Two gaming landlords reported within a day of each other, and the distance between their dividends is easy to state. What sits underneath is not the same measurement twice.

VICI Properties Inc. (NYSE:VICI) annualized dividend runs at 73.2% of the midpoint of its 2026 AFFO guidance. Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (NASDAQ:GLPI) runs at 79.8%. A 6.6 percentage point gap, on the same basis, from filings a day apart.

The Print

VICI reported second-quarter AFFO of $0.62 per diluted share and guides to $2.45 to $2.47 for the year. Its quarterly dividend is $0.45, or $1.80 annualized. GLPI reported $1.03 per diluted share, guides to $4.10 to $4.12, and declared $0.82 quarterly, or $3.28 annualized.

Both operate on long-dated leases to gaming operators. The payout ratio is where the similarity ends and the calendar takes over.

At June 30, VICI carried $17.218 billion of debt against GLPI’s $8.159 billion. VICI reported a weighted-average coupon of 4.60% and a separately stated effective rate of 4.45%. GLPI reported a weighted-average interest rate of 5.073%. Those are both issuer-stated whole-book figures, and the labels are not identical, so the 47 basis points between them is a difference in what each company reports rather than a measured cost spread.

What each company owes in the next two years

VICI entered the quarter with $1.75 billion of notes maturing in 2026: $500 million at 4.500% due Sept. 1 and $1.25 billion at 4.250% due Dec. 1.

GLPI has no fixed-rate note maturity before June 2028, when $500 million of 5.750% notes come due. Its filing does show $1.7 million and $3.3 million of variable-rate principal repayments in 2026 and 2027, amounts under a tenth of a percent of the book. Its term loan and revolver both run to December 2028.

GLPI’s $8.159 billion is $7.15 billion of senior unsecured notes running from 2028 to 2054, a $679 million term loan and $329.9 million drawn on the revolver. Those three figures reconcile to the total the company reports, with no residual.

So VICI had $1.75 billion of fixed-rate notes due within months, while GLPI’s first large fixed-rate note maturity is in June 2028. GLPI reported a weighted-average maturity of 6.9 years against VICI’s 5.5, though VICI’s average carries secured debt that runs to 2032, which is a different kind of tenor than an unsecured note.

The part that is already on the record

On Aug. 5, VICI priced $1.75 billion of replacement senior unsecured notes: $900 million at 5.400% due 2031 with an issue price of 99.966% of par, and $850 million at 5.750% due 2036 with an issue price of 98.375%. The issuer said it intends to use the net proceeds to repay all or a portion of those 2026 notes, with any remaining proceeds available for general corporate purposes. VICI said the offering was expected to close Aug. 14.

The face amounts match exactly. What changed is the coupon. The retiring notes carried a principal-weighted coupon of 4.3214%. The replacement notes carry 5.5700%. That is a step-up of roughly 125 basis points on the same $1.75 billion, and it is not a forecast. It is a price the issuer accepted and disclosed.

Read against VICI’s own 4.60% whole-book coupon, the debt leaving was cheaper than the average and the debt arriving is more expensive than it. The 2036 tranche also carries an issue price below par, so coupon alone does not capture the effective borrowing cost. VICI has not stated a blended effective borrowing rate for the priced notes.

What the ratio does not carry

VICI’s whole-book rate includes $3.0 billion of secured CMBS at 3.558%, roughly 17% of its debt, maturing in March 2032 and able to reset after March 2030. GLPI’s June 30 debt table shows no secured borrowing.

The rate mix also sits differently at each company. VICI reported 98.4% of debt as fixed-rate at June 30, leaving 1.6% outside that category. That is a balance-sheet-date figure, not a statement that the proportion holds through maturity. At GLPI, the term loan and revolver together are about 12% of debt outstanding, and the company reports those two at 4.91% and 4.94%.

Neither payout ratio shows any of this directly. Both companies raised or maintained guidance. The 6.6 point gap describes what each dividend claims of forecast cash flow this year. It does not describe when either company next has to go to the debt market, or on what terms.

For VICI, one of those terms is already priced. For GLPI, the next large fixed-rate test still sits in June 2028.

Source. VICI Properties second-quarter 2026 results and supplemental, released July 29, 2026; VICI pricing announcement dated Aug. 5, 2026; Gaming and Leisure Properties second-quarter 2026 results, released July 30, 2026; both companies’ Forms 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026.

Disclosure. The author holds no position in any security mentioned. Structural research, not personalized investment advice. This article assigns no rating and no price target and makes no recommendation to transact.

Further dividend structure research is published at dividendforensics.com.

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