Eldorado Resorts announced last week that it will sell the 500-room Montbleu Resort in Lake Tahoe to Nevada-based Maverick Gaming. A purchase price was not announced.
Montbleu has about 600 slots, 30 gaming tables, four restaurants and a 1,200-seat entertainment facility.
The sale is part of a series of property sales that will enable Eldorado to complete its $17.3 billion merger with Caesars Entertainment without triggering an antitrust response from the U.S. Justice Department. It must also obtain approval from the Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen state jurisdictions. Seven state have already signed off on the merger.
Keeping the Montbleu would have created an anti-trust problem for Eldorado, since Caesars owns the Harvey’s Resort and Harrah’s Tahoe, the largest casino properties in the South Lake Tahoe market. Eldorado owns the operations for the casino, although the property and building are leased from Edgewood Companies.
The announcement said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2020.
According to Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Carlo Santarelli, the Lake Tahoe property generates under $10 million in annual cash flow.
Maverick is a privately held gaming company based in Nevada with four casinos in Nevada, 19 in Washington State, three in Colorado, and one in Louisiana. Once the transaction clears, Maverick will have a total of 1,600 hotel rooms and 2,100 slot machines. The company was founded in 2017.
Maverick CEO Eric Persson issued this statement: “We see great opportunity in Northern Nevada and the Reno Tahoe market and are actively seeking more distribution there.”
In January Eldorado announced the sale of the Eldorado Shreveport in Louisiana to Maverick for $230 million.
