The Circus Circus Casino and an adjoining 102 acres is up on the market, according to recent reports. Owner Phil Ruffin is asking $5 billion and lately stated that the funds from a sale might then be used to accumulate one other on line casino resort.
“Let’s just say there is interest,” the 89-year-old informed Forbes.
The on line casino opened in 1968 and was the imaginative and prescient of Jay Sarno, who was additionally one of many planners behind Caesars Palace. The property stood out for its distinctive design, festive ambiance, and for being an affordable keep for households with playing. As the identify implies, that included circus acts with a preferred trapeze present together with an amusement park as a part of the enjoyable.
In addition to the on line casino of just about 124,000 sq. toes, the resort has 3,767 rooms and the property additionally contains the adjoining Slots-A-Fun Casino, which was opened in 1971. Later that 12 months, Circus Circus was featured within the James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever.
The property additionally contains the 37-acre Las Vegas Festival Grounds, which is residence to When We Were Young and different music festivals all year long.
Ruffin, who additionally owns Treasure Island and half of the Trump Hotel, bought the property in 2019 from MGM Resorts for $825 million. Circus Circus might be a goal for builders because the north finish of the Strip has seen some main development lately. That has included the opening of the Fontainebleau and Resorts World casinos lately in addition to the enlargement of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“At $50 million an acre, you’d be hard-pressed to build anything besides a luxury offering,” business analyst Josh Swissman with GMA Consulting informed the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “So whatever the design is, it’s got to be upper end in terms of the price scale. And that sometimes makes it hard to have a family-oriented facility. There are a lot of people who think that the days for entities like that have come and gone.”
Beyond his life as a on line casino proprietor, Ruffin can also be a little bit of a poker participant and even appeared on the seventh season of High Stakes Poker. The now 89-year-old received almost $400,000 throughout his time on the present.
The Las Vegas Strip is continually altering. Circus Circus could also be dealing with the wrecking ball, which follows the latest implosion of the Tropicana Casino on the opposite finish of the Strip.
The final casinos to return down had been in 2007 when each the Stardust and the Frontier got here down. The website of the Stardust would finally turn out to be Resorts World, and the location of the Frontier stays undeveloped with Wynn Resorts.
