All You Need to Know About the Sale of MGM Resorts’ Properties in Las Vegas

By Jane Shaw Senior Editor Updated: 11/24/2019

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We count on Jane to inform our readers about the latest slot games in the US market. With her passion for video games and a degree in engineering, she’s our gambling tech expert. Jane’s also active in our blog section, where she tackles the curiosities and changes in the industry.

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MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas will be up for sale soon, Photo by Flickr

Global hospitality and entertainment company MGM Resorts International undoubtedly has a strong foothold in Las Vegas, Mississippi, Detroit, New Jersey, and Maryland. Owning a multitude of properties in these states, MGM Resorts is known for providing world-class slot machines and casino gambling experiences to millions.

But when it comes to Las Vegas, the casino brand now has a different plan in mind. It’s now interested in selling off some of its Las Vegas properties in a new strategy that it’s adopting to expand into different cities in the country and also abroad. This move by MGM Resorts makes sense, given that the brand owns a vast chunk of gambling venues in Las Vegas.

Ever since MGM Resorts began considering its overseas expansion plans, many of its Las Vegas properties were officially sold off. The first one to go was Circus Circus. The owner of Treasure Island on the Las Vegas Strip, Phil Ruffin, purchased the property for $825 million. The next property that was sold just a few days later was The Bellagio Hotel & Casino. The Blackstone Group bought this spectacular hotel-casino for a whopping $4.2 billion! Moreover, MGM Resorts is now leasing this property back for an annual payment of $245 million.

Property sales are still up

MGM Resorts International has confirmed that it wants to keep going with the sale of properties in Las Vegas. In fact, two other venues in the city could be sold soon. The company is making it clear that they are giving up on their most valuable and profitable casinos. For example, The Bellagio Hotel & Casino is considered to be one of the most popular and lucrative casino-resorts in the country. However, the strategy is justifiable from the purview of its objectives.

The company is keen on selling two other casinos, which are the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. The buyer of these properties could be MGM Growth, which is a major real estate investment trust that departed from MGM Resorts International about three years ago.

Presently, officials are planning for MGM Growth to acquire the real estate assets of both casinos owned by MGM Resorts. The deal is considered one of the biggest in the history of MGM Growth. The company is also planning to sell more than $24 million worth of shares to finance its new deal with MGM Resorts. But new reports claim that MGM Growth will buy MGM Grand, which will then be leased back to MGM Resorts—just like their agreement with the Blackstone Group.

Who else is following the footsteps of MGM Resorts?

It’s not only MGM Resorts that are selling off properties to fund their expansion plans. Eldorado Resorts, for example, has nearly finished acquiring Caesars Entertainment. It’s most likely that the company will dispose off some of its properties soon after it gets regulatory approval to acquire Caesars Entertainment.

The deal with Caesars Entertainment cost Eldorado Resorts $17.3 billion. So, it makes sense for the company to sell some of its gambling venues to compensate for this transaction. However, it’s still unknown which properties the company intends to put for sale.

No matter what, the move by the two known hotel-casino brands in Las Vegas is expected to prove highly beneficial in the long-run. It seems like a great strategy to pull out funds from an already-saturated gambling market and venture into regions where full-fledged casino gambling is slowly becoming popular and legally supported.