Penn National Gaming and sports book operator William Hill US announced a management deal Tuesday for the casino company’s sports betting facility inside M Resort in the Southern Nevada community of Henderson.
The deal, which is subject to Nevada regulatory approval, marks the first sportsbook operation that has left CG Technology since the company settled a four-count complaint with state gaming authorities last November and paid penalties totaling $2 million.
A spokesman for CG said the 10-year agreement with M Resort was expiring and the companies could not come to terms on a new deal. He said CG will operate the M Resort sportsbook through April 30 so “there will be no disruption with customers.”
“After 10 years at the M Resort our lease will end on April 30th,” the company said in a statement. “We will be fully operational until then. We would like to thank M Resort’s management team and employees for their support during our partnership.”
Terms of the agreement between Las Vegas-based William Hill and Penn National were not announced. In a statement, William Hill said it expects to assume operations of M Resort’s race and sports book in May and will give the company a market-leading 115 sports books.
William Hill also provides sports betting technology and risk management services to Penn National properties in Mississippi, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
William Hill US CEO Joe Asher said in a statement that M Resort, which has 390 hotel rooms and a 92,000-square foot casino, give the sports book operator access to Southern Nevada local customers living in Henderson the Southern Highlands community.
“It is a fabulous property,” Asher said. “We are excited to expand our partnership with our friends at Penn National.”
Penn National Senior Vice President of Regional Operations Ameet Patel said, “We have an active sports book at M Resort and we think our guests will benefit greatly from William Hill’s expertise.”
CG Technology still operates the sportsbook at the Penn National-owned Tropicana Las Vegas and inside five other Las Vegas Strip and Las Vegas-area casinos: Venetian-Palazzo, Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Palms, Hard Rock and Silverton.
M Resort’s sportsbook was a focal point in federal law enforcement investigation in 2012 when Cantor Gaming (CG Technology’s former corporate name) Vice President and Director of Risk management Mike Colbert was arrested for accepting illegal wagers and acting as an agent in a nationwide illegal betting operation. Colbert, who ran M Resort’s sportsbook, was charged with laying off wagers for an illegal offshore betting operation. Some of the wagers were placed at M Resort.
CG also agreed to pay $16.5 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2016 to avoid criminal prosecution on illegal gambling and money laundering charges.
Penn National did not own M Resort at the time of incident. The former operators of M Resort were not implicated in the operation.
CG was fined $5.5 million by Nevada gaming regulators in 2014 over the federal allegations. Two years later, the company paid a $1.5 million fine to the state, which led to the ouster of company CEO Lee Amaitis.
Last year’s penalty, a $1.75 million fine and a separate $250,000 payment to the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling covered charges of accepting wagers from outside the state, accepting bets on games and events that had already concluded, miscalculating payouts on single game and round robin parlay wagers, and incorrectly setting up a satellite sports betting station at an undisclosed casino’s Super Bowl party.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
