Eldorado resorts has completed a $1.85 billion acquisition of Tropicana Entertainment, which includes the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City.
That was followed quickly by a report that the company may be abandoning online gambling in New Jersey and has fired its online staff there.
Tropicana Entertainment sold its real estate properties to Gaming and Leisure Properties for $1.21 billion. Gaming and hotel operations were merged into Eldorado Resorts, which will lease the properties for $640 million.
New Jersey’s Casino Control Commission has already granted temporary approval to Eldorado to operate the New Jersey casino. However, the commission is still considering granting a full casino license to the company.
“Our acquisition of Tropicana marks a continuation of Eldorado’s successful history of rapid growth through strategic, accretive acquisitions,” said Gary Carano, chairman and CEO of Eldorado in a press release. “Through this combination, we have significantly expanded the scale of our gaming operations, further diversified our geographic reach into new markets—some of which have already adopted sports wagering legislation and minimized market-specific risk.”
In a quick first move, the company dismissed Tropicana’s in-house staff that ran the casino’s online gambling site in New Jersey, according to the website online poker report, which cited unnamed sources.
The report said the sources, who were not employees of the casino, feel the move stems from a lack of interest in online gambling from the company.
Tropicana’s online sites have been a steady player in New Jersey, reporting about $3.7 million in revenue in August and usually average over $3 million a month. However, the sites—which includes a partnership with VirginCasino.com—have slipped in position and significantly trail the market leader GoldenNugget.com which brought in 8 million in August.
Tropicana’s online sites are run by Gamesys and the move could simply be designed to transfer day-to-day operations to that company, the report noted.
Clearer is the company’s interest in sports betting in New Jersey. The company has partnered with William Hill to operate a sports book at the Atlantic City property, which is reportedly under construction.
Eldorado operates casino hotels in 12 states, including Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio and West Virginia.
