Long-time casino owner Paul Ruffin is thinking about selling Circus Circus, the storied casino property at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip.
Ruffin is open to selling the casino property he’s owned since 2019, according to Forbes. Back then, he paid MGM Resorts $825 million for the budget-friendly casino – and its vast acreage.
“Let’s just say there is interest. It’s worth about $5 billion,” Ruffin told Forbes.
Circus Circus opened in 1968 and has changed hands several times already. It became the cornerstone of Vegas’ somewhat feeble attempt at rebranding itself as a family-friendly destination. But it has stayed solvent by catering to the low end of the market, just as its competitors chose to go upscale. It even features the only RV park on the Strip.
Circus Circus and the next Vegas land grab
Casinos in Las Vegas change ownership almost as often as the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens changes décor. There are several catalysts for Vegas casino sales. But one of the primary drivers is land valuation.
No one knows that better than Ruffin, who navigates Sin City’s opportunities like a blackjack card counter.
“Why do you think I bought Circus Circus? For the 102 acres. That’s the land play,” Ruffin told Forbes. “Remember what I did at the Frontier, how the value of the land went crazy – here its going crazier. It’s the best piece of land on the West Coast.”
Ruffin famously bought the New Frontier Hotel and Casino in 1998 for $165 million, only to sell it nine years later for $1.2 billion. Before he sold off the New Frontier, however, Ruffin contributed some of its land to build the Trump International Tower. Ruffin still owns a 50% stake in the property. In fact, Ruffin appeared on Trump’s show "The Apprentice" when they sealed the deal. Ruffin and the U.S. President-elect remain good friends to this day.
Sports may give Circus Circus a boost
While land valuations in Vegas are currently running hot, as Ruffin notes, the reason may have more to do with sports than gambling.
Professional sports franchises used to give Vegas a wide berth due to concerns about gambling – and specifically – sports betting. Leagues, vigilantly protecting the integrity of their businesses, worried about the perception of teams in a gambling-centric city. There were also doubts that a city built on tourism would generate the required draw for a major league team. But that all changed after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the country-wide ban on sports betting in 2018 and the success of the NHL’s 2017 expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights.
With the explosion of legal sports betting across the country, league concern about Vegas gambling became almost quaint. And given the success of the Golden Knights, every other major league wanted in.
So far, Vegas has attracted the WNBA and the NFL, with MLB’s Athletics planning to join the fray in 2028. Currently, the MLB team is planning to build a stadium on the site of the former Tropicana. It’s only a matter of time before the NBA expands in Vegas.
Major league teams need stadiums, parking, and training facilities. All those things require a lot of land. And as Ruffin well knows, that’s one thing Circus Circus has in spades.
