Diamond Nugget

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Golden Nugget Las Vegas

History

The Golden Nugget in 1983

The Golden Nugget was originally built in 1946, making it one of the oldest casinos in the city. Steve Wynn bought a stake in the Nugget, which he increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. In 1977 he opened the first hotel tower and the resort earned its first four diamond rating from Mobil Travel Guide. It was the foundation for Wynn's rise to prominence in the casino industry. The second hotel tower opened in 1984 along with the showroom, and the third tower was opened in 1989. On 31 May 2000, the Golden Nugget (and all of Steve Wynn's other properties) was sold to Kirk Kerkorian; the consolidated corporation was known as MGM Mirage and has been the largest casino corporation in Las Vegas since that date.

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 by acquiring Mandalay Resort Group, building City Center, and beginning construction in Macau. Gaming revenue on Fremont Street had peaked in fiscal year 1993. The Golden Nugget was sold for $215 million to Poster Financial Group, owned by Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling in 2004. When Poster Financial assumed control of the Golden Nugget, they began to upgrade the gambling operation by installing new cashless slot machines and by increasing the maximum bet available at table games to $15,000. Their story became the basis for The Casino, a television series on Fox that premiered on June 14, 2004.

On February 4, 2005, Houston, Texas-based Landry's Restaurants, Inc. announced its intent to purchase the property and the Golden Nugget Laughlin. The sale closed on September 27, 2005.

The Hand of Faith

After the purchase, the Golden Nugget embarked on a 14-month, $100 million renovation project, which was completed in November 2006. In December 2007, the Golden Nugget completed its $70 million Phase II project, which expanded the resort west onto First Street and introduced additional entertainment, event and dining venues. Phase III was the opening of a 500 room, $150 million dollar hotel tower on 20 November 2009 along with the Chart House restaurant.

Attractions

The world's largest gold nugget on display, the Hand of Faith, is displayed in the Golden Nugget lobby. Weighing 875 troy ounces or 27.21 kilograms and 46 centimeters in length, the Hand of Faith was found near the Golden Triangle in Australia, and put on display at the casino in 1981 amid a number of other gold nuggets.

The casino's large hotel sign at its entrance off Fremont and Casino Center was removed in 1984 when the casino underwent renovations. The old sign presently sits at the YESCO signage yard.

The expanded resort is built around two aquariums. The largest faces the swimming pool, and incorporates a slide through the tank containing full grown sharks. The smaller aquarium is in the lobby of the Rush Tower. A total of five specialty restaurants were added: Vic and Anthony's steakhouse, The Grotto Italian food, Lillie's Asian Cuisine, Red Sushi, and the Chart House Seafood Restaurant. The Chart House has a view of one of the aquariums.

In popular culture

Golden Nugget during the day in 2007.

In the James bond film Diamonds Are Forever, the casino can be continually seen in the police chase scene.

The Casino, a Fox television series is based on the story of the Golden Nugget's acquisition by Poster Financial Group.

The Golden Nugget Casino serves as the main theme to two Nintendo games: Golden Nugget Casino DS for the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance.

The Golden Nugget features prominently as a background in the Balrog stage in the Street Fighter II video game series.

The cowboy that used to stand atop the gift-shop sign has been featured in the movie Rock-A-Doodle and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" video.

In the episode of the animated television series The Flintstones titled "The Rock Vegas Caper", the hotel known as The Golden Cactus is a reference to The Golden Nugget.

The Golden Nugget features prominently in the poker mockumentary The Grand.

In the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, The Golden Nugget is the only casino that is named by its original name. For example, The Luxor is called "The Camel's Toe."

In the movie Next, Nicolas Cage is briefly seen entering the Golden Nugget through the Fremont Street entrance.

The Casino can be seen in the beginning of the film Smokin' Aces in which the antagonist cuts the ribbons for the Casino's grand opening.

Golden Nugget and Poster Financial Group

Tom Breitling and Tim Poster were the highest profile successful entrepreneurs who profited in the downtown market during the last crisis. As recounted in Tom Breitling's book, Double or Nothing, the partners agreed to buy the Golden Nugget and had an agreement to sell the property after operating it for only one year. The partners made $113 million in profit called the highest rate of return in such a short time in the gaming industry.. Amazingly enough the partners had a negative income for the year and the fortune was made while total revenue for downtown was still basically flat.

