PENN Entertainment announced on August 17 that it plans to spend roughly $195 million tearing down one of its own casinos to build a new one next door, relocating the Boomtown Casino & Hotel New Orleans riverboat to a landside site in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, where it will reopen as Hollywood Casino New Orleans. The project is PENN's fourth landside relocation, following Hollywood Casino Aurora and Hollywood Casino Joliet in Illinois, both of which opened in June 2026, with Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs in Iowa slated for 2028. The announcement followed strong second-quarter results reported on August 6, when PENN swung to net income of $32.6 million, reversing an $18.3 million loss a year earlier, while Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA climbed $52.5 million year over year to $312.6 million. The company retired the remaining $106.7 million of its 2.75% convertible notes in May, removing roughly 4.6 million potentially dilutive shares, and refinanced credit facilities to push maturities out to 2031 and 2033, with traditional net leverage improving from 4.5x to 2.9x. Hollywood Casino New Orleans is not scheduled to open until 2029 and still requires approvals from the Louisiana Gaming Control Board and the Jefferson Parish Council, while PENN carries $2.8 billion in traditional debt against $887.2 million in cash as of June 30 and its Interactive segment posted a $9.5 million Adjusted EBITDA deficit during the quarter.
Penn National Gaming IncPENN plans a $195M landside casino relocation and reported strong Q2 results with net income of $32.6M, debt reduction, and leverage improving from 4.5x to 2.9x.
