Blackstone Group in Negotiations to buy the two Strip properties
With the future Las Vegas poker venues under close watch from players wondering exactly where they might play the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event, it’s been reported by Bloomberg that two of the most famous casinos in Vegas might soon be bought out.
This summer saw the final WSOP take place at the Rio Conference Center, and with that announcement, it’s possible that poker players might be looking for a new venue for the world’s most iconic poker festival.
If you were thinking that the World Series might head to the MGM Grand or the Bellagio, then you might have to think again.
According to reports, Blackstone Group Incorporated is in talks to purchase the MGM Grand and lease it back to MGM Resorts so that they ca continue running the poker side of things. It is currently believed that the Bellagio would be part of any purchase, too.
MGM Resorts currently owns a number of casino properties on both sides of the Pacific Ocean and with portfolios in both the U.S. and China, it would appear that Las Vegas is another area where casino properties are once again to be bought and sold with a quick turnaround. Poker players might not have considered either property a frontrunner for the venue of the 2020 WSOP, purely on the basis that they don’t have a car parking capacity anywhere near the size of the Rio.
Several questions remain in the open about any sale of such iconic venues. Chief among those will be what changes might be made to buildings that have a genuine history in relation to the city itself, with Las Vegas only having been founded as a city in 1905.
With MGM Resorts only likely to approve of a sale in order to grow their business empire in other areas, we may yet be seeing the kind of ‘spread-purchasing’ that leads to further investment in the west. China is the richest country in the world in many areas of business, and with Japan and other Eastern countries growing as gambling markets, there’s a chance that this move could set in place a domino effect that shuffles several casinos ownership over the next few years.
With the Blackstone Group already having purchased the Cosmopolitan in 2014 for $1.7 billion as well as Spanish Cirsa Gaming Corporation in 2018, this latest prospective move would be something of an all-in on the river to that double barrel on the turn.
