The Laughlin Pioneer Casino Has Been Sold

I just received an email notification that the Pioneer discontinued all of its chips, tokens, and slot points at the end of April. They also held a series of cash drawings which I presume were to raffle off any progressive balances. Did the Pioneer go out of business?

Not at all.

Archon Corp., owner of the Pioneer Hotel & Gambling Hall, sold it for $11 million -- hence the retirement of all Archon-issued chips, tokens, and slot points. The buyer was Ray Koroghli, who had been in talks with Archon since August 2016. Employees were notified of the sale on Feb. 23 of this year. Koroghli is manager of the Oasis RV Park on Windmill Lane in Las Vegas.

Archon took a substantial bath on the transaction, having paid $36 million for the Pioneer in 2004.

Archon sold the Pioneer to Koroghli on a lease-back basis. This may explain why Koroghli hasn't applied for a gaming license, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Ownership of the property, as of May 1, is under New Pioneer LLC, which may presage an updating of the property’s name.

Koroghli plans renovations of an unspecified nature to the Pioneer, one of Laughlin’s also-ran casinos. A commentator on TripAdvisor describes its current condition. “The property has been in serious neglect for years. River Rick,” a cigarette-puffing knockoff of Vegas Vic, “has been dead and dark for a while, a ton of lights have been burnt out, and the rooms are terrible.”

A seamless transition from outgoing owners Paul and Sue Lowden to Koroghli was promised and apparently made, and all employees were given the chance to re-apply for their jobs under the new regime.

Phone calls to Archon and to Koroghli were not returned.

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Comments

Ryan Popovich May-21-2018

Pioneer

My wife and I stayed here a few months ago and the place was a dump. The room was horrible. The heater didn’t work. They should tear it own and start over!

Kevin Rough May-21-2018

Not seamless

I stayed at the Pioneer May 5-7.  Whoever told you that this was seamless was misinformed.

While the hotel was open, the casino was not.  Two restaurants and a bar were open.  And to get to the bar required leaving the building.  I was told it would be up to 9 months for the casino to open as the new owners did not have a casino license.  

The casino sent me an email which led me to believe the casino was closing.  I was told of the then-upcoming sale and that everything would be seamless and I still have my reservation.  This definitely was not the case.

As for the hotel room, it was a dump.

Question of the Day - 21 May 2018

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