Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos is an American chain of luxury hotels and casinos. It currently operates six casino resorts in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

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, and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. The original location was the

Golden Nugget Las Vegas The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's, Inc. It has 2,419 hotel rooms. History The Golden Nugget was o ...

which opened in 1946. The company runs as a division of Landry's Hospitality within the Fertitta Entertainment portfolio.

History

Original Golden Nugget

The

opened in 1946 in

Downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming Las Vegas, Downtown Gaming Area was the primary gambl ...

. Over time, notable members of the ownership group featured

Jackie Gaughan John Davis Gaughan, Sr. (October 24, 1920 – March 12, 2014) was an American casino owner and operator from the early 1950s in Las Vegas, Nevada. He had an ownership stake in many casinos throughout his career, but he is best known for his owner ...

and

Steve Wynn Stephen Alan Wynn ( Weinberg; born January 27, 1942) is an American real estate developer and art collector. He was known for his involvement in the luxury casino and hotel industry, prior to being forced to step down in 2018. Early in his care ...

.Gaughan changeover leaves workers a little melancholy
''Las Vegas Sun'', March 25, 2004, accessed May 16, 2012. Wynn later became the majority stakeholder in 1973, making him the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. Under Wynn, the casino brand expanded greatly. Once gaining the controlling sharehold, Wynn created ''Golden Nugget Companies Inc.'' The first hotel tower opened in 1977, which lead for the property to get awarded a four diamond rating from

Mobil Travel Guide Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide or Mobil Travel Guide) is a star rating service and online travel guide for hotels, restaurants and spas. In 2011, Forbes Travel Guide published its last set of guidebooks and, on November 15, 20 ...

. In 1980, the company opened the

Golden Nugget Atlantic City Golden Nugget Atlantic City is a hotel, casino, and marina located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Having been opened in 1985 as Trump's Castle, it was renamed Trump Marina in 1997. Landry's, Inc. purchased the casino from Trump Entertainment ...

(not to be confused with the current

) in

. The Las Vegas casino also expanded, with a second and third tower opened in 1984 and 1989, respectively, which included a showroom. The company's interest in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

did not last very long due to frustration with state gaming regulators, and in 1987, the property was sold to Bally's Entertainment, and eventually became Bally's Grand Hotel and Casino. In 1989, the company acquired the Nevada Club casino in

Laughlin, Nevada Laughlin () is an unincorporated community in Clark County, Nevada, United States. Laughlin lies south of Las Vegas, in the far southern tip of Nevada. As a resort town, it is known for its gaming and water recreation. As of the 2020 census, t ...

, and re-branded it as the Golden Nugget Laughlin.

Mirage Resorts (1989-1999)

The company expanded into the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...

in 1989, with the opening of

The Mirage The Mirage is a defunct casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The 65-acre property included a casino and 3,044 rooms. Mirage Resorts, Golden Nugget, Inc., led by developer Steve Wynn, purchased the future lan ...

. Following the completion, the company changed its name to Mirage Resorts. Financing the $630 million project largely with

high-yield bond In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit even ...

s issued by

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for High-yield debt, high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony ...

. The resort's high cost and emphasis on luxury meant that it was considered high risk at the time, though the project ended up being enormously lucrative. The hotel, with its erupting volcano and South Seas theme, ignited a $12 billion building boom on the Strip. Its construction is also considered noteworthy in that Wynn had set a new standard for Vegas resorts, and when it opened The Mirage was the first casino to use security cameras full-time on all table games. Known for its entertainment, the hotel became the exclusive venue for the ''

Siegfried & Roy Siegfried Fischbacher (born Siegfried Tyron Fischbacher; June 13, 1939 – January 13, 2021) and Roy Horn (born Uwe Ludwig Horn; October 3, 1944 – May 8, 2020) were German-American entertainers who performed an animal-based magic show together ...

'' show in 1990, and in 1993 the hotel hosted the

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...

show ''

Nouvelle Expérience ''Nouvelle Expérience'' was Cirque du Soleil's fourth touring circus show, which premiered in 1990. Before the show's conception, Cirque du Soleil attempted to revive one of its previous shows, ''Le Cirque Réinventé''. The attempt was abandon ...

''. Afterwards Wynn decided to invite Cirque to create '' Mystère'' for the soon-to-be-built

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

resort next door. The company would later open other notable projects such as the

Treasure Island Hotel and Casino Treasure Island Hotel and Casino (also known as Treasure Island Las Vegas and "TI") is a pirate-themed hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, U.S. It includes 2,885 rooms and a casino. The resort is owned and oper ...

and the Bellagio.

Acquisition by MGM Resorts

The company was acquired in 2000 by MGM Grand Inc., which then changed its name to MGM Mirage, for $6.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt, after an initial all-cash offer of $17 per share and a final offer of $21 per share. The company was majority owned by Wynn. Although the Golden Nugget was profitable, it was not part of the master expansion plan of the corporation which was focused on consolidating a long stretch of the Strip, so MGM looked to sell the Golden Nugget.

Poster Financial Group

Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling, two young (mid-30s) entrepreneurs, formed Poster Financial Group as a private investment firm. When the company was founded, its initial investors included travelscape.com, an internet travel site. Tennis star

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...

