Five First Nations Are Building a Casino Empire, Bankrolled by VICI
Five Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw First Nations are rapidly building one of Canada’s most ambitious Indigenous casino portfolios, using a sophisticated sale-leaseback structure backed by VICI Properties
Indigenous Gaming Partners, a company established just over a year ago by five Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw First Nations, announced this morning that it is acquiring Gamehost Inc. for $282 million, adding two more Alberta casinos and a pair of hotels to a portfolio it has been assembling with striking speed and sophistication.
The deal is structured the way the savviest operators in North American gaming have learned to structure deals: buy the business, sell the real estate, lease it back, and deploy the freed capital into the next acquisition.
Pure announced a $13.65-per-share takeover bid for TSX-listed Gamehost, representing a 16% premium to the company’s closing price on Friday, and simultaneously agreed to sell Gamehost’s four Alberta properties for $200 million to VICI Properties, the New York-based real estate giant with a US$47-billion portfolio that includes Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand, and the Venetian Resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
It is, in other words, exactly the playbook that has made VICI one of the most formidable forces in global gaming real estate. And VICI is not just financing the deal this time. It is a willing and enthusiastic partner in what is becoming a deliberate expansion strategy.
Who IGP Is and How Fast It Has Moved
Indigenous Gaming Partners was founded in 2024 with the goal of creating sustainable economic opportunities for Indigenous communities in Canada through the gaming industry. The partnership was formed by five Nova Scotia First Nations: the Glooscap First Nation, Millbrook First Nation, Annapolis Valley First Nation, We’koqma’q L’nue’kati, and Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation. Sonco Gaming, one of Canada’s most experienced Indigenous casino developers and managers, handles day-to-day operations on their behalf.
The timeline is worth pausing on. IGP was formed in 2024. Its first major move was acquiring Pure Canadian Gaming, a four-casino Alberta operation, from private equity firm ONCAP in December of that same year. That deal was structured with VICI as the real estate partner, marking VICI’s first Canadian investment. In 2023, Pure had sold its properties to VICI for $272 million.
IGP stepped in as Pure’s new operating owner, inheriting both the casinos and the existing VICI lease relationship.
Now, less than four months later, IGP is back at the table, folding Gamehost’s Deerfoot Inn and Casino in Calgary and the Great Northern Casino in Grande Prairie into a portfolio that will span six Alberta casinos once the deal closes. VICI’s president and COO, John Payne, said the company was excited to deepen and expand its Canadian presence alongside a partner it has seen firsthand build a best-in-class gaming platform, adding it hopes to continue growing the relationship for years to come.
The Deal Structure as Strategy
The sale-leaseback structure deserves attention because it is not just a financing mechanism. It is a strategic statement about how IGP intends to grow. By selling the real estate to VICI immediately upon closing, IGP converts a $282-million acquisition into a net capital outlay considerably closer to $82 million, with VICI effectively providing $200 million of the purchase price in exchange for long-term lease income. The result is that IGP controls six casinos while retaining the liquidity to keep acquiring.
This is precisely how VICI built its empire in the United States, partnering with operators who needed capital and preferred to own the business rather than the building.
The fact that a First Nations gaming partnership formed only last year is already executing this structure with enough confidence to do it twice in rapid succession says something significant about both the quality of IGP’s advisors and the appetite of institutional capital for Indigenous gaming assets in Canada.
Gamehost CEO Darcy Will, who has run the company for over two decades, said he was excited to pass on the legacy to Pure, calling it a proven leader in the Alberta gaming industry. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2026, pending shareholder and court approval in Alberta, as well as the usual regulatory requirements under gaming and competition law.
Why This Matters Beyond the Deal
The Canadian gaming industry has been watching Indigenous ownership expand for several years, with deals in British Columbia, Ontario, and now Alberta reshaping who controls major commercial casino assets. What IGP has done differently is move at institutional speed with institutional sophistication, building a real estate partnership with one of the largest REITs in the world before most comparable initiatives had cleared their first regulatory hurdle.
The question now is where IGP looks next. VICI’s COO said the company is interested in expanding beyond casino properties in Canada. IGP has made clear that strategic acquisitions are central to its mission. With a blueprint that works, a balance sheet that has been deliberately kept flexible, and a partner in VICI that has the capital and the appetite to keep going, the answer is probably: sooner than the market expects.
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