Station Casinos owns the only casino license in Nevada that doesn’t require the building of 200 or more hotel rooms. It’s also ‘portable,’ meaning Station can use it wherever it pleases. Why is that? Is each license different and Station was smart with its wording? Many casinos are older. Was there a change in the licensing over the years? Or … ?
Nevada casino licenses are site-specific, but this one was worded in such a way that it could be moved to any location in the state.
Station, however, doesn't get credit for that.
The license belonged to the Reno Turf Club, which Station bought in 2006, intending to either develop a non-hotel casino on the Turf Club’s small parcel opposite the Reno-Sparks Convention Center or to build a restaurant/casino on the site of the demolished Castaways casino in Las Vegas (the latter an idea long since abandoned).
Because it was displaced by the construction of a railroad trench through Reno, the Turf Club’s license fell under a regulatory clause whereby an “establishment was acquired or displaced pursuant to a redevelopment project undertaken by an agency created pursuant to chapter 279 of [Nevada Revised Statutes] in accordance with a final order of condemnation enter before June 17, 2005 …” And through that loophole the license became "portable."
Hence, Station’s acquisition, which was canny. Still, the company continues to blow hot and cold on the Reno market. Perhaps the portable license could be the solution to long-in-abeyance Durango Station. The company has talked of reviving that project (on hold since at least 1999) in the under-served southwest Las Vegas Valley. If rid of the need to build a hotel, Durango Station could become a very cost-attractive proposition for Station Casinos.
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lisajeffwork
Nov-10-2020
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