Golden Entertainment continues mining gold from its growing slots empire in Montana with another million worth of machines to be added.
Las Vegas-based Golden Entertainment announced it agreed to buy 1,800 slots located in 180 stores across Montana, nearly tripling its ownership of slots in Big Sky Country. The move will make Golden one of the nation’s biggest distributed-gaming operators, it says, and the deal should conclude by the end of April.
Golden is buying the slots from Amusement Services, and agreed to hire Amusement Services President Tim Carson as vice president of Golden Entertainment’s Montana endeavors. Golden Entertainment earlier this year paid $20 million to buy 1,000 slots and enter the Montana gaming market.
Golden Entertainment CEO Blake Sartini said Montana is an “attractive” distributed-gaming market, and Golden Entertainment will pay for the $25 million transaction by borrowing from a revolving credit account.
“We continue to demonstrate our ability to build and strengthen leadership positions in key attractive markets,” Sartini said in a statement. “When the transaction closes, we believe the company will have a leadership position among the largest distributed gaming operators in Montana.”
Golden Entertainment is the largest distributed-gaming operator in Nevada, and owns thousands of slot machines in stores, pubs, and other commercial locations. It operates the Sierra Gold, PT’s, and Sean Patrick’s drinking and gaming establishments in Nevada, and three casinos in Pahrump.
Upon completion of its $25 million deal, Golden will own and operate 12,000 slots, be the second-largest distributed-gaming operator in Montana, and among the nation’s largest.
