Penn National Gaming has filed paperwork with the SEC for an IPO that would enable you to 
buy into 19 Penn casinos, including flop Hollywood Perryville (shown). This Penn stalking horse would go by the incredibly generic name of Gaming & Leisure Properties (ticker symbol GLPI), a moniker so dull it must have been conceived by the same kind of unimaginative guys who foisted “Linq” and “Quad” upon the Las Vegas Strip. Anyway, through this REIT puppet, Penn would be able to — for instance — own two casinos in Massachusetts instead of one, 2.6 in Pennsylvania instead of 1.3, etc. Anywhere there’s a statutory limitation, Gaming & Leisure can make an end run around it. Very transparent, very disingenuous and very, very clever. It’s certainly a better deal for the shareholders than the proposed Caesars Growth Partners IPO, where existing shareholders would have to repurchase their stakes in Planet Hollywood, etc.
This move improves Penn’s ability to own two casinos in Maryland, although not its chances. (Its bid ought to be rejected on the basis of the boring design alone.) Since neither MGM Resorts International and Parx Casino owner Greenwood Gaming are planning as much investment or more than Penn — and don’t own multiple casinos on Prince George’s County‘s flanks — a snowball in Hell would stand a better chance of staying frozen than Penn does of getting that Free State last license.
