Shareholders for Pinnacle last month approved the transaction with 99.4 percent of the votes representing 45.1 million shares. The transaction will give Penn footholds in three states it previously hadn’t been in: Colorado, Louisiana and Iowa. Pinnacle, which owns and operates 16 casinos in nine states and a racetrack in Texas, runs the Horseshu and Cactus Pete’s on the Nevada-Idaho border at Jackpot.Īt the completion of the deal, Penn will operate 41 casinos in 20 states. Penn officials said in a quarterly earnings call with investors Thursday that the company is on track to complete the deal that will secure its position as a major regional gaming powerhouse. Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based Penn National, operators of the Tropicana on the Strip and the M Resort, is lined up to appear before several state gaming regulators over the next few months to gain the approvals necessary to complete the $2.8 billion transaction first announced in December. Timothy Wilmott, president and CEO of Penn National Gaming (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal) National Gaming exceeded its own first-quarter expectations and remained on course to close on its merger with Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment that ultimately will save the company $100 million a year.

New lineup of casinos for penn gaming