Apollo Global Management, the equity firm whose acquisition of Caesars Entertainment ended up in that operator’s bankruptcy and sale to Eldorado Resorts, is set to return to the Las Vegas Strip after the Nevada Gaming Control Board last week unanimously approved the license required for Apollo to acquire the operations of the Strip holdings of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
The NGCB approval is the first step for Apollo; the final determination on the license rests with the Nevada Gaming Commission, which is slated to vote this week on the license. After that expected approval, Apollo will acquire the operations of the Venetian, Palazzo and Venetian Expo Center. LVS will sell the land to real estate investment trust VICI Properties, which will collect rent from Apollo.
VICI will pay LVS $4 billion for the 63 acres of Strip real estate plus 19 acres adjacent acres where the $1.8 billion Madison Square Garden Sphere is being built. Apollo will pay LVS $2.25 billion for the operating company that manages the combined 7,100 hotel rooms, 225,000 square feet of casino space and 2.3 million square feet of convention space.
The unanimous vote came after gaming board Chairman Brin Gibson assured commissioners that Apollo is different from the company that previously owned Caesars. Apollo founder Leon Black resigned from the company last year after it was revealed he had ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late New York financier who was imprisoned as a sex offender upon the time of his death. Black reportedly paid Epstein more than $160 million to Epstein for “financial advice,” as well as paying $100,000 a month to a woman he allegedly assaulted.
At the hearing, Gibson called Black “the elephant in the room.” The chairman added, “He’s well known. There’s a lot of discussion about him. So, he is no longer on the board of directors or a member of this company.” Black, however, is still the largest Apollo shareholder.
A source told the Nevada Current that Governor Steve Sisolak wanted Apollo approved and Gibson knew that.
Jennifer Togliatti, the new chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, has pledged to review all aspects of licensing, which the NGCB seemed to ignore, so this will be her first test of her commitment to her philosophy of regulation.
