Who owns which Las Vegas casinos

Last Update: September 2021

If you thought most casinos in Vegas were independently owned, think again.  All the casinos together are owned by just a handful of companies.  In fact, just two companies together own the overwhelming majority of strip properties.  So, if you have a bad experience at one casino and plan to take your business next door, there's a good chance the new casino you walk into will have the same owner!

Peak consolidation on the Strip was in 2005, when two companies owned 19 of the 29 Strip properties.  (MGM: Aria, Bellagio, Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Mirage, Monte Carlo, NY NY.  Caesars:  Bally's, Caesars Place, Cromwell, Flamingo, Harrah's, Linq/O'Sheas, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Rio, Treasure Island).

Real estate vs. casino ownership

The list above is who operates the casino business, not who owns the real estate (land+buildings), which is not always the same company.  For example, at your local Mel's Diner, Mel owns the restaurant business, but probably rents the property from a landlord.  With casinos, usually the same company owns both the business and the real estate, but increasingly there are separate owners for the two pieces.

Some Vegas casinos started selling their real estate assets in 2017, in order to free up cash to weather recessions.  (The casino then rents the property from the new landlord.)  In light of COVID-19, that action seems downright prescient.

First, understand that MGM Resorts owns a bunch of casinos (not just the MGM Grand), and Caesars Entertainment also owns a bunch of casinos (not just Caesars Palace).  In 2017 MGM Resorts formed MGM Growth Properties to buy MGM-R's real estate, and Caesars Entertainment formed VICI to buy CE's real estate.  In a twist, in 2021 VICI is acquiring MGM Growth Properties, so an offshoot of Caesars Entertainment is gonna own the real estate for MGM Resorts casinos.  That means that VICI will own the real estate assets of most casinos on the strip.

Here's a list of casinos where the real estate owner and casino business owner are different, followed by a list of the initial split of the casino and real estate.  In all of those cases when the real estate was sold, the casino owner remained the same, except that Sands sold the Venetian/Palazzo real estate to one company and the casino business to another.

Ownership timeline

• Blackstone splits up the Cosmopolitan, selling the casino business for $1.6 billion to MGM Resorts, and the real estate for $5.65 billion to Blackstone REIT, Cherng Family Trust, and Stonepeak Partners.  This is the first new strip casino for MGM since it opened Aria in 2009. (News3LV)
• VICI, which Caesars Entertainment created to buy the real estate of its casinos, is acquiring MGM Growth Properties, which MGM Resorts created to buy its own casino real estate, in a $17.2 billion deal.  That means that an offshoot of Caesars Entertainment, a competitor of MGM Resorts, is gonna own the real estate for MGM Resorts casinos.  It also means that VICI is gonna own most of the real estate on the Vegas Strip. (CNBC, Aug. 2021)
• MGM Resorts sells Aria and Vdara to Blackstone.  CityCenter (which comprises the Aria casino, various hotels, and retail) was originally owned 50/50 by MGM Resorts and Infinity World.  In July 2021, MGM shuffled things around, buying out Infinity World (so MGM owned the real estate 100%), then immediately selling Aria and Vdara to Blackstone. (Vital Vegas, July 2021)
• MGM Resorts sells two acres at CityCenter (next to Cosmopolitan) to developers for $80M.  The developers plan to build multilevel retail/dining, but no hotel or casino.  This was the original location of the ill-fated Harmon hotel. (News3LV, VitalVegas, April 2021)
• Station Casinos sells the Palms to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, for $650 million.  That's more than I make in a year!  (News3LV, May 2021)
  
• Gaming & Leisure sells the Tropicana buildings to Bally's Corp., which, confusingly, has no relation to the Bally's Casino a few doors down, which is owned by Caesars.  More confusing, there are now three different owners of a piece of the Tropicana:  Bally's owns the buildings, Gaming & Leisure owns the land, and Penn National operates the casino business. (Travel Weekly, April 2021)
• Las Vegas Sands announces 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), with the sale to take place in Q4 2021.  Since this ends Las Vegas Sands' business in Vegas, it plans to change its name from "Las Vegas Sands" to just "Sands".  (LV Sun, Mar. 2021)
• Circa opens, started by Derek & Greg Stevens, who also own/operate The D and Golden Gate. (Oct. 2020)
• 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. (Casino.org, Oct. 2020)
• 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. (NNBW, Yogonet) (July 2020) 
• Caesars sells the real estate of the Rio to Dreamscape, but continues to operate the casino itself. (Press release, Dec. 2019)
  
• Circus Circus and Slots-a-Fun sold to Phil Ruffin by MGM Resorts. (CDC) (Dec. 2019)
• Hooters sold to OYO, to rebrand as OYO. (LV Sun) (Aug. 2019)
• Lucky Dragon casino/hotel real estate sold to Don Ahern. (April 2019)
• SLS (now Sahara) is sold to Meruelo Group from Stockbridge. (PR) (April 2018)
  
• Hard Rock Casino is sold to Virgin, to become Virgin Las Vegas in late 2020.  (Fortune) (Mar. 2018)
• Stratosphere's owner, American Casino & Entertainment, is bought out by Golden Entertainment, making Golden the new owner of the Strat.  (iGB) (Mar. 2018)
• Caesars Entertainment sells the real estate of Harrah's Las Vegas to Vici (for $1.1B), and becomes Vici's tenant (for $87M/year). (Dec. 2017)
• 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. (Oct. 2017)
• Cannery and Eastside Cannery are sold to Boyd Gaming by Cannery Casino Resorts.  (PR) (Dec. 2016)
  
• The Palms is sold to Station Casinos. (PR) (Oct. 2016)
• Golden Gate:  Derek Stevens acquires remaining 35%. (LVRJ) (Nov. 2015)
• Las Vegas Club sold to Derek Stevens. (LVRJ) (Aug. 2015)
• LVH (formerly LV Hilton, now Westgate) is sold to Westgate. (RGJ) (July 2014)
  
• Cosmopolitan sold to Blackstone by Deutsche Bank.  (Forbes) (May 2014)
• Jackie Gaughan: Legendary downtown casino owner dies, at age 93.  (LVA) (March 2014)
• Treasure Island sold to Phil Ruffin by MGM Resorts.  (LV Sun) (March 2009)
• Binion's sold to TLC.  (Binion's) (March 2008)
• Golden Gate:  Derek Stevens acquires 50% stake.  (LVRJ) (March 2008)
• Gold Spike is sold to the Siegel Group by Gregg Covin.  (Siegel) (Feb. 2008)
  
• Gold Spike is sold to Gregg Covin by Tamares. (LVRJ) (July 2007)
  
• Sahara is sold to SBE and Stockbridge by Gordon Gaming.  (NBC) (March 2007)
• South Coast (now South Point) sold to Michael Gaughan by Boyd.  (LVRJ) (July 2006)
  
• Gold Spike, Las Vegas Club, The Plaza, and the Western are sold to Tamares by Barrick Gaming.  (LV Sun) (June 2005)
• 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. (March 2004)
• 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. (Feb. 2004)
• TLC acquires Four Queens.  (LV Sun) (May 2003)

My related lists

• Complete list of Vegas casinos
• Vegas casino timeline -- when each casino started/stopped

Other sites

• The list at Nick Christenson's LV Revealed is pretty outdated (and that's despite the recent "Last update" date; in reality, lots of stuff changed before that date but those changes aren't listed on the site).  I'm hoping he might overhaul the page someday, same as I did with mine.  Also, his page was the inspiration for my own list, so I have to give him some credit here.
• Who Owns Vegas doesn't seem to have been updated since 2011.