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Penn National To Acquire Social Casino Company

Regional Casino Operator Bolsters I-Gaming Offerings

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Penn National Gaming announced last week that it made a deal to acquire Rocket Games, a leading developer of social casino games, for approximately $60 million cash.

Social casino games under Rocket ownership include Viva Slots Las Vegas, Downtown Deluxe Slots, Triple Double Slots, Vegas Jackpot Casino and Popeye Classic Slots.

Last year, Penn National launched social casino offerings on Hollywoodcasino.com and Hollywoodslots.com. The launch followed similar moves by rival casino operators.

Penn National Gaming President and CEO, Timothy Wilmott, said in a press release: “Penn National’s accretive acquisition of Rocket highlights our ongoing strategic initiative to acquire emerging growth platforms that complement, and allow us to leverage, our core regional gaming operations and database of over three million active customers.

“[S]ocial casino offerings have been very well received by players, are profitable and serve as effective customer acquisition tools for our operations. Based on our internal analysis, a significant segment of Penn National’s database customers actively participate in social and online gaming.”

Penn National operates 27 gambling facilities in 16 U.S. states.

Social casino gaming is a market worth more than $3 billion annually, and could pass $4 billion in 2017, according to a report late last year from VentureBeat.