Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to the Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Joe Giaffone, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Kyle, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Gaming and Leisure Properties' first quarter 2022 earnings call and webcast. The press release distributed yesterday afternoon is available on the investor relations section on our website at www.glpropinc.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Forward-looking statements may include those related to revenue, operating income, and financial guidance, as well as non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO and AFFO. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates, and the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to risk factors and forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including its 10Q and the earnings release, as well as the definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures contained in the company's earnings release. On this morning's call, we are joined by Peter Carlino, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Gaming and Leisure Properties. Also joining today's call are Desiree Burke, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer, Brandon Moore, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Steve Ladney, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, and Matthew Demchek, Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Peter Carlino. Peter, please go ahead.

Well, thank you, Joe, and good morning to everyone. We are pleased on this lovely spring day here in Pennsylvania to report another strong and eventful quarter for the company. In this quarter, we completed, as you know, the acquisition of the real estate assets of the Live Casino and Hotel in Philadelphia. and in Pittsburgh with the Cordish companies. You will recall that we closed on the Maryland live property in December. And these are extremely high quality assets for any of you that know them, developed by one of the country's foremost property developers. And we see considerable opportunity, parenthetically, with Cordish as we look to the future. The details of this attractive transaction are well outlined in our published release. Also this quarter, we closed on two properties with Bally's in Quad Cities, in Rock Island, and Blackhawk. So that's four properties added to our portfolio, which I just noted with some interest to me, if not to you, that when we commenced our spin in 2011, We did so with 24 properties, and that number has grown to today 55, and we intend to keep adding to that as we have consistently over the years. A couple other things I will quickly highlight. We are investing with Casino Queen in Baton Rouge. As you might recall, building a landside facility, which we controlled and sensed that I had a vision for that property that Queen and the team well accepted. I think the steel is up. It's finally moving along with decent weather if we can get all the things that we need with a target towards opening, I think, second quarter of 2023. It's going to be a pretty cool project, if I must say. It really will, and I think it's going to have a significant impact. in that market. Now that we are through that grouping of closings, which were and always are somewhat uncertain from a timing point of view, I think that I am prepared to say that we will recommend to our board shortly that we resume guidance. I know that's a question some of you have asked in the past. but we'll recommend resuming guidance within a range in the next few weeks and I would hope that perhaps we can initiate with the board's approval guidance this next quarter. In a similar vein, things have gone extremely well for us this year and expect it's gonna be a strong year in 2022 and into 2023. With that in mind, we're also prepared to recommend to our board an increase in our dividend and would expect to do so publicly in the next few weeks. So that is certainly a goal. I'm not absolutely certain, but management is prepared to recommend such an adjustment to our board. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Desiree and give you some financial focus.