Jack Entertainment LLC, owned by Quicken Loans Inc. Chairman Dan Gilbert, reached an agreement late Tuesday to sell Greektown Casino-Hotel in downtown Detroit in a $1 billion deal.

Wyomissing, Pa.-based gaming conglomerate Penn National Gaming Inc. and Vici Properties Inc. are the buyers of the 400-room hotel and casino.

Penn National, which operates 40 thoroughbred horse racing tracks and casinos, mostly under the Hollywood Casino brand, will pay $300 million for the casinos operating assets and serve as the casino operator. Vici Properties, a real estate investment trust spun off from Caesars Entertainment Corp. during its bankruptcy last year, acquired Greektown Casino-Hotel's real estate for $700 million and will serve as the property owner.

The property still carries $400 million in debt, Bloomberg reported.

Federal and state gaming authorities must sign off on the deal, which is expected to be completed within six months, Gilbert told Crain's.

Penn National is expected to maintain employment, Gilbert said. The casino employs about 1,800 people, who are expected to get compensation and benefit packages at least at current levels.

The deal comes two months after reports began circulating that Gilbert was looking to exit the casino business, including his properties in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit. Gilbert said talks began with Penn National and Vici nine to 10 months ago.

Gilbert's Athens Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of Rock Gaming now known as Jack Entertainment, acquired Greektown Casino through a series of deals in 2013 for approximately $600 million, he said, and invested millions into remodeling the location.

The time was right to sell the casino, Gilbert said.

"We bought it as a defensive play more than anything else. Two and a half years before we bought it, it came out of bankruptcy under the bondholders, and they weren't running it well," Gilbert said. "It would have been very bad for downtown if Greektown went under. If this thing was in the outskirts or in the suburbs, we wouldn't have purchased it. We wanted good things to happen downtown, so we went ahead and purchased it. But (the casino) is probably a business that's fully valued right now."