Timeline of Poster & Breitling (Poster Financial Group) Ownership of Golden Nugget

Date

Description

Year 2000

Tom Breitling and Tim Poster sell their web based business for over $100 million

Early 2003

Tom Breitling and Tim Poster begin shopping for a quality affordable casino for their vision of Vintage Vegas

Jun 2003

MGM-Mirage announced an agreement to sell the Golden Nugget (Las Vegas & Laughlin) to Poster Financial Group for $215m

Jan 2004

Binion's Horseshoe across the street from Golden Nugget closed because of IRS liens

Jan 2004

Poster & Breitling take possession of the Golden Nugget. Introduce policy high-limit policy on table games

Jun 2004

Fox Reality Show The Casino about Tim and Tom debuts but quickly cancelled because of dismal ratings

Jun 2004

Tim and Tom are two of the 50 Hottest Bachelors in People Magazine

Sep 2004

High-limit policy policy backfires, as lucky gambler known as Mr. Royalty wins $8.5 million on a 2 week hot streak

Dec 2004

Annual report filed with SEC shows net loss of $9.196m for Poster Financial Group for the year 2004

Dec 2004

Landry's Restaurant successfully executed a refinancing of $850m

Feb 2005

Agreement of sale entered with Landry's Restaurant for Golden Nugget

Sep 2005

Landry's Restaurant takes possession of the Golden Nugget.

Golden Nugget and the Recession

Golden Nugget Casino Division

Like most of the casinos in Las Vegas, revenue at the Golden Nugget has dropped in the recession. The chart below shows the quarterly revenue at the Golden Nugget since it was owned by MGM Mirage, through its acquistion by Poster financial group, and its purchase and renovation by Landrys Restaurants. Frank Martin noted after the last quarterly report that the revenue from the previous year at the Golden Nugget was lower than the year 2004 when it was owned by Poster Financial Group.

References

^ "Golden Nugget Las Vegas Earns AAA Four Diamond Award for 32nd Consecutive Year". http://www.vegasnews.com/2548/golden-nugget-las-vegas-earns-aaa-four-diamond-award-for-32nd-consecutive-year.html. 

^ "Steve Wynn's Vegas Vision Turned Into Reality". http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=3650310&page=1. 

^ Skolnik, Sam (2009-02-15). "Golden Nugget runs against economic winds". Las Vegas Sun. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/18/golden-nugget-runs-against-economic-winds/. Retrieved 2009-03-13. 

^ Tom Breitling. "Double or Nothing Video". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARmKr0TXnXs. Retrieved Dec 11 2008. 

^ Tom Breitling. "Double or Nothing". http://www.tombreitling.com/the-book/. Retrieved Dec 11 2008. 

^ Jeff Simpson (2004-01-12). "DOWNTOWN GAMING: Closure sends dark message". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jan-12-Mon-2004/business/22976222.html. 

^ jdb2414. "High Limits Video". Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh0pZ_wGr2A. Retrieved Dec 12, 2008. 

^ "Annual Report for Year 2004, page F5". http://www.secinfo.com/d11MXs.ze4k.htm#1stPage. Retrieved Dec 11 2008. 

^ "Landry's Press Release". Dec 16 2004. http://www.landrysrestaurants.com/pdf/pressreleases/press_20041216.pdf. 

^ "Golden Nugget owner sees revenue fall in LV, Laughlin". http://www.lvrj.com/business/51470962.html. 

Additional properties

Golden Nugget Laughlin

External links

Golden Nugget website

Gordie Brown website

v  d  e

Downtown Las Vegas

Casinos

Main Street Station Plaza California Las Vegas Club Mermaids Golden Gate La Bayou Binion's Golden Nugget Fremont Four Queens Lady Luck Fitzgeralds Gold Spike El Cortez The Western

Business

World Market Center Symphony Park Downtown gaming

Museums

Neon Museum Lied Discovery Children's Museum Las Vegas Natural History Museum

Attractions

Downtown Arts District Fremont East Fremont Street Fremont Street Experience Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse Neonopolis Mormon Fort

Medical facilities

Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health

Future Projects

Smith Center for the Performing Arts World Jewelry Center Grand Central Hotel Star Trek: The Experience

See also: North Las Vegas

Coordinates: 361015 1150841 / 36.17083N 115.14472W / 36.17083; -115.14472

Categories: Skyscraper hotels in the Las Vegas metropolitan area | Casinos in Las Vegas | 1946 establishments | Buildings and structures in Las Vegas, Nevada
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