Maverick Casinos is acquiring publicly traded Nevada Gold & Casinos and taking the Las Vegas-based operator private.
Pending approval from Nevada Gold’s shareholders Maverick will purchase all of the company’s outstanding shares (NYSE MKT: UWN) in a combined debt and cash transaction valued at $2.50 per share.
UWN owns nine tables-only mini-casinos in and around Seattle and the 35,000-square-foot Club Fortune Casino in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, which is under contract for purchase by another buyer.
“The Seattle area is obviously a fantastic market, but we see the entire state of Washington as an opportunity,” said Eric Persson, majority owner of Maverick. “We will be announcing specific plans to invest over $20 million dollars in the Tri Cities area shortly, so to us, this is much more than just a Seattle play.”
Persson also announced his resignation as president and COO of Aruze Gaming.
“With this important purchase, I will be leaving Aruze to focus on my growing company daily,” he said. “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Aruze for the opportunity and I’m very excited to hear about the customer’s responses to Aruze’s product at G2E. I couldn’t be more proud of the product path that we created over the last year and a half.”
Privately held Maverick, founded by Persson, who served at one time as global senior vice president of slots for Las Vegas Sands, and Justin Beltram, formerly a vice president of slots at the Bellagio and Marina Bay Sands, owns two casinos in Wendover, Nev.—the Wendover Nugget and the Red Garter, featuring a combined 1,400 machine games and 600 hotel rooms.
The deal is expected to close the end of this year.
