Who owns which Las Vegas casinos

Last Update: March 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 probably owns the restaurant business, but 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.

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.

Here's a list of casinos where the real estate owner and casino business owner are different.  In all of these cases except the Venetian/Palazzo, when the real estate was sold, the casino owner remained the same.

Ownership timeline

• 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".  (LV Sun, Mar. 2021)
• 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)
• 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.