Approval granted for Penn National Gaming’s Tropicana takeover

National Gaming has received final approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission to complete its planned $360m acquisition of Tropicana Las Vegas.

A definitive agreement on Penn’s acquisition of the Nevada casino was reached in April.

Tropicana’s Las Vegas property offers amenities including a 50,000 square-foot casino with upwards of 1,000 gaming positions, over 100,000 square-feet of meeting space and three restaurants, along with a 300-seat comedy club.

Penn National Gaming plan to invest approximately $20m in facility improvements and integration activities over the next six to nine months.

These will include upgrading the property’s existing technology infrastructure to allow for the integration of Marquee Rewards, Penn’s player loyalty programme.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Penn National Gaming could spend up to $200m over the next four years in upgrading the Tropicana.

The operator has named Bob Sheldon president of its Las Vegas holdings.

Timothy Wilmott, CEO of Penn National Gaming, said: “The addition of Tropicana Las Vegas to our national portfolio of gaming assets is an exciting and important milestone for Penn National as it fulfils our longstanding strategic objective to acquire the right resort at the right price on the Las Vegas Strip.

“Tropicana Las Vegas will allow us to leverage our database of nearly three million active regional gaming customers while further diversifying our operations with another wholly owned asset.”