As Canadians we like to travel to the gambling centre of the earth – Las Vegas, NV. We actually lived for several years in Las Vegas, and believe us, outside of the strip and downtown, it’s not pretty at all. Like really bad and getting worse (crime, homelessness, drugs, etc.). But, we aren’t here to talk about what a cess pool Las Vegas is, instead, who on earth owns all these casinos? Well it turns out they are owned by a small group of corporations we’ve listed below. This list is current as of March 2021. With casinos changing hands so often, we’ll do our best to keep this up to date.
Why Knowing Benefits YOU
Knowing who owns which group of casinos plays a big part in the companies players club. If you have an MGM casino players card, it will work at any of their properties, and you’ll be accumulating player points as a whole at all their properties. We personally favoured the MGM Resorts properties, specifically NYNY, MGM Grand, and Aria were our main stomping grounds. Racking up points you’ll get offers from that casino brand.
MGM Resorts
Our very first trip to Las Vegas was in 1995 and we stayed at the Luxor. Ever since, we’ve been loyal to the MGM brand. We have stayed at every single one of these properties over the years. Our favourties are NYNY (it is smaller, easier to navigate and a great food court), the MGM (just a classic), and Aria (sports book is terrific).
- Aria
- Bellagio
- Mandalay Bay
- Luxor
- NYNY
- MGM Grand
- The Mirage
- Park MGM
Caesars Entertainment
Caesars Entertainment owns the majority of the casinos although a few of these are smaller like O’Sheas and the Cromwell. The Rio is actually one of our favourites as it hosts the World Series of Poker, and we actually lived right across the street at a condo for one year, with a full view of the Rio out our bedroom window. Nothing feels like living in Vegas more than having a view of a big bright casino.
- Bally’s
- Caesars Palace
- The Cromwell
- Flamingo
- Harrah’s
- Linq
- O’Sheas
- Paris
- Planet Hollywood
- Rio
Station Casinos
Station Casinos are typically considered “locals casinos”. None of these are on the Las Vegas strip, with the Palms being the closest (over by the Rio). Red Rock to the far west of Las Vegas is pretty nice, and Green Valley Ranch over in Henderson is pretty nice and big itself. Those aside, the other casinos are a step down from the nice strip casinos. To put it in perspective, we played $3 blackjack at Boulder Station before, and have never seen so many down and out people. Definitely more of a “cash your pay check on Friday and blow it at the casino” crowd.
- Palms
- Red Rock
- Boulder Station
- Palace Station
- Santa Fe Station
- Sunset Station
- Texas Station
- Fiesta
- Green Valley Ranch
Boyd Gaming
Boyd Gaming owns a combination of downtown Fremont Street casinos, and other misc casinos around town. Nothing really great about any of these properties, some of them are in pretty sketchy areas (The Cannery, looking at you).
- California
- Fremont
- Main Street Station
- Aliante
- The Cannery
- Gold Coast
- The Orleans
- Sam’s Town
- Suncoast
- Eldorado
- Jokers Wild
Individually Owned
All the casinos below are owned by individual owners or corporations. A few owners own a couple casinos, not worth splitting into their own category. This list is a mixed bag of super nice and super dumpy. Nicest on this list are the Wynn/Encore and the Venetian/Palazzo.
- Circus Circus – Phil Ruffin
- Casino Royale – M. Elardi
- Cosmopolitan – Blackstone
- Encore – Steve Wynn
- Wynn – Steve Wynn
- Palazzo – Apollo
- Venetian – Apollo
- Sahara – Meruelo Group
- Strat – Golden Entertainment
- Tropicana – Penn National
- The D – Derek & Greg Stevens
- Golden Gate – Derek & Greg Stevens
- Circa Resort – Derek & Greg Stevens
- Binions – TLC Enterprises
- Four Queens – TLC Enterprises
- El Cortez – Kenny Epstein
- Golden Nugget – Landry’s
- Plaza – Tameres
- Downtown Grand – CIM Group
Time of Ownership and Ownership Changes
- Las Vegas Sands sells the Venetian and Palazzo casinos, along with the Sands Expo Center, to Apollo Management (casino operator, for $4B) and Vici (property owner, for $2.25B). Since this ends Las Vegas Sands’ business in Vegas, it changed its name to just “Sands”.
- Caesars sells its Ballys brand to another casino group (Twin River Holdings). That allows Twin Rivers to use the Ballys name for its family of casinos.
- Caesars Entertainment and Eldorado merge. The two casino groups combine their respective companies in a $17 billion merger, creating the world’s largest gambling group, with 60 casinos in 16 states.
- Circus Circus and Slots-a-Fun sold to Phil Ruffin by MGM Resorts.
- Hooters sold to OYO, to rebrand as OYO.
- SLS (now Sahara) is sold to Meruelo Group from Stockbridge.
- Hard Rock Casino is sold to Virgin, to become Virgin Las Vegas in late 2020.
- Stratosphere‘s owner, American Casino & Entertainment, is bought out by Golden Entertainment, making Golden the new owner of the Strat.
- Caesars Entertainment sells the real estate of Harrah’s Las Vegas to Vici (for $1.1B), and becomes Vici’s tenant (for $87M/year).
- Caesars Entertainment sells the real estate of Caesars Palace. In the first example of strip casinos splitting the ownership of its casino business from the property itself, Caesars sells the real estate of its casino to Vici, and becomes Vici’s tenant. Note, reporting on this was ambiguous and inconsistent; e.g., Las Vegas Sun said that Caesars sold “almost all” of its properties to Vici, but it was really just only Caesars Palace. (Vici’s website shows the only Vegas properties it owns as Caesars, and Harrah’s, which they bought in Dec. 2017.) Vici’s press release was similarly unhelpful, being 95% marketing B.S. and short on details.
- Cannery and Eastside Cannery are sold to Boyd Gaming by Cannery Casino Resorts.
- The Palms is sold to Station Casinos.
- Golden Gate: Derek Stevens acquires remaining 35%.
- Las Vegas Club sold to Derek Stevens.
- LVH (formerly LV Hilton, now Westgate) is sold to Westgate.
- Cosmopolitan sold to Blackstone by Deutsche Bank.
- Jackie Gaughan: Legendary downtown casino owner dies, at age 93.
- Treasure Island sold to Phil Ruffin by MGM Resorts.
- Binion’s sold to TLC.
- Golden Gate: Derek Stevens acquires 50% stake.
- Gold Spike is sold to the Siegel Group by Gregg Covin.
- Gold Spike is sold to Gregg Covin by Tamares.
- Sahara is sold to SBE and Stockbridge by Gordon Gaming.
- South Coast (now South Point) sold to Michael Gaughan by Boyd.
- Gold Spike, Las Vegas Club, The Plaza, and the Western are sold to Tamares by Barrick Gaming.
- Gold Spike, Las Vegas Club, The Plaza, and the Western are sold by Jackie Gaughan to Barrick Gaming for $82 million, along with 35 acres of land and two downtown motels. Gaughan retains control of the El Cortez.
- Boyd Gaming and Coast Casinos merged in a deal reportedly worth $1.3 billion. Coast had Barbary Coast, Gold Coast, Orleans, and Suncoast. Boyd had Stardust, Fremont, California, Main St. Station, Sam’s Town, Joker’s Wild, the Eldorado in Henderson, half of the Borgata in Atlantic City, and casinos in the Midwest and South. (
- TLC acquires Four Queens.
You can visit our full list of recommended online casinos here.
Also be sure to check out some of our gambling Tools & Resources for Canadians.