As Shakespeare wrote, in Hamlet, joys come as single spies but grief arrives in battalions. So it was today for Pinnacle Entertainment, which had a double-whammy for investors. On the same day it warned of "significantly lower" fourth-quarter revenues, it also announced that it intended to issue 10 million new shares. Factor in an additional 1.5 million shares that could be purchased by the underwriter of its public offering, and Pinnacle will be increasing its share count by nearly 24.6%.

A bad quarter and a potential dilution of the per-share value are two tough pills to swallow on the same day. At least they were for Wall Street, where Pinnacle’s share price has dropped almost 10% as trading nears its close. Pinnacle is fighting to retain market share at its Boomtown casino in New Orleans and at its Belterra riverboat in Indiana, among others.

The Motley Fool’s Jeff Hwang has some characteristically trenchant insight into what ails Pinnacle. He’s quite impressed with L’Auberge du Lac, in Lake Charles, La., less so with the balance of Pinnacle’s portfolio. Given last month’s rebuff of Pinnacle’s Philadelphia casino proposal, it’s been a bad few weeks for CEO Dan Lee and crew. At this rate, they’re overdue for some good news.

The prospectus for Pinnacle’s stock offering hints at several potential uses for the additional capital. In its accompanying press release, Pinnacle emphasizes its Lumiere Place and River City projects, in the St. Louis area, and its Sugarcane Bay one, in Lake Charles, plus its Atlantic City replacement for the Sands. However, the prospectus also notes the acquisition of 54 acres to the south of Baton Rouge and a couple of acres in Central City, Colo. So if Pinnacle can make this offering fly, it will have no shortage of new casinos upon which to spend the capital it raises.