Industry | Gaming |
---|---|
Founded | 1991 |
Founder | Andrew Tompkins |
Defunct | 2000 |
Headquarters | Las Vegas, Nevada |
Lady Luck Gaming Corp. was a gaming company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that developed and operated casinos in the Midwestern and Southern United States. It was acquired by Isle of Capri Casinos in 2000.
In 1991, Andrew Tompkins, founder of the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas, wanted to expand locally, but found property in Las Vegas and Laughlin too expensive. [1] Instead, he joined many other gaming industry figures in looking to Midwestern and Southern states that were beginning to legalize riverboat casinos. [2] He revealed plans for a casino in Natchez, Mississippi, in August 1991, [3] and went on to open the Lady Luck Natchez in February 1993 at a cost of $8 million. [4]
After Colorado legalized gambling in three cities in 1991, Tompkins negotiated to buy land for a casino in Central City from the school district, [5] but withdrew from the deal after the city council imposed a 9-month moratorium on new casino development. [6] Instead, Tompkins and the Lady Luck signed on to consult for the financially troubled Gold Coin Saloon and Casino in Central City, [7] which turned into an agreement in March 1993 for Tompkins to buy the property. [8]
Under the terms of Tompkins's deal with the Gold Coin's owners, American Casino Group Inc. was formed in February 1993 to hold the Lady Luck gaming ventures, except for the Las Vegas property. [9] [10] The company's name was changed to Lady Luck Gaming in July. [10]
Lady Luck embarked on a strategy of moving into new gaming jurisdictions quickly with modest investments, planning to open riverboat casinos with no hotels or other extensive land-based facilities. [11]
In May 1993, the company entered into an agreement with developer Charles Lambert, taking a 68 percent stake in a joint venture to build the Lady Luck of Baton Rouge. [12] The proposal faced a tough licensing battle, as the Louisiana Riverboat Gaming Commission had allotted only two casino licenses for the Baton Rouge area, and had already given preliminary approval to two applicants. [12] Lambert and Tompkins planned to renovate the historic Capitol House Hotel, which they bought in November for $2 million, for use as a terminal for a casino boat. [13] After failing in legal maneuvers to dislodge one of the two licenses, though, Lady Luck sold out its share of the project to Lambert in September 1994. [14]
By June 1993, three more casinos were in the licensing process in Mississippi, in Tunica, Gulfport, and Biloxi. [15] The Lady Luck Tunica in Mhoon Landing opened September 18, at a cost of $29 million, [16] and the Lady Luck Biloxi opened in December. [17]
Lady Luck Gaming planned its initial public offering for August 1993, but postponed it because of the effect the Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood could have on riverboat gaming stocks. [18] The offering was completed the next month. [16]
The company in August 1993 proposed a $56-million hotel and casino in Jefferson County, Missouri, just outside Kimmswick. [19] The project stalled as the Missouri Gaming Commission adopted a "wait-and-see" [20] approach to distributing the state's limited set of gaming licenses. [21] The license was finally approved in 2000, [22] after Isle of Capri had acquired Lady Luck, but the company abandoned the project a year later in the face of local opposition and potential lawsuits. [23]
In February 1994, Lady Luck, already heavily in debt, raised $185 million by issuing mortgage notes, stating that it could not afford to wait for existing properties to provide the funding for projects in new markets. [11]
The same month, Lady Luck proposed a $210-million hotel and riverboat casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in a bid for the single gaming license allocated to Dearborn County. [24] The city council backed three other bids in June, demurring to Lady Luck's proposal because it was located outside of city limits, [25] and the state ultimately awarded the license to a group led by Argosy Gaming. [26]
Two more Missouri casinos were proposed in 1994, for Cape Girardeau [27] and St. Charles County, [28] but the Cape Girardeau City Council in March gave its backing to a competing plan by Boyd Gaming, [29] and the St. Charles County Council dropped Lady Luck from consideration in May, [30] ultimately backing a proposal by Jumer's. [31] Within weeks of the Cape Girardeau rejection, Lady Luck moved on to nearby Scott City, proposing a $63-million hotel-casino. [32] The plan won the endorsement of the city council, [33] but was stalled by the Gaming Commission's deliberative pace. [34] No licensing decision had been made by the time of the company's acquisition. [35]
The Tunica casino closed after less than a year due to declining attendance, [36] and the barge was relocated to Coahoma County, where it opened in June 1994 as the Lady Luck Rhythm & Blues. [37] An entertainment pavilion and a second barge, the Country Casino, were opened at the site in May 1996. [38] [39] An accompanying 120-room hotel across the bridge in Helena, Arkansas was acquired two months later, [40] and the 314-room Country Hotel opened on-site in 1999. [41]
Another casino, the Lady Luck Olympia, was planned for Robinsonville (now Tunica Resorts), closer to Memphis. [42] The site's hotel opened in August 1994, [43] but with Lady Luck running short on money, the casino, along with another property planned for Vicksburg, were put on hold, [44] until a joint venture agreement was reached with Bally Entertainment. [43] Bally moved its casino barge from Mhoon Landing to the Robinsonville site and opened it as Bally's Saloon in December 1995, [45] with Lady Luck owning a 35 percent stake in the complex. [46]
In July 1994, Lady Luck announced an agreement for a joint venture to open a casino and outlet mall in Bettendorf, Iowa, in the Quad Cities, with Bettendorf Riverfront Development Co., a company owned by the family of Isle of Capri founder Bernard Goldstein. [47] [48] Lady Luck Bettendorf opened the following April. [49] A hotel was added in August 1998. [50]
In August 1994, the company announced bids for two of ten gaming licenses available in Greece, one in conjunction with the city of Loutraki, and the other in Patras, in partnership with a local hotel. [51] Both projects were abandoned by the end of the year. [52] Agreements were also announced for Lady Luck to develop three tribal casinos, with the Santa Ana Pueblo near Albuquerque, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe at Lake Havasu, [51] and the Coquitlam Band near Vancouver, [53] but the Santa Ana tribe withdrew from its agreement because of Lady Luck's weak financial condition, [54] and the two other partnerships were never realized either.
