The gambling field in Pennsylvania continues to be in a state of constant change and improvement, as casino locations have their operators changed and casino operators apply to manage new facilities. The latest news came this Thursday when the gambling authority of the state officially announced that from now on the operation of The Meadows Casino located in Washington County is going to be overseen by Penn National Gaming Inc. following its acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment.
Meadows Racetrack and Casino is well-known as the oldest pari-mutuel gambling location in the state and ever since 1963 it has been in operation under the management of the Washington Trotting Association. In 2006 the gambling location received the status of racino with the help of a casino license which also added a temporary slot parlor to the facility. Table games were introduced at a later stage of the racino development in 2010. The most recent management of the location was Pinnacle which is now owned by Penn.
This week the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board granted Penn National with the license previously owned by Pinnacle Entertainment. It was issued in September 2016 and ever since then, the latter casino operator has been managing the Meadows Casino. Now this same gambling license will be owned by Penn guaranteeing the change of control over the location. The said transfer comes with a fee amounting to some $3.75 million which the new license holder has to pay to the Commonwealth.
Future Plans for Development
As for the official approval of the pending acquisition of Pinnacle, It was approved both by the PGCB and the West Virginia Lottery Commission. The acquisition itself amounts to some $2.8 billion and as it could be recalled, the company has been working towards achieving it for quite some time now.
Back in 2017 Penn National stated its intention to acquire the operator which brings with itself a total of 16 gambling venues located across 11 jurisdictions across the US operated by Pinnacle. In the meantime, Penn manages 29 facilities across 17 jurisdictions and this makes for a larger regional gambling operator.
Four of the previously operated by Pinnacle venues will be sold to Boyd Gaming and those are to the likings of Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles and Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City in Missouri, Belterra Casino Resort and Spa in Indiana, as well as Belterra Park Gaming in Ohio. It is not a secret to anyone, however, that Penn is actively looking for opportunities for online gambling development and the acquisition of Pinnacle is one of the ways to secure a good position in the future online gambling field in the state.
Penn is expected to submit its application for online casino offerings as well as online poker and this will be further boosted by the two properties Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course and Meadows Racetrack and Casino.
