The Tropicana in Las Vegas has a new owner. Don’t look for any immediate changes to the property.
This deal has been in the works for a while. Penn Entertainment (formerly Penn National Gaming) announced it was selling the Tropicana on the Vegas Strip to Bally’s Corp. (Bally’s) in 2020. It took a while but the sale is finally complete.
The $148 million deal for the non-land assets of the Tropicana Las Vegas is finally official. Bally’s now owns the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
The company has a 50-year lease and will pay rent on the land to Gaming & Leisure Properties, Inc. The future is still to be determined for the property that includes:
- 1,470 guest rooms
- 50,000 square feet of casino space with 1,000 gaming positions
- A 1,200-seat performance theater
- 100,000 square feet of convention and meeting space
There will eventually be changes to the property but all should remain the same for the next year or two.
Bally’s Vague Short And Long-Term Plans For Tropicana
While Bally’s Corp. (no relation to Bally’s Las Vegas) considers possible redevelopment plans, the Tropicana will mostly remain the same. The company has no plans on changing the casino, restaurants, amenities or the name of the property right away.
Bally’s has 15 properties in 10 states around the US. Eventually, the Tropicana will become another Bally’s casino but that isn’t happening right away.
Now that the deal is official, Bally’s will work on two plans for the casino.
First, the company will come up with a day-to-day plan to operate one of the oldest casinos on the Vegas Strip.
The short-term plans will likely change as Bally’s considers the long-term future of the Tropicana.
It appears as though there could be a major redevelopment of the property. This could be anything from adding a baseball stadium or retail outlets to the land to changing the general footprint and name of the casino hotel on the Vegas Strip.
In the meantime, the only change is that Tropicana has a new rewards program. Tropicana Las Vegas Rewards is not connected with any of Bally’s other properties around the country. This will likely change within a year.
Tropicana Blackjack
The 50,000 square feet of casino space at Tropicana will remain the same. This isn’t great news for blackjack players. It’s also not awful.
Tropicana has fairly mediocre blackjack games typical for its location. Like many Vegas Strip casinos, all $10 and $15 games pay 6:5 when a player is dealt a natural blackjack, according to Vegas Advantage.
The minimum bet for a 3:2 blackjack game at Tropicana is $25. While not optimal for the masses the $25 3:2 double deck game has a lower minimum bet than nearby casinos.
MGM Grand is located across the street to the north. This casino requires at least a $500 bet for a 3:2 double deck blackjack game.
New York-New York, diagonally across the street requires at least a $100 bet for the same blackjack game where the dealer hits on 17.
Tropicana also has six and eight-deck shoe blackjack games that pay 3:2 for a natural. Again, these games have a lower minimum bet than the MGM Resorts casinos that surround the property.
The blackjack conditions at Tropicana could change in the future as the property transforms into a Bally’s casino.
