Donald Trump has never applied for a full casino license in Nevada. However, back in February of 2004, he was licensed as a 10% shareholder of the Riviera, having purchased 358,000 shares in the parent company, Riviera Holdings Inc., over the 2002–03 period. At the time, Trump explained that he did this purely to test the licensing waters and to shorten the time it would take for any future investigation. Having successfully won approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, he promptly sold his stake in the Riviera, netting a profit of $900,000 on his original $2.7 million investment.
Even though he was licensed as a 10% shareholder, Gaming Control has made it clear that this doesn’t guarantee Trump future licensure as the owner and operator of a Las Vegas casino. In light of his recent bankruptcy, he would have to answer a lot of probing questions before they’d consider granting him a full license.
So far Trump hasn’t expressed any formal intention of opening a casino in Las Vegas. Instead, he’s about to break ground on the first of what might be two Trump Towers on the large property now occupied in part by the New Frontier. These luxury condominiums are now selling, (out of the most expensive temporary sales office ever opened in Las Vegas, $3 million), for $1,000 per-square-foot, the most expensive real estate in town. In a nutshell, Trump probably doesn’t need a casino at Trump Towers to make a boatload of money in Las Vegas.
