Dan Lee’s Colorado lode; The Caranos take Reno

Since overthrowing the leadership of Full House Resorts, new CEO Dan Lee has been chock-full of initiatives. His latest is to drop DanLee$30 million to acquire Bronco Billy’s Casino & Hotel, in Cripple Creek, Colorado. The move comes as Colorado emerges from a prolonged slump as a casino market — and Lee’s purchase of additional buildings and land besides Bronco Billy’s betokens expansion. The hotel (24 rooms) isn’t much — hence the extra land? — but Lee gets 828 slots and the usual assortment of table games.

Full House came along at the right time for an aging ownership group that was “looking for a transition.” If memory serves, Lee obtained the casino at a favorable cash-flow multiple (6X) and has extended an olive branch to current management. “It is well-run and well-maintained … We expect that its management team will remain at the property,” Lee said. He was once described to me as someone who was quick to see opportunity where others did not. Will Bronco Billy’s be a gold strike?

* Although one company will now dominate the downtown Reno casino market, nobody’s whistled in the FTC to approve the consolidation. Besides, if Reno’s gaming future were to be entrusted to one operator, Eldorado Resorts has the track record to do it. In a Caranobargain-basement transaction, Eldorado acquired MGM Resorts International‘s half of the Silver Legacy and all of Circus Circus Reno for $72.5 million. Executive Director of Hotels Cindy Carano, another scion of the talented Carano family, tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that the three hotels will be operated with the outward appearance of autonomy, with the synergies taking place behind the scenes.

“Now we can say there’s a slot tournament here and at the Silver Legacy there’s a pit tournament. And we can change it up. There were some weekends when we had the same tournaments at each place,” Carano tells the paper. She also predicts some “exciting” (f0r her, maybe) increases in ADRs. She throws shade on Circus Circus, saying, “And we have great food … so that’ll trickle over. Not that they didn’t have great food but … y’know …” We know.

* There are two forms of consensus about the entry of PokerStars into New Jersey: A) It will have an impact and B) Nobody knows what it will be. The one clearly predictable aspect of this new state of affairs is that the Garden State will have to enter the compact that currently exists between Delaware and Nevada if it really wants to rustle up some players.

* Congratulations to Scientific Games, which has extended its Scientific Gamesrelationship with Verwaltungsgesellschaft Lotto und Toto for another eight years. The company will provide support services, software and 600 terminals to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mbH, Germany … i.e., the German lottery. (And, no, I didn’t make that alphabet soup up.)

* Who knew that the world of bridge encompassed “Bali-to-Biarritz jetsetting lifestyles,” let alone a cheating scandal, Internet-fueled sleuthing and death threats? Is nothing sacred?

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