West Wendover deal scrapped

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

A Reno company that planned to buy two bankrupt West Wendover hotel-casinos in Northern Nevada has decided against the deal.

Peppermill Casinos Inc., which owns five Nevada properties, including the Rainbow Club in Henderson, announced last week that it had called off its $49.6 million acquisition of the State Line and Silver Smith hotel-casinos in the community on Interstate 80 at the Utah border.

The company issued a statement that said it did not want to "divert attention and resources away from our core business" by participating in a Federal Trade Commission investigation of the transaction.

The FTC was reviewing the deal, since Peppermill would have owned four of the six nonrestricted gaming properties in West Wendover had the transaction gone through. The company said it will instead spend $18 million on an expansion at the Wendover Peppermill in October and $40 million on an expansion at the Wendover Rainbow next spring.

In addition to the Henderson and West Wendover properties, Peppermill owns its flagship Peppermill property in Reno and the Western Village Inn and Casino in Sparks.