Also in August 1994, the company partnered with Edward Carroll, Jr., owner of Riverside Park in Agawam, Massachusetts, in a proposal to build a hotel and dockside casino complex at the theme park, one of several competing casino proposals in the state. [55] The plan died after Agawam voters rejected a non-binding referendum in support of casino gambling in November. [56]
Plans for Lady Luck Gulfport were suspended in October 1994 due to saturation of the Gulf Coast casino market and a lawsuit by the neighboring Gulfport Yacht Club. [57] [58]
In 1997, Lady Luck sold its share of Bally's Saloon to Hilton Hotels, which had bought Bally Entertainment the year before, for $15 million cash. [46] Another agreement that year put Lady Luck in a joint venture with Horseshoe Gaming to develop the site in Vicksburg, [59] but the project never came to fruition. The Lady Luck Biloxi, losing money and lacking space to expand, [60] was sold the following year to Grand Casinos, owner of the neighboring Grand Casino Biloxi, for $15 million and closed. [61] The Lady Luck Central City, also losing money, was sold in 1998 as well, to its mortgage holder, J.D. Carelli, for $2.75 million in forgiven debt. [62]
In August 1999, the company agreed to buy the Miss Marquette riverboat in Marquette, Iowa from Sodak Gaming for $42 million, [63] and separately, the Lady Luck trademark and the Las Vegas property from Tompkins for $45.5 million. [64] The company's financial advisers expressed doubt, though, that funding could be secured at an acceptable cost. [65]
Within weeks of the announcement of the deal with Tompkins, Isle of Capri Casinos made an unsolicited offer to buy Lady Luck Gaming, attracted by the fact that it would now control its name and would no longer make royalty payments to Tompkins. [65] An agreement was reached in October, at a total value over $400 million. [66] With the help of a $16 million loan from Isle of Capri, [66] Lady Luck completed the acquisition of the Miss Marquette in November. [67] The merger was completed in March 2000, with Isle of Capri paying $59 million for Lady Luck's common stock, $22 million to redeem preferred stock, and $177 million in assumed debt. [68] [69] On the same day, Isle of Capri closed on purchases of the other half of the Bettendorf property from Goldstein's family for $62 million, [70] and the Lady Luck trademark from Tompkins for $31 million. [69] Six months later, it completed the purchase of the Lady Luck in Las Vegas for $14.5 million. [71] All of the casinos were rebranded under the Isle of Capri name, [72] except the Lady Luck Las Vegas, which was sold in 2002 to a group of real estate investors. [73]
In 2009, the company revived its Lady Luck brand name for smaller properties with limited amenities, while keeping the Isle of Capri brand for its full-service properties (typically with hotel rooms, convention facilities, and expanded dining options). [74]
Casinos owned at some point, in whole or in part, by Lady Luck Gaming:
Name | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|
Bally's Saloon | Tunica Resorts, Mississippi | Opened December 1995; 35% ownership, sold November 1997 |
Lady Luck Bettendorf | Bettendorf, Iowa | Opened April 1995; 50% ownership |
Lady Luck Biloxi | Biloxi, Mississippi | Opened December 1993; sold and closed June 1998 |
Lady Luck Central City | Central City, Colorado | Bought May 1993; sold February 1998 |
Lady Luck Natchez | Natchez, Mississippi | Opened February 1993 |
Lady Luck Rhythm & Blues | Lula, Mississippi | Opened June 1994 |
Lady Luck Tunica | Mhoon Landing, Mississippi | Opened September 1993; closed April 1994; boat moved to Lula |
Miss Marquette Casino | Marquette, Iowa | Bought November 1999 |
MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Las Vegas, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Park MGM. In January 2019 the company took over Empire City Casino in Yonkers, NY and also opened MGM National Harbor in Maryland and MGM Springfield in Massachusetts. The company has a majority interest in MGM China Holdings Limited, which owns the MGM Macau resort and casino, and is developing a gaming resort in Cotai. MGM Resorts owns 50 percent of CityCenter in Las Vegas, which features Aria Resort & Casino. It has a majority controlling interest in MGM Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust.
