Well, the Orleans is a "Coast" casino, but Coast Casinos doesn't own it; indeed, the company no longer exists. It was bought by Boyd Gaming in early 2004 for $1.3 billion. After the deal closed in July 2004, Boyd combined Coast's Barbary Coast, Gold Coast, Suncoast, and Orleans with its own Stardust, Fremont, California, Main Street Station, Sam's Town, Jokers Wild, and Eldorado in Henderson to create the largest locals-casino company in Nevada. Subsequently, Boyd opened the South Coast (now South Point), but then sold it back to Michael Gaughan, a principal in Coast Casinos; Boyd also closed the Stardust and traded the Barbary Coast to Harrah's, in exchange for the Westward Ho land; the Barbary Coast completed the last piece of the east-Strip puzzle for Harrah's, while Boyd intends to use the Westward Ho property to augment Echelon Place, the $4 billion 63-acre 5,300-room metaresort that's soon to go up on the Stardust parcel.
So, without the Stardust, South Coast, and Barbary Coast, Boyd now owns 9 casinos in Las Vegas Valley. Three other companies own a combined 28 more. Thus, the four biggest casino companies in Las Vegas own a total of 37 major hotel-casinos.
MGM Mirage claims: Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, MGM Grand, Bellagio, Mirage, TI, Circus Circus, and Slots A Fun.
Harrah's owns: Harrah's, Imperial Palace, Flamingo, O'Sheas, Barbary Coast, Bally's, Paris, Caesars Palace, and the Rio, along with a bunch of land east of the Strip, including the little shopping center with Battista's Hole in the Wall restaurant and the old Bourbon Street property.
Station Casino boasts: Palace Station, Boulder Station, Texas Station, Sunset Station, Santa Fe Station, Green Valley Ranch, Red Rock Resort, Fiesta Rancho, Fiesta Henderson, and Wild Wild West.
The Tamares Group owns: Plaza, Vegas Club, Gold Spike, and Western.
American Real Estate Partners, a Carl Icahn company, owns: Arizona Charlie's Decatur, Arizona Charlie's Boulder, and the Stratosphere.
Bill Wortman and various partners own: the Cannery and Nevada Palace, and manage the Rampart (the hotel is owned by Marriott).
MTR Gaming owns: Binion's and the Speedway.
Columbia Sussex owns: Tropicana and Westin Casuarina (with Westin)
The rest of the major casinos in Las Vegas are one one-property owners:
Aladdin: Planet Hollywood Casino Royale: Margaret Elardi El Cortez: Jackie Gaughan Fitzgeralds: Don Barden Four Queens: Terry Caudill Golden Gate: Mark Brandenburg Golden Nugget: Landry's Restaurants Hard Rock: Peter Morton (pending sale to Morgans) Hooters: Hooters Las Vegas Hilton: Colony Capital New Frontier: Phil Ruffin Palms: George Maloof Riviera: Riviera Holdings Sahara: Estate of Bill Bennett Silverton: Edward Roski Jr. South Point: Michael Gaughan Terrible's: Herbst Gaming Tuscany: Tuscany LLC Venetian: Las Vegas Sands Corp. Wynn Las Vegas: Wynn Resorts Ltd.
As you can probably see, all the major casinos are owned by major players. There is, essentially, no longer any such thing as a Mom-and-Pop casino among the 70 or so biggest joints in town. Forget about discovering the next big IPO or hidden gem; you're about half a lifetime too late for that.
That said, there are plenty of small slot joints and neighborhood taverns with restricted licenses that might be ripe for buying up. However, as you rightly point out, it's way too daunting a task to track down the owners of all of those! If you're interested in moving to Vegas and making your fortune in the casino business, you'll just have to come around and do your legwork, analysis, and dealmaking.
