Tuesday, March 29, 2016—Pinnacle Entertainment’s casino locations in Missouri are now in a real estate investment trust or REIT. The Missouri Gaming Commission voted 5-0 to allow the REIT to occur. The casinos owned by Pinnacle Entertainment will still be operated by them. However, the land will be leased through Gaming and Leisure Properties also known as GLPI. The casinos that this affects are Ameristar St. Charles, Ameristar Kansas City, and River City Lemay.
Hollywood Casino, Casino Queen, and Argosy Alton are already owned by GLPI. These three casinos will not be affected by the REIT. It will give GLPI the “land owner” status for all six casinos. The only casino that will not be a part of GLPI is Lumiere Place Casino because it is going to remain under Tropicana Entertainment ownership. It is also on the riverfront.
Pinnacle made an announcement back in July stating they would sell the 14 casinos they owned. The deal was made with GLPI for $4.75 billion. This also includes debts Pinnacle Entertainment has. The deal enables casino owners to sell or convert their land to REITs. This also makes it possible to sell the property at a higher amount on the stock market because the property debt is no longer an issue. This provides breaks on the federal income taxes too.
Another deal with GLPI and Pinnacle is United HERE. It is a union that represents the casino workers. The union stated the agreement provides ownership to GLPI casinos, which is known to produce 66% of the gambling revenue in Kansas City and 86% in St. Louis. The union believes it is a “dangerous precedent” because other national gambling companies are starting to look at REITs and leasing properties to third-party operators, which could affect ownership of the casinos and thus the workers.