The Circus Circus Casino and an adjacent 102 acres is up for sale, according to recent reports. Owner Phil Ruffin is asking $5 billion and recently said that the funds from a sale may then be used to acquire another casino resort.
“Let’s just say there is interest,” the 89-year-old told Forbes.
The casino opened in 1968 and was the vision of Jay Sarno, who was also one of the planners behind Caesars Palace. The property stood out for its unique design, festive atmosphere, and for being a cheap stay for families with gambling. As the name implies, that included circus acts with a popular trapeze show along with an amusement park as part of the fun.
In addition to the casino of almost 124,000 square feet, the hotel has 3,767 rooms and the property also includes the adjacent Slots-A-Fun Casino, which was opened in 1971. Later that year, Circus Circus was featured in the James Bond film Diamonds are Forever.
The property also includes the 37-acre Las Vegas Festival Grounds, which is home to When We Were Young and other music festivals throughout the year.
Ruffin, who also owns Treasure Island and half of the Trump Hotel, purchased the property in 2019 from MGM Resorts for $825 million. Circus Circus could be a target for developers as the north end of the Strip has seen some major growth in recent years. That has included the opening of the Fontainebleau and Resorts World casinos in recent years as well as the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“At $50 million an acre, you’d be hard-pressed to build anything besides a luxury offering,” industry analyst Josh Swissman with GMA Consulting told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “So whatever the design is, it’s got to be upper end in terms of the price scale. And that sometimes makes it hard to have a family-oriented facility. There are a lot of people who think that the days for entities like that have come and gone.”
Beyond his life as a casino owner, Ruffin is also a bit of a poker player and even appeared on the seventh season of High Stakes Poker. The now 89-year-old won nearly $400,000 during his time on the show.
The Las Vegas Strip is constantly changing. Circus Circus may be facing the wrecking ball, which follows the recent implosion of the Tropicana Casino on the other end of the Strip.
The last casinos to come down were in 2007 when both the Stardust and the Frontier came down. The site of the Stardust would ultimately become Resorts World, and the site of the Frontier remains undeveloped with Wynn Resorts.
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