Golden Entertainment Shareholders Approve $1.16B Take-Private Deal With Sartini and VICI
Golden Entertainment shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to approve a take-private deal valued at $30 per share
Golden Entertainment is going private. Shareholders voted overwhelmingly at a special meeting on March 31 to approve the master transaction agreement with company chairman and CEO Blake Sartini and VICI Properties. The vote was not close. The agreement received 20.4 million votes in favor, just over 208,000 votes against, and roughly 20,000 abstentions.
Closing is anticipated in the second quarter of 2026. Once complete, Golden will be delisted from Nasdaq and deregistered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
How the Deal Is Structured
The transaction has two distinct components. Sartini, who founded Golden Entertainment in 2001, will acquire the company’s operating assets through his affiliated entities. Separately, VICI Properties will purchase seven of Golden’s casino real estate assets in a sale-leaseback arrangement. VICI will then lease those properties back to the operating company.
Shareholders will receive consideration valued at $30 per share. That consists of 0.902 shares of VICI common stock for the real estate component and $2.75 in cash from the Sartini acquisition. The $30 per-share value represents a 41% premium to Golden’s closing price on November 5, 2025, the day before the deal was announced. Golden’s stock surged more than 35% in premarket trading on announcement day, opening at $29.76.
As part of the transaction, VICI will assume and repay up to $426 million of Golden’s outstanding debt under its Senior Secured Credit Facility. Santander has provided Sartini a debt financing commitment to fund the cash portion.
The Properties Involved in the New Deal
Seven Nevada casino properties will transfer to VICI in the sale-leaseback. They are The STRAT Hotel, Casino & Tower on the Las Vegas Strip; Arizona Charlie’s Decatur and Arizona Charlie’s Boulder in the Las Vegas locals market; the Aquarius and Edgewater Casino Resorts in Laughlin; and the Nugget Hotel & Casino and Lakeside Hotel & Casino in Pahrump. Golden will retain ownership of the real estate at Gold Town Casino, also in Pahrump.
Beyond its casino portfolio, Golden operates 72 gaming taverns across Nevada. The company runs approximately 5,500 slot machines, 80 table games, and roughly 6,000 hotel rooms in total.
VICI Expands Its Nevada Footprint
For VICI Properties, the deal extends a portfolio that already includes Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand, and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The S&P 500 REIT owns 93 experiential assets across the US and Canada, including 54 gaming properties totaling approximately 127 million square feet and 60,300 hotel rooms.
VICI President and Chief Operating Officer John Payne described the transaction as an opportunity to broaden the company’s presence in the Nevada market, including its first meaningful exposure to the Las Vegas Locals segment.
A Strategic Exit After Years of Repositioning
Golden President and CFO Charles Protell said the deal reflects years of strategic work to deliver shareholder value through asset divestitures, debt reduction, and capital returns. The company’s fourth quarter 2025 revenue came in at $155.6 million, below the prior year’s $164.2 million and short of analyst expectations. The company is expected to return to profitability in 2026.
Sartini’s decision to take the company private ends more than two decades of his leadership of a publicly traded gaming operator. He said the mission of providing exceptional service to guests and the company’s roughly 5,000 employees will remain unchanged in the next stage as a private company.
Regulatory approvals remain the final step before the transaction closes.
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