<\/p>\n
When casino landlord Vici Properties inked its latest billion-dollar deal in Southern Nevada, it grew its footprint in the riverfront gambling town of Laughlin.<\/p>\n
It picked up two more hotels there as part of the sale-leaseback with Golden Entertainment. But another casino property in Laughlin that\u2019s owned by Golden was left out of the deal: the Colorado Belle.<\/p>\n
Then again, if it had been included, Golden founder Blake Sartini would be paying rent on a shuttered casino, as the riverboat-themed property<\/a> has been closed since the onset of the pandemic.<\/p>\n Under the recently closed deal, New York-based Vici purchased seven casino properties<\/a> from Las Vegas-based Golden \u2014 including The Strat \u2014 and then leased them to Sartini, the chairman and chief executive, who took the company private<\/a> and now owns the business.<\/p>\n His initial annual rent for those properties comes to $87 million combined.<\/p>\n The Sartini family still owns the Colorado Belle as part of Golden\u2019s broader portfolio, as the deal with Vici was only structured around Golden\u2019s operating casino-resorts, said Sartini\u2019s son Blake Sartini II, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Golden, in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.<\/p>\n He also said the company \u201ceventually\u201d plans to develop a new project at the Colorado Belle property that \u201ccapitalizes on the site\u2019s position on the river, on our own terms and timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n Vici did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Laughlin, a small, unincorporated town roughly 100 miles southeast of Las Vegas, has a string of hotel-casinos along the Colorado River. It has long offered a low-priced, low-frills getaway<\/a> and drawn a mostly older crowd that largely drives in for their trips.<\/p>\n Golden acquired the Colorado Belle in 2019<\/a> as part of a deal that included the Edgewater hotel-casino in Laughlin and the Laughlin Event Center. This followed its acquisition of the Aquarius resort in Laughlin in 2017 through a separate deal.<\/p>\n Aquarius, Edgewater and the outdoor concert venue are all open and operating. But the Colorado Belle has been closed since March 2020, when casinos and other businesses statewide were forced to close over fears of the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n With its replica paddle wheels and smokestacks, the Colorado Belle was built in the 1980s<\/a>. According to Golden, it boasted around 1,100 rooms, nearly 670 slot machines and 16 table games.<\/p>\n Golden says it voluntarily surrendered its gaming license for the property in 2023.<\/p>\n In fall 2025, Vici announced that it was buying a portfolio of casino properties from Golden for $1.16 billion and leasing them to Sartini, who, at the same time, was acquiring the company he leads.<\/p>\n The sale-leaseback and corporate buyout both closed on April <\/a>30<\/a>.<\/p>\n As part of the deal, Vici purchased the real estate for The Strat; the two Arizona Charlie\u2019s properties in Las Vegas; the Aquarius and the Edgewater; the Pahrump Nugget; and the Lakeside Casino & RV Park in Pahrump.<\/p>\n Neither Vici nor Golden mentioned the Colorado Belle in their initial news release on the transaction.<\/p>\n But in an investor presentation<\/a> released the same day, Vici reported that it has a \u201cright of first offer\u201d on a sale-leaseback of the Colorado Belle and on financing for a potential future development of the site.<\/p>\n Vici is the biggest property owner on the Las Vegas Strip, with a portfolio that includes Caesars Palace, The Venetian, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay and several other huge hotel-casinos in the famed corridor.<\/p>\n Before the deal with Golden, its real estate holdings already included Harrah\u2019s Laughlin.<\/p>\n Vici doesn\u2019t operate any resorts here but collects rent from companies that do, including MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment.<\/p>\n The real estate investment firm was launched in 2017 as a spinoff from Caesars and has vastly expanded its holdings<\/a> through high-priced transactions, including its $17.2 billion buyout<\/a> of MGM Resorts\u2019 real estate spinoff.<\/p>\n Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com<\/a> or 702-383-0342.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPaddle wheels and smokestacks<\/h2>\n
\u2018Right of first offer\u2019<\/h2>\n