The incoming CEO of Bally’s Corp. on Thursday touted the performance of Tropicana Las Vegas, and the Nevada Gaming Commission signed off on Century Casinos’ acquisition of the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks.
The approval of Century Casinos comes 13 months after it was announced that the Colorado-based company was acquiring 50% of Smooth Bourbon LLC and 100% of the Nugget Sparks LLC from Marnell Gaming for $195 million.
Century has a five-year option to purchase the remaining 50% for $105 million. Smooth Bourbon owns the land and building and will lease the property for $15 million a year. Century is acquiring the operation of the casino for $100 million.
The Sparks Nugget has 50,200 square feet of casino space with 859 slot machines and 29 table games, plus
two hotel towers with 1,382 rooms, 110,000 square feet of convention space, and an 8,555-seat outdoor amphitheater.
Andreas Terlere, executive vice president of operations USA for Century Casinos, told the Commission that the plan is to keep the existing management and staff. As for upgrades, the slot floor needs more modern machines and doesn’t have the right ambience, Terlere said. The average age of existing slots is 15 years, much older than the average at other Century properties.
“We’re ready to go ahead with the purchase of 100 new slot machines immediately after being approved to acquire the Nugget,” Terlere said. “We’re planning to add 17,000 square feet (of casino space) on the south side of the Nugget that’s currently unused.”
Century Casinos, which was founded in 1992, owns casinos, online gaming, and horse-racing tracks. It operates more than 6,000 slot machines and 220 table games in three countries — the U.S., Canada, and Poland. Most customers live within driving distance of their properties.
In August, Golden Entertainment announced it entered into an agreement to sell the Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Maryland for $260 million. Century Casinos will acquire the operations for $56.1 million. VICI Properties will acquire an interest in the associated land and buildings for $203.9 million.
Roughly 75% of Century’s revenue is in the U.S. and once the two acquisitions are completed, that percentage will surpass 80%, Terlere said.
As for Bally’s, Robeson Reeves, who takes over as CEO on April 1, told the Commission that the Lake Tahoe region has been challenged by its winter weather. It operates Bally’s Lake Tahoe.
“That’s more than being offset by our Tropicana property on the Strip, which is having a really good quarter,” Reeves said. “We expect performance to remain, and we’re reviewing whether we should propose further investments in the property to scale the (adjusted earnings).”
Reeves said they will have $10 million in EBITDA at the Strip property, which is in line with expectations.
“We’re happy overall with our corporate performance,” Reeve said. “Most of our casinos are performing very well and showing robust revenues and EBITDA. We will continue to grow.”
