Of Lebanese and Irish descent, George Maloof Jr. was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico where his father, George Sr., operated a Coors beer distributorship. George Jr. went on to study casino management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he also played cornerback for the UNLV football team, experiencing the dubious claim-to-fame of being locker mate to notorious Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight.
George's first casino was the Central Palace in Colorado, after the launch of which he returned to Las Vegas and debuted the Fiesta Casino (now Fiesta Rancho) in 1994. He was known as a hands-on kind of operator in the old school tradition -- the current writer recalls the first time they met and the fact that George was picking up cigarette butts from the floor of his casino.
Following the sale of the locals-oriented Fiesta, he went on to build the 430-room off-Strip Palms, which debuted in 2001 and successfully (on the whole) managed to straddle the disparate worlds of the Las Vegas locals market and the hip California celebrity clubber scene. A second hotel tower followed, famed for its over-the-top "fantasy" suites that feature basketball courts and bowling lanes, stripper poles, and homages to Hugh Hefner. One of them was built specifically as the location for a season of MTV's "The Real World" reality TV show, and the Palms was always a hotspot for celebrity sightings, with owner George frequently photographed with Paris Hilton and known to be a close confidante of Britney Spears.
For several years, George Maloof seemed unstoppable as the public face of the family-owned Palms brand, with its boutique hotel-casino that reigned supreme as the hippest spot in town, stealing the thunder from the likes of the venerable Hard Rock. However, unwanted elements and activities became increasingly visible, with the prevalence of gang-affiliated characters emerging as an unwelcome flipside to the scene. And then the economy tanked and things began to unravel for George, who was subject to a humiliating DUI arrest just as the over-extension of his brand to the Palms Place third tower manifested itself, coinciding as it did with the demise of the inflated Las Vegas condo market and leaving the whole operation decidedly upside down financially. The friendship and partnership with partners N9NE Group soured, with the restaurant and nightlife brand ousted from the Palms amid the high-profile suicide of one of the founders and a Metro sting operation that uncovered endemic drug and prostitution issues, resulting in a hefty fine.
To cut a fairly short but sad story short, by 2011 the heavily leveraged situation the Maloofs found themselves in at the Palms forced them to sell, leaving George and his siblings with just a 2 percent interest in the brand they founded.
Since then, the once omnipresent George has been keeping a pretty low profile, although he's still president of the Palms and evidently continues to be hands-on when it comes to casino operations. In fact, we've seen him there frequently, and he's often reported in the local newspapers as being spotted at his favorite hang, N9NE. More important, the Palms and Maloof brands remain strong, which is no doubt why both names continue to grace the resort's marquee. The terms of the sale included a clause giving the Maloof family the option to buy back up to a 20-percent share through options and warrants, depending on the casino's results going forward, but the most recent rumor is that George may be looking forward to something new, with completely unsubstantiated whispers in the air that he might be on the prowl for another casino (Binion's has been rumored).
While he's far less in the spotlight these days, no doubt a deliberate move while he regroups, George Maloof Jr. was spotted recently at the inaugural celebrity-chef fundraising dinner for injured local food writer Max Jacobson, and apparently wasn't bashful with his bids, contributing in excess of $100,000 to the auction coffers, so we don't think George is in any danger of being on the breadline anytime soon.
The Maloof family's recent sale of the Sacramento Kings, their second passion alongside the hospitality industry, may have been a bitter-sweet moment for George, but we're guessing that the opportunity to divest himself of so many outside distractions and pressures may actually turn out to be a blessing and we'd wager that this lifelong entrepreneur is merely biding his time while assessing where the next great opportunity lies in his chosen home town. We look forward to his next project, whatever it may be, and wish George nothing but the best.
