Belterra Casino Owner Mulling Sale To Penn National Subsidiary

By Mike Perleberg (Las Vegas, Nev.) - The parent company of Belterra Casino, Resort and Spa in Switzerland County and Belterra Park horse track in Hamilton County’s Anderson Township may be considering the sale of the two properties along with 13 other casinos. Pinnacle Entertainment is currently in talks with Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. regarding a potential acquisition of Pinnacle’s real estate assets. Gaming and Leisure has reportedly made an offer valued at $4.1 billion. The company had given Pinnacle until the end of April to accept what would be its final offer. If the deal goes through, Gaming & Leisure would own Pinnacle’s 15 casinos, but Pinnacle would continue to operate them. “We believe Pinnacle has a terrific portfolio of properties and has done an excellent job over the last several years with the operations of their properties.  We are impressed with the results they continue to achieve,” Gaming and Leisure Properties CEO Peter M. Carlino said Tuesday as the Pennsylvania based company’s 2015 first quarter results were released. Carolino said Gaming and Leisure Properties and Pinnacle have been in “very productive, substantive discussions” in an effort to come to an agreement. He said the company plans to report more when there is something definitive to share. Gaming and Leisure Properties is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Penn National Gaming, Inc., which is the parent company of Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg. Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment announced in November that it is in the process of splitting into two separate publicly traded companies. One would own the real estate assets of the casinos while the other would rent and operate the casinos. In addition to the two tri-state area casinos, Pinnacle also owns casinos in northern Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, and Texas.