“We know those guys very well just because they're in the business and we run across each other,” Smith said. VICI owns 660 acres on the Strip covering 10 resorts operated by MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Apollo Global Management and Hard Rock Entertainment.
MGM used sale proceeds to pay down debt.Īt last month’s Preview Las Vegas, VICI Properties CFO David Kieske said the gaming REIT was exploring opportunities with downtown casino resorts and the Las Vegas neighborhood casino market to add to its growing portfolio. Major Las Vegas companies, including MGM Resorts International, sold its Strip casinos to REITs and leased back the operations. Gaming REITs acquire land and real estate associated with casino resorts and lease the properties back to an operator. “With the strength of our balance sheet, the strength of our cash flows and our ability to access other forms of financing, we just don't have a need,” Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith said last week in an interview following the company’s fourth-quarter conference call.