, a Las Vegas native, was also an investor. Poster and Breitling had no casino ownership experience before acquiring the Golden Nugget. They faced some difficulty in obtaining the necessary casino licenses because of their friendship with Rick Rizzolo, a

strip club A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...

owner being investigated by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

and because of Poster's uncle who was denied a

gaming license A gaming control board (GCB), also called by various names including gambling control board, casino control board, gambling board, and gaming commission, is a government agency charged with regulating casino and other types of gaming in a defined ...

because of his alleged association with known illegal

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

s. The

Nevada Gaming Control Board The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB or SGCB), also known as the State Gaming Control Board, is a Nevada state governmental agency involved in the regulation of gaming and law enforcement of Nevada gaming laws throughout the state, along with th ...

recommended that they be licensed for only one year. The board however, issued them four-year licenses, with an option to apply for permanent licenses in January 2005.

Acquisition of the Golden Nugget casinos

In January 2004 the company acquired the

and the Golden Nugget Laughlin for approximately $215 million. When Poster and Breitling assumed control of the Golden Nugget, they began to upgrade the gambling operation, by installing new "cashless" slot machines and increasing the maximum bet at table games to $15,000. Their story became the basis for '' The Casino'', a television series on

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, which premiered on June 14, 2004. The Poster Financial Group's ownership encountered some difficulties. The television series received ratings below expectations and was canceled after one season. In addition, the strategy of attracting higher level casino players created significant volatility in the first year of operations. On November 10, 2004 Barrick Gaming Corporation, which owns casino/hotels in downtown Las Vegas including The Plaza, The Vegas Club,

The Western The Western Hotel and Casino was a hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. The casino was owned and operated by the Barrick Gaming. The Western was the lowest rung of Jackie Gaughan's ''low-roller'' casino empire that included the L ...

, and The Gold Spike, announced that it would acquire the Golden Nugget Laughlin for $31 million plus

working capital Working capital (WC) is a financial metric which represents operating liquidity available to a business, organisation, or other entity, including governmental entities. Along with fixed assets such as plant and equipment, working capital is consi ...

. As part of the purchase agreement, Poster Financial granted Barrick a two-year limited use of the ''Golden Nugget'' brand name, after which Barrick will be required to change the name of the property.

Acquisition by Fertitta Entertainment

On February 4, 2005,

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

based Landry's Restaurants, Inc., now a subsidiary of Fertitta Entertainment, agreed to purchase the Golden Nugget Las Vegas for $140 million in cash plus the assumption of $155 million of debt. On May 31, 2005 the agreement for Barrick Gaming to acquire the Golden Nugget Laughlin expired without a final deal being reached. As a result, Landry's acquired the property as part of its agreement to purchase the Golden Nugget Las Vegas. There was no increase in the purchase price as a result of this change since the money from the sale would have been used to reduce the debt on the Las Vegas property; instead, Landry's assumed that debt as well. On September 27, 2005 Landry's completed the acquisition of Poster Financial for approximately $318 million. In 2022, Golden Nugget announced the acquisition of the ''Wildwood Casino and Hotel'' in

Cripple Creek, Colorado Cripple Creek is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, Teller County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,155 at the 2020 United States census. Cri ...

, with plans to rebrand it under the Golden Nugget brand. The same year, the company broke ground on a casino in

Danville, Illinois Danville is a city in Vermilion County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The populations was 29,204 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Danville micropolitan area. History The area that is now Danville was on ...

in a partnership deal with Wilmot Gaming. The following year, Fertitta Entertainment agreed to buy the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe, with plans to convert it to a Golden Nugget.

Properties

* Golden Nugget Biloxi * Golden Nugget Danville, IL *

Golden Nugget Lake Charles Golden Nugget Lake Charles is a 242-acre waterfront casino resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States, owned and operated by Houston-based Landry's, Inc. The resort features 1038 guest rooms and suites housed in a 22-story tower, an 18-hol ...

Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe Hotel & Casino (formerly Sahara Tahoe, High Sierra, Horizon Lake Tahoe, and Hard Rock Lake Tahoe) is a casino hotel in Stateline, Nevada. It is one of four major casino hotels in Stateline. Horizon Lake Tahoe closed on Ap ...

* Golden Nugget Laughlin * Golden Nugget Cripple Creek, CO (Future)

Other Ventures

Golden Nugget Online

The Golden Nugget first launched its online casino in

. It has since spun-off into its own publicly traded company with plans to expand. Golden Nugget's parent,

Landry's, Inc. Landry's, Inc., is a privately held American multi-brand dining, hospitality, entertainment, and gaming corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas. Landry's, Inc., owns and operates more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos, and entertainment ...

, remains the largest stockholder of ''Golden Nugget Online''.

Golden Nugget Club

The

Toyota Center Toyota Center is an indoor arena located in Houston, Texas, United States. It is named after the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The arena is home to the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and it was once th ...

contains a Golden Nugget Club, a lounge and bar that bring the Golden Nugget theme to the arena.

References

External links

Barrick Gaming Corporation press release on acquisition of Golden Nugget Laughlin

Landry's Restaurants press release on acquisition of Golden Nugget Las Vegas
(Acrobat Reader format) Landry's Inc. Gambling companies of the United States Gambling companies established in 2004 Companies based in Las Vegas Privately held companies based in the Las Vegas Valley {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Nugget Hotel and Casinos