Locally, Fulton is probably most remembered for a dustup that involved the International Gaming Institute ... but more of than in a minute.
Fulton was born Feb. 15, 1931, in Cumberland, Maryland. Before getting into the gaming industry, he built cable TV systems in the eastern U.S. and served in the Air Force. Fulton founded Fortune Coin in 1976. His company introduced the first full-color multi-line video slot machines and the first full-color video poker machines to the gaming industry. It was, in turn, purchased by Anchor Gaming, of which Fulton became chairman.
In late September 2000, Fulton liquidated his Anchor stock, using the proceeds to buy 25% of Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino in New Mexico. (Anchor itself was sold to International Game Technology the next summer and Fulton’s successor, T.J. Matthews, eventually became IGT’s CEO.)
The former slot man was quite a judge of horseflesh. At one point, he was estimated to own 100 horses, stabled in Kentucky and California. By 2007, Fulton’s ponies had 196 starts, with 33 wins and earnings of $1,562,147.
Ten years earlier, he’d been the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Earlier still, in 1992 Fulton was honored as a "Distinguished Nevadan" by UNLV. Fulton gave the university the sum of $5 million to build the Stan Fulton Building, which houses the Gaming Institute. At the Oct. 16, 1997, groundbreaking, then-Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Bill Curran said, "This will not be a place for teaching dealers, but rather a place for leaders who will anchor the gaming community," in a punning reference to Fulton’s former company. It opened on Oct. 17, 2000.
But Fulton’s philanthropy led to a bitter falling-out with the university and its then-president Carol Harter. Beneath the words "Stan Fulton Building," the university had planted a small copse of palm trees. They grew taller, as trees are wont to do. Informed by his sister that the trees had the impertinence to grow so tall as to obscure his august name, Fulton demanded that the offending trees be removed, which they were, but not fast enough to suit the umbrageous donor.
Fulton went on the warpath, sending the UNLV regents a series of letters blasting Harter. He noted that the school had gone $1.2 million over budget on the Fulton Building and alleged that President Harter’s "attitude" was driving away big donors like himself. Fulton was, he said, taking his money and going elsewhere, giving $5.25 million to schools in three other states.
While Harter confined herself to saying was "surprised" and "saddened" by Fulton’s snit, her vice president refuted some of the mogul’s accusations. Fulton also made an enemy of Boyd Gaming’s then-president Don Snyder. (The Boyd family has been a major backer of UNLV.) Regarding Fulton’s campaign to have Harter sacked, Snyder said told the Las Vegas Sun that it was "fundamentally wrong for a benefactor to even think he can wield that type of influence over an organization or its governing board."
Snyder also sent the regents a letter in which he laid out some accusations of his own against Fulton. He recounted a tête-à-tête at which Fulton allegedly called for special perks for donors like himself, such as "a full-time staff person to manage just that one relationship, chartering planes when the donor wants to go to a sporting event and providing tickets and whatever else the donor wants or needs."
Fulton denied the charge, offered to produce rebuttal witnesses, and sniffed that Snyder was being "mean." He also cut UNLV out of his will. His attempted coup d’etat failed, though Harter was eventually forced out, in mid-2006, by Chancellor Jim Rogers, moving on to the executive directorship of the Black Mountain Institute, a local think tank.
As for Fulton, he’s not been a presence in Vegas since his failed putsch at UNLV. All that’s left is a name on a (very nice) building.
