Why Was Bally's Rebranded as a Horseshoe?

I never heard a reason for Bally’s being changed to The Horseshoe. Another piece of history fallen by the wayside.

There were two reasons.

The first had to do with Caesars Entertainment divesting itself of the Bally's brand. The original Rhode Island-based Twin River Worldwide Holding started buying up casinos in 2014 and by 2020 owned nearly a dozen, including two it bought from Caesars Entertainment. In the process, Twin River determined that it wanted to buy 1) Bally's Atlantic City and 2) the Bally's brand, both also from Caesars. Since Caesars was selling Bally's Atlantic City, it wound up owning only one Bally's hotel-casino, the one you're asking about in Las Vegas.

Twin River picked up Bally's Atlantic City for the bargain price of $25 million, then bought the Bally's brand for another $20 million. It became Bally's Corporation in November 2020, but it didn't own Bally's Las Vegas, which started to lead to some confusion.

Caesars had no intention of selling Bally's, so to eliminate the confusion and expand its Horseshoe brand, it changed Bally's name to the Horseshoe.

The second reason had to do with Caesars development of the Horseshoe brand that it owns. The Horseshoe Las Vegas is the 10th Horseshoe-branded property in the country. And of course, that lineage started downtown with Binion's Horseshoe in 1951; Harrah's (now Caesars) Entertainment bought that property in 2004 and changed the name to Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel. It was subsequently sold to TLC Casino Enterprises, which also owns the Four Queens.

But Caesars wanted to bring the Horseshoe brand back to where it started. Plus, since Caesars owns the World Series of Poker brand and no longer owns the Rio, where the WSOP was played for nearly two decades, it also wanted a Las Vegas Horseshoe to host the tournament, since the Binions started the World Series of Poker in 1970 and it was played there up until it moved to the Rio in 2005.

So, it's a somewhat complicated tale, but now everything has pretty much settled down and resolved itself for the foreseeable future.

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Kevin Lewis Apr-08-2023

A travesty

I associate the name "Horseshoe" with the best place to gamble (and eat) in the history of Las Vegas--while Benny Binion ran it, that is--not just another Strip megatoilet ripoff joint with $25 minimum 6:5 blackjack etc. etc. etc. For that matter, the current version of the Horseshoe doesn't even vaguely resemble the Benny version.
So they should have renamed the joint something besides the Horseshoe and more fitting--maybe the "Sucker"? The "Pigeon"? The "Gouge"? The "Rip on the Strip"? The "Lemming Cliff"?

Bobq Apr-08-2023

Bobq

It's too bad someone doesn't open a casino that is modeled as close as possible to the original Horeshoe. I loved that place.

Vegas Fan Apr-08-2023

Excellent explanation

Ties up all my questions on the whole horseshoe, binions, Caesars situation

Gregory Apr-08-2023

Ownership roulette (1)

These odd ownership predicaments don't stop with Bally's.  There are others.  The Trop/Tropicana thing is another messy situation.  A few years back Eldorado (now Caesars Entertainment) bought Tropicana Entertainment.  Tropicana Entertainment owned a portfolio of casinos some of them being named the "Tropicana" and others being named the "Trop".  However this did not apply to the one that started it all, the Tropicana Las Vegas.  Tropicana Las Vegas was splintered from the rest of the Tropicana brand and owned by Penn National (which is now called Penn Entertainment).  Penn sold the Tropicana to Bally's in 2022. (I don't know who at this point owns the actual Tropicana name).

The next logical step in the process is that there's probably a very good chance that the Tropicana will be renamed/re-branded as Bally's in the near future.

Gregory Apr-08-2023

Ownership roulette (2)

A not so good example of this “re-branding” is Boyd Gaming's IP casino in Biloxi, MS.   That casino started out life as a sister property to the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas.   When Boyd bought it, they “renamed” it to the IP.  I am not sure who they thought this was fooling, but for all practical purposes it’s still the Imperial Palace.  The IP font/logo looks just like the original.

Treasure Island attempted something like this a while back, attempting to re-brand themselves as the “TI”.   This one did not seem to stick and I don’t recall seeing “TI” recently.    There is a Treasure Island casino in Minnesota that has no relationship to the Treasure Island in Las Vegas.   I’m not sure if  the “TI” branding was an attempt clarify this or not.

Gregory Apr-08-2023

Ownership roulette (3)

Another odd one is Circus Circus.  There’s one in Las Vegas and there’s one in Reno.   Although the Reno location started out as a sister property, they are no longer related.   Circus Circus in Las Vegas was owned by MGM until recently selling to Phil Ruffin.  The Circus Circus in Reno is owned by Caesars Entertainment. It was a part of Eldorado’s portfolio.

Jeffrey Small Apr-08-2023

Time for a rehab?

We were going to stay at Ballys/now the Horseshoe this month.  Then we read the on line reviews.  What a mess!  Not only do they rip off customers downstairs with 6:5 blackjack, etc. but the once proud hotel has fallen into serious disrepair.  Reports of mold in the rooms, broken furniture even bedbugs are recounted by recent customers.  Sad that a Las Vegas icon is now a second rate dump.   Instead of bragging about the World Series of Poker management should work on restoring the hotel to be a respectable place to stay!

Dave_Miller_DJTB Apr-08-2023

Name shuffle

Caesars USED to own Bally's in AC but decided to sell it when they acquired the Tropicana AC in the Eldorado deal. So Baaly's AC is now owned by ... Bally's Corp - Which is also the current owner of Tropicana LV.

Confused yet?

Bally's Corp wants to rename Tropicana LV to Bally's which is an additional reason Caesars renamed Bally's to Horseshoe. 

Using the Horseshoe name makes sense because, as previously mentioned, Caesars has several around the country, so it makes sense to have one in LV.

But the poker connection is tenuous at best. Much of the World Series actually took place in the PARIS conference center. I played a cash game there last year, and they used Paris chips. As I understood it, only the TV feature tables and final tables were actually in the Bally's/Horseshoe banquet area.

Got everything sorted out now? OK! Wanna talk about the Hard Rock next?

I swear, you need a scorecard to keep track of all this stuff.

gaattc2001 Apr-08-2023

Like Kevin, I have fond memories of the original Horseshoe...

in my case, going back to the early 1970's. Good Blackjack, steak & eggs in the basement coffee shop, and that wonderful 1890's San Francisco bordello atmosphere. 
Then over the years, virtually everything attractive about the place just disappeared; replaced by the same nickel-and-dime mediocrity now typical of most of the rest of Las Vegas. Horseshoe had its own unique problems along the way, but it was still part of the general overall decline.
Last time I went there was in 2013. After spending all afternoon in their casino, they hit me with a "surprise" parking charge on departure. "Sorry, sir, the casino validation is good for only two hours and you were here four-and-a-half. That's $4.50. Have a safe trip and come back soon."
Haven't set foot in downtown Las Vegas since.

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