- Century Casinos will acquire the operations of Maryland’s Rocky Gap Casino for approximately $56 million USD.
- VICI Properties will simultaneously acquire the real estate assets for approximately $204 million USD and lease it back to Century Casinos.
- Colorado Springs, Colorado based Century Casinos is also in the process of acquiring the iconic Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada.
It was just a couple of months ago when Colorado Springs based Century Casinos announced plans to acquire the iconic Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada. Now they’ve headed to the east coast for another gaming property acquisition. Century Casinos will acquire the operations of Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Flintstone, Maryland (presumably no relation to the iconic stone age family of TV fame). Flintstone is located just south of the Pennsylvania border and just north of the West Virginia border. It’s just over two hours from Baltimore, Washington, DC and Pittsburgh located in the Allegheny Mountains. It is located in Rocky Gap State Park and includes a 5,000 square foot events center, a spa and an 18 hole Jack Nicklaus designed golf course in addition to the resort and casino.
Century is acquiring the operations of Rocky Gap Casino Resort for approximately $56 million USD from Lakes Maryland Development LLC and will fund the purchase with cash from their balance sheet. Simultaneously, the property’s real estate is being bought by VICI Properties in a purchase/lease back deal for $204 million USD. VICI will then lease the real estate to Century for approximately $15.5 million USD.
Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Century Casinos, collectively offered this quote in the press release announcing the deal:
“The addition of Rocky Gap is another important milestone in our pursuit to acquire prime US assets. With this acquisition and our pending acquisition of the Nugget Casino Resort in Nevada, we will oversee a US portfolio that reaches from east to west. We are looking forward to working with the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency to obtain gaming approvals and with the casino leadership and team members to effect a smooth transition and great future for Rocky Gap.”
Once Century closes acquisition of the Rocky Gap property as well as the Nugget Casino Resort they’ll increase their North American portfolio to 11 casinos which will include 7140 gaming machines and 158 table games. The company also owns a majority interest in Casinos Poland, which owns and operates 8 casinos in Poland and Century Downs Racetrack and Casino in Calgary, Alberta. The company’s North American properties are Century Casino & Hotels in Cripple Creek and Central City, Colorado, and in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; the Century Casino in Cape Girardeau and Caruthersville, Missouri, and in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada; Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in New Cumberland, West Virginia; and the Century Mile Racetrack and Casino in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Century’s press release mentioned that they’ll ‘have the opportunity to partner with a sports betting operator in Maryland to bring sports betting to Rocky Gap’. This could become another interesting story, as Maryland is in the process of implementing statewide mobile sports betting to suppliment the existing retail component. In Colorado, they have mobile betting partnerships with Circa Sports and Tipico. In Maryland, where they own the Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort they’ve got a partnership with Caesars Sportsbook for mobile betting as well as retail betting. Interestingly, neither of their Colorado properties have a retail sportsbook.
