Caesars selling Belle of Baton Rouge, leaving the company with three Louisiana casinos

The company did not disclose a price for the sale of the Belle of Baton Rouge to CQ Holding Co., which operates DraftKings at Casino Queen in East St. Louis, Illinois, and Casino Queen Marquette in Iowa.
CQ Holding is a private company.

Caesars, which merged with Eldorado Resorts in July through a $17.3 billion transaction, is selling several resorts in various markets to comply with anti-competitive issues brought up by both Federal Trade Commission and state gaming regulators.

“Everything is for sale every day,” Caesars CEO Thomas Reeg said in August. “We are economic animals. We’re always happy to be wowed by an offer.”

In Louisiana, the company has pending deals to sell Eldorado Shreveport (along with operations of MontBleu Resort Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada) to Bally’s Corp. for a combined $155 million, and Harrah’s Louisiana Downs Casino and Racetrack in Bossier City to Rubico Acquisition Corp. for $22 million.

Following the three sales, the company will still operate Harrah’s New Orleans, Horseshoe Bossier City, and Isle of Capri Lake Charles.

“I want to thank all of our Baton Rouge team members for their hard work and dedication, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Reeg said in a statement. “We wish them the best under Casino Queen’s ownership.”

Caesars announced a deal in October to sell the Tropicana Evansville in Indiana to GLPI and Bally’s for $480 million. The company agreed in July with Indiana gaming regulators to sell three of its five casinos in the state.

Belle of Baton Rouge, which sits on the Mississippi River, is part of an entertainment complex that includes a 250-room hotel, restaurants, and meeting space near the historic USS Kidd and between LSU and Southern University. The riverboat casino has 750 slot machines and 14 table games.

Belle of Baton Rouge is owned by real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties, which will retain ownership of the location. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2021. Shares of Caesars closed at $67.84 Tuesday on the Nasdaq, down 28 cents or 0.41%.