Inside gaming column: Tribal casinos' mettle spurs Primm sale

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni said American Indian gaming's expansion into Southern California cut into the revenues produced by the company's outlying casinos in Jean and Primm, which rely heavily on drive-in traffic along Interstate 15.

That was a reason the company agreed to part with its three Primm casinos, which Herbst Gaming is buying for $400 million. Last week, MGM Mirage said it would close one of its two Jean casinos while master-planning 166 acres into a community that will include housing and commercial development.

Lanni said the land values are soaring. The company had offers to sell the Jean casinos but decided the land could be put to a better use. In the Primm deal, the company is retaining 500 acres on the California side of the border for future development. Much of the land contains the 36-hole Primm Valley Golf Course.

THIS WEEK IS the five-year anniversary of casino owner Don Barden's purchase of Fitzgeralds on Fremont Street.

The anniversary is unique because Barden says he is the only black person to own a Las Vegas casino.

Other blacks, including Sarann Preddy, who tried to revive the Moulin Rouge, have held gaming licenses and ownership stakes in businesses with gambling.

But David G. Schwartz of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas said none has owned a major downtown or Strip casino.

Barden is no stranger to gaming, however. He owns two casinos in Gary, Ind., one in Mississippi and another in Colorado. Barden also recently was awarded a license to build a $455 million casino in Pittsburgh.

THERE HASN'T BEEN much good fortune associated with the Lady Luck since it closed last year. But Las Vegas officials are hopeful owners of Downtown Resorts, the company that says it will revive the Third Street property, will make good on their pledge.

At a progress report on downtown development last week, Las Vegas Director of Business Services Scott Adams said Downtown Resorts took a risk by closing the casino in advance of the renovation instead of nursing it for the cash flow.

"The Lady Luck investors put their money where their mouth is," he said. "It takes a lot of brass to close a casino."

The casino closed Feb. 12, 2006, and at the time Downtown Resorts, which was operating under a different name, said renovation would be complete within a year. In November Andrew Donner of Downtown Resorts said the project was delayed but that there would be plans for it, "in the next 30 days."

The plans still haven't surfaced publicly.

The Inside Gaming column is compiled by Review-Journal gaming and tourism writers Howard Stutz, Benjamin Spillman and Arnold Knightly. Send your tips about the gaming and tourism industry to insidegaming@reviewjournal.com.

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