Frank Joseph Fertitta Jr. (October 30, 1938 – August 21, 2009) was an American entrepreneur. He was the founder of

Station Casinos Station Casinos, LLC is an American hotel and casino company based in Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin South, Nevada, and founded by Frank Fertitta Jr. Station Casinos, along with Affinity Gaming, Boyd Gaming and Golden Entertainment, dominate the ...

, a gaming company based in

Summerlin South Summerlin South, also seen on maps as South Summerlin, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley and adjacent to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It is so ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. The company started out as a

locals casino A locals casino is a casino designed primarily to attract residents of the area in which it was built rather than tourists or vacationers. The term is most commonly associated with casinos in Nevada, United States, to distinguish them from casinos ...

operator on July 1, 1976, opening the Bingo Palace, which was later renamed

Palace Station Palace Station is a hotel and casino located in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Station Casinos and has 576 rooms. Palace Station has a large Asian customer base mainly because of its location near Chinatown. History In 1976, Fran ...

Background

Fertitta was born on October 30, 1938, in

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

, Texas, to Frank Joseph Fertitta and Josephine Grilliette. He graduated from

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

's Kirwin High School in 1956 and married Victoria Broussard in 1958. Fertitta arrived in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, Nevada from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

with his wife Victoria in 1960. Frank began his career in gaming as a

bellman Bellman may refer to: * Town crier, an officer of the court who makes public pronouncements * Bellhop, a hotel porter * Bellman (surname) * Bellman (diving), a standby diver and diver's attendant * Bellman hangar, a prefabricated, portable aircraf ...

at the

Tropicana Tropicana may refer to: Companies *Tropicana Entertainment, a former casino company that owned several Tropicana-branded casinos *Tropicana Products, a Chicago-based food company known for orange juice Hotels and nightclubs *Tropicana Casino & Re ...

while learning to become a dealer. Over the next 16 years until 1976, he worked as a dealer, pit boss, baccarat manager and general manager at properties including the Stardust; Tropicana, Circus Circus,

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

and the Fremont in downtown Las Vegas. Fertitta felt there was a gap in the market for casinos that locals could visit and where casino workers could come after work and as a result, opened his first local casino, named "The Casino" in 1976. This square gambling hall was attached to the Mini-Price Motor Inn and was a short drive from

Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas Boulevard is a major road in Clark County, Nevada, United States, best known for the Las Vegas Strip portion of the road and its casinos. Formerly carrying U.S. Route 91 (US 91), which had been the main highway between Los Angel ...

. "It was pretty much desert," son

Lorenzo Fertitta Lorenzo Joseph Fertitta (born January 3, 1969) is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is chairman of Fertitta Capital, director of Red Rock Resorts Inc, and former CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Early life and education L ...

told the ''

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily Subscription business model, subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays ...

'' in 2005. "People thought he was crazy." However, today

is one of the biggest local casino operators in Las Vegas. Fertitta Jr. died on August 21, 2009 of complications from heart surgery at the

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...

Beverly Grove Beverly Grove is a neighborhood within the Fairfax District, Los Angeles, Beverly–Fairfax neighborhood in the Mid-City West, Los Angeles, Mid-City West area of Los Angeles, California. Geography City of Los Angeles The term "Beverly Grove" was ...

, Los Angeles, California at the age of 70. He was interred at the Palm Desert Memorial in Las Vegas, Nevada.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fertitta, Frank Jr. 1938 births 2009 deaths American billionaires American casino industry businesspeople American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies American people of Italian descent People from Beaumont, Texas People from Summerlin, Nevada