Fresh off winning Nevada’s Republican presidential caucus, gerbil-headdress aficionado Donald Trump is reportedly looking to open his first casino in Las Vegas.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump Organization – the holding company for Der Donald’s various business ventures – is mulling a 50/50 casino joint venture with Phil Ruffin, the billionaire owner of the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino on the Strip.
Ruffin and Trump are good friends and are already partners in the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which sits at the north end of the Strip across from Wynn Las Vegas. The proposed $100m casino would be built on a four-acre parcel of land adjacent to the hotel that currently serves as the hotel’s parking lot.
Ruffin, who was in attendance at Trump’s caucus victory party at Treasure Island this week, told the WSJ that the JV casino plans were very preliminary, and that there were as yet no architectural renderings, land surveys or other tangible signs that the plan is more than just talk. However, Ruffin said he plans to move this ball forward this year.
Donald’s son Eric, who is managing Trump’s hotel business while dad continues his quest to become the hugest, classiest, most awesome American president ever, echoed Ruffin’s claims that the idea was very much at the embryonic stage but said the Trump Organization would support whatever plans Ruffin had for the property.
The Trump Organization used to have a stake in Trump Entertainment Resorts, which used to operate casinos in California, Indiana and Atlantic City but has since been reduced to the struggling Trump Taj Mahal, which was officially acquired last June by Carl Icahn.
