ve been implementing a lot of system changes and upgrading a lot of people,” Farrell said. “We didn’t necessarily have the right financial-control people in place and we’re doing a lot of work on that. Now we’re in a position where we have the team in place with the economy getting better. The market is going to grow and we expect to be back to similar to the level when we purchased the business.”
Farrell said they don’t participate in gray markets.