New York-New York Hotel & Casino is a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, designed to evoke New York City in its architecture and other aspects. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts International.
Mandalay Resort Group was an American hotel and casino operator based in Paradise, Nevada. Its major properties included Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and Circus Circus, as well as half of the Monte Carlo. In terms of market capitalization, it was one of the largest casino operators in the world. Its stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol "CIR" and "MBG".
Bally Technologies, Inc. is an American manufacturer of slot machines and other gaming technology based in Enterprise, Nevada. It is owned by Scientific Games Corporation.
Primm Valley Casino Resorts is a group of three hotel-casinos in Primm, Nevada, along Interstate 15 at the California state line. They are owned and operated by Affinity Gaming. It is named after the Primm family, benefactors of the hotel and casino properties by Ernest and Gary Primm.
Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. was a gaming company headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri in Greater St. Louis which operated casinos and associated entertainment and lodging facilities in the United States.
The Colorado Belle was a casino hotel on the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada, owned and operated by Golden Entertainment. The Colorado Belle was a fixed building made to look like a six-deck replica of a 19th-century Mississippi River paddle steamer riverboat. It had 1,168 rooms in two seven-story towers. The casino has 42,706 sq ft (3,967.5 m2) of gaming space with 750 slot machines, and 16 table games. The hotel had three restaurants. The Loading Dock, Big Easy Deli, Pints brewery and two gift shops. The resort also included two pools, a fitness room, a koi pond and arcade.
The Downtown Grand Las Vegas, formerly the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino, is a hotel and casino in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, owned by the CIM Group and operated by Fifth Street Gaming. The Downtown Grand is the centerpiece of Downtown3rd, a new neighborhood and entertainment district in downtown Las Vegas.
1st Jackpot Casino Tunica is a casino and former hotel in Tunica Resorts, Mississippi. It is owned by Gaming & Leisure Properties and operated by Penn National Gaming. The casino has 46,535 square feet (4,323.2 m2) of gaming space, with 899 slot machines and 16 table games.
Margaritaville Resort Biloxi is a resort hotel in Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It previously operated with a dockside casino as Casino Magic Biloxi Casino & Hotel, until it was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The property has a 373-room hotel, located on 10.6 acres (4.3 ha) of land.
Lucky Club Casino and Hotel is a casino and 118-room hotel located on 6.1 acres (2.5 ha) in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The casino is owned and operated by Lucky Silver Gaming.
Resorts Casino Tunica, formerly Southern Belle Casino and Harrah's Tunica Mardi Gras Casino, was a 201-room hotel and a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) casino located in Tunica Resorts, Mississippi. It was one of three casinos located in the "Casino Strip" area, along with Sam's Town and Hollywood Casino. Resorts was owned by Gaming & Leisure Properties and operated by Penn National Gaming.
Lady Luck Casino Caruthersville is a 21,000 sq ft (2,000 m2) riverboat casino in Caruthersville, Missouri. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Century Casinos. The riverboat is named City of Caruthersville and is permanently docked at a 37-acre (15 ha) site that also contains an enclosed pavilion that is used to host various events.
The Lady Luck Casino Vicksburg in Vicksburg, Mississippi is a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) casino with an 89-room hotel. It is owned and operated by Eldorado Resorts.
Century Casinos, Inc. is a gaming company based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Hollywood Casino Corp. was a gaming company based in Dallas, Texas. It was acquired in 2003 by Penn National Gaming for $328 million plus $360 million in assumed debt.
Sodak Gaming, Inc. was a gaming company based in Rapid City, South Dakota that distributed slot machines to Indian casinos and financed casino projects. It was acquired by International Game Technology (IGT) in 1999 for $230 million.
Gold Strike Resorts was a family of gaming companies based in Jean, Nevada.
Eldorado Resorts is an American hotel and casino entertainment company founded and based in Reno, Nevada that operates 23 properties across 11 U.S. states.
Vici Properties is a real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in casino properties, based in New York City. It was formed in 2017 as a spin-off from Caesars Entertainment Corporation. It owns 27 casinos, hotels and racetracks and 4 golf courses throughout the United States.