Question of the Day - 19 December 2024

To answer your last question first, yes, many of the heirs apparent will certainly have to apply. No grandfather or sweetheart provision in Nevada law allows heirs of casino moguls to bypass licensure when they inherit Mom and Dad’s casino stock.

Let’s start with Phil Ruffin, owner of Circus Circus, Treasure Island, and sundry non-Nevada gambling properties. He turns 90 next March. He’s been married three times, although the first marriage was without offspring. Two of the three children from his second marriage have worked in the hospitality business. Michelle Ruffin-Stein is the general manager of the Wichita Marriott, while Chris Ruffin was the GM of the Hyatt Regency Wichita. They’d make logical successors to the elder Ruffin’s Las Vegas casino remits. (Phil Ruffin Jr. is in the transportation business.)

Phil Ruffin Sr. also has two children from his third marriage to a former Miss Ukraine. But at ages 13 and 9, we doubt that Richard W. Ruffin and Malena Ruffin are quite ready to take the reins of Dad’s business. (None of the second-generation Ruffins holds a gaming license.) Then again, their papa has a shrewd eye for a deal, having snapped up Treasure Island at a bargain price of $775 million back in the day. Don’t count him out if the right offer to exit Las Vegas presents itself.

The future of the El Cortez seems an open-and-shut case. CEO Kenny Epstein was recently asked about it by Casino Life magazine and replied, “I want to stay here as long as I can. I’m only 83, so I’m not giving up. We just want to make this place bigger and better, and my children are partners. … If I’m not here anymore, they’ll be here.” Katie Epstein Fine is already involved in hotel operations, as is daughter Alex. If they’re not already licensed, it would be almost a certainty that the two daughters would receive that coveted status.

The trickiest case may be that of Casino Royale owner Margaret Elardi. For one thing, nobody knows how much longer her slots-only casino-motel will be around. Demolition was mooted in June 2023, purportedly in favor of a high-rise Ritz-Carlton resort (the narrow Casino Royale plot of land makes the skyscraper a necessity). After the requisite FAA approvals were secured that August … deafening silence. Resort proposals are a dime a dozen in Sin City. Interesting fact: The point man for the Ritz-Carlton proposal, Craig Dudley, is described as a business associate of Phil Ruffin. Hmmmm … 

Anyway, it would have been (and still could be) high-rise in and Elardi family out. At the tender age of 99, Mrs. Elardi is probably more of a figurehead than anything at this point. Another interesting fact: The strike at her Frontier, the longest in Las Vegas’ history, ended when she sold the casino to Phil Ruffin. Hmmmm …

The Elardi dowager once told a friend, “Don’t ever sell. Die with your boots on.” In case St. Peter won’t let her past the Pearly Gates without divesting of Casino Royale, there are sons John and Tom Elardi. The latter was coaxed into harness in 1992 to help run (and co-own) Casino Royale, which he evidently still does at age of 76. Which also means that he holds a gaming license.

We couldn’t find anything on John Elardi, who keeps an even lower profile than Mom does. It looks for all the world like Tom Elardi will take full ownership of Casino Royale when the time comes. Compared to Phil Ruffin and Ken Epstein, he’d be a mere lad when it happens. Given his small hotel-casino's unlikely survival in this era of supercharged Las Vegas Strip resorts, we're not betting for Casino Royale and the Elardi family being in place for a long time.