Why is Great Canadian Entertainment suddenly offloading most of its B.C. casino assets?

Great Canadian Entertainment, one of Canada’s largest gaming and entertainment companies, will be reduced to a presence of just two properties in B.C. after a recently announced agreement to sell its casino operation in Coquitlam to the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Founded in B.C. more than 40 years ago, the company, then known as the Great Canadian Gaming Corp., started by operating a couple of casinos in Vancouver and Richmond, then grew into a gambling juggernaut that spanned the country with casinos in Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

But since June 2024, the company has either sold or announced the sale of seven of its nine casino properties in B.C. to First Nations, representing a dramatic and swift offloading of assets in the province.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that the business arm of the Snuneymuxw First Nation had reached an agreement with Great Canadian Entertainment to purchase the Great Canadian Casino Vancouver in Coquitlam. The same First Nation had previously announced acquisitions of Casino Nanaimo and Elements Casino Victoria, as well as purchase agreements to acquire the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond and Chances Maple Ridge.

Great Canadian is also divesting itself of its interest in Hastings Casino located at the Hastings Racecourse at the Pacific National Exhibition. That casino is being sold to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. And Elements Casino Chilliwack is being sold to a group from the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe.

That means Great Canadian will be left with just two B.C. casinos: Elements Casino Surrey and Chances Dawson Creek.

Great Canadian declined to provide comment for this story, but a research report by the bond-rating agency S&P Global offers some hints as to why the company may be selling off its B.C. assets.

The report indicated Great Canadian will put $650 million to $675 million of the proceeds of four recently announced sales toward paying down debt that was taken on when a subsidiary of New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management bought Great Canadian for $3.3 billion in 2021.

S&P analysts Archana Rao and Aniki Saha-Yannopoulos, authors of the agency’s report, wouldn’t comment on Great Canadian’s reasoning since they haven’t made a strategy public, but Saha-Yannopoulos observed that “the owner is private equity.”

“They bought the asset four or five years ago, so obviously, like any other private equity, they will start thinking about getting the return on their investment,” Saha-Yannopoulos added.

Rao said that while Great Canadian was founded in B.C., its operations here only accounted for about 20 per cent of the company’s overall assets, which includes 12 casinos in Ontario and three in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The selloff of its B.C. casino assets is also taking place during a challenging period in Canada’s gambling sector, with inflation and tough economics putting a dent in casino revenues reported by the B.C. Lottery Corp., the Crown corporation that oversees gaming in the province.

Casino receipts make up 65 per cent of B.C. Lottery’s revenue, according to the corporation’s annual report, and in 2024/25 “fell short of forecast” with BCLC’s overall revenue dropping $88 million from the previous year.

Saha-Yannopoulos said conditions have improved for Great Canadian through 2025, but “only marginally stronger than (2024).”

“And for (2026), we do expect some improvement. But again, it’s not something that’s going to rebound strongly because the whole issue is (those) economic headwinds,” she added.

For the First Nations that are buying Great Canadian’s casinos, however, the properties are viewed as key pieces to their own economic independence.

The Snuneymuxw First Nation, through its business arm, Petroglyph Development Group, is taking over the core of Great Canadian’s legacy in B.C., buying five of the seven casinos being sold.

Petroglyph closed on its first casino purchases, Elements Casino Victoria and Casino Nanaimo, in January. Upon completion of the latest sales, Petroglyph will add Great Canadian Casino Vancouver, River Rock Casino Resort and Chances Maple Ridge to its portfolio.

With these purchases, Snuneymuxw will become the largest Indigenous-owned gambling operator, by revenue, in Canada, according to the nation.

No representative from Snuneymuxw or Petroglyph was available for an interview this week, but in statements made related to the transactions, Chief Mike Wyse, Xum’silum, called the deal “another step toward economic self-determination for Snuneymuxw.”

Great Canadian Entertainment and company CEO Matthew Anfinson said in an earlier statement the company was “pleased to pass this legacy into the hands of Snuneymuxw First Nation and the vision they hold for the business.”

Great Canadian hasn’t disclosed the purchase price of any of the transactions it has announced since June 2024 when it started the selloff of most of its B.C. properties.

Provincial property records, however, show that the Elements Victoria casino changed hands in a sale for $45 million Jan. 16, which was more than twice the $21 million assessed value of its real estate alone, and Casino Nanaimo sold for $8.34 million on the same date.

While details about the other transactions aren’t available, B.C. Land Title records do indicate the assessed value of the real estate involved in the businesses.

Property records put the 2025 assessed value of the River Rock Casino Resort, which is owned jointly by Great Canadian, the Musqueam Nation’s Bridgepoint Land Ltd. and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, at $162.3 million.

The assessed value of Chances Maple Ridge’s property is $12.5 million. Elements Chilliwack’s is $16.2 million, and Great Canadian Casino Vancouver in Coquitlam carries an assessed value of $73 million for the property alone.

depenner@postmedia.com

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