Our Stiffs & Georges columnist, David McKee, writes:
I’d bet my reputation that this is an urban legend and a pernicious one. The Church of Latter Day Saints is opposed to many things, gambling being one of the foremost. This has not prevented many LDS members from doing business with or even taking high-ranking jobs within the industry. Howard Hughes was famous for surrounding himself with a cadre of Mormons.
However, leasing land to casinos would place the church in the position of having a direct financial relationship with the casino industry, something that would profoundly discredit its elders and indeed its very doctrine. Besides, one can go to the Clark County Assessor’s office or Web site and find a paper trail for the ownership of every parcel under every casino in Southern Nevada.
Perhaps there is no better disproof of vast, underlying Mormon ownership than a situation that plagued Binion’s Horseshoe back in 2003. State authorities closed the casino for various regulatory infractions and forced owner Becky Behnen to sell. Harrah’s Entertainment was brought in as an interim operator but found that the land beneath the casino was split between multiple owners, some of whom were leasing it to the Binion family. When one of them tried to negotiate a higher price for his parcel, Harrah’s had to consider the prospect of closing down and cordoning off the affected portion of the casino floor. (Then-mayor Oscar Goodman eventually brokered a settlement.)
Marriott, owned by a prominent Mormon family, does have casinos in at least one of its many Vegas-area hotels and owns gambling-enabled real estate across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center. However, the Rampart Casino in Summerlin’s JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa is leased to an outside operator, Millennium Gaming, parent company of Cannery Casino Resorts.
Anyway, the intricate patchwork of land ownership beneath the casinos of Las Vegas is sufficient evidence that no shadowy Mormon master plan exists. And if it did, how could businessmen like Phil Ruffin buy and sell land (for up to $35 million an acre during the 2007 land rush) that they didn’t own in the first place?
Don’t just take our word for it. We also put your question to College of Southern Nevada history professor Michael Green. "If we dug enough, we might find a few such cases," he replied, "especially in the older parts of downtown and the Strip, but that is indeed an urban legend."
