Phil Ruffin purchased the Circus Circus Casino in 2019 and six years later he's looking to flip it for more nearly six times the price. Ruffin's asking price is $5 billion for Circus Circus and the adjacent property that includes over 100 aces in the North end of the Las Vegas Strip. Whomever buys the property will certainly implode Circus Circus Casino and the area is rumored to be redevloped as a mega-resort casino, a new NBA arena, or a film studio.
Las Vegas has always been a city that is in constant flux. Unlike cities in Europe and older cities in North America, it's nearly impossible to find older structures in Sin City. Older casinos get bought then imploded so a new gaudy monstrosity can take its place. This is a part of the endless cycle in Las Vegas where it's build, tear down, build again, tear down, build, and so on and so on.
The Circus Circus opened its doors on the northern end of Las Vegas Blvd. in 1968 across the street from the Riveria and Sahara. The circus theme was chosen in an effort to attract families on a budget during an era when the mob still had control of pockets on Sin City. Although Circus Circus struggled when it first opened, the concept was ahead of its time before the rest of Vegas shifted to a family-friendly entertainment hotspot in the late 1990s.
Circus Circus had a big top circus theme inside the casino floor with a long-running trapeze show. There was an amusement park out back that was perched on the massive property than spans 102 acres. It also has the only RV park on the Strip. There's also an outdoor venue where numerous events and music festivals take place.
The casino was fairly large at nearly 125,000 square feet. The hotel had over 3,700 rooms, which enabled the property to offer affordable accommodations to families or gamblers on a budget. At some point, staying at Circus Circus was a rite of passage for many Vegas noobs who didn't know any better. In recent years, Circus Circus was also considered a low moment for many gamblers who were down on their luck and needed a cheap place to crash.
Circus Circus was immortalized in pop culture including films, TV shows, books, and even video games. Circus Circus was featured in a James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever with Sean Connery, which was released in 1971. Other films included Viva Las Vegas (1964) and Leaving Las Vegas (1995).
Hunter S. Thompson wrote about the absurdity of Circus Circus in his best-selling book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. When it came time to shoot a film version, the owners of Circus Circus refused to let Terry Gillam shoot on their property. They had to recreate scenes from Circus Circus at the Boardwalk Casino.
Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin are the original owners of Circus Circus. When the property opened its doors in October of 1968, the first floor was for adults while the second floor was strategically designed for children with numerous carnival games. They added a tiny Slots-A-Fun Casino next door. Without a hotel, the casino struggled financially.
When the original owners stepped aside in 1974 due to links with organized crime, the new operators added a hotel and RV park in the late 1970s. After running the casino for nearly a decade, Bill Bennett and William Pennington bought Circus Circus in 1983. They added a new hotel tower in 1986 and constructed an amusement park in 1993 originally called the Grand Slam Canyon that was later renamed as the Adventuredome. After an additional tower was added in 1996, the Circus Circus property expanded to 3,767 rooms.
Circus Circus Enterprises was renamed as Mandalay Resort Group in the late 1990s. MGM Mirage purchased Circus Circus in 2005 with plans to create a mega resort in the area after they also acquired El Rancho Vegas. Those lofty ideas were scrapped during the Financial Crisis that decimated Vegas in the late 2000s. MGM built the Festival Grounds in 2015 on the site where the El Rancho once stood. After sitting on the property for another decade, MGM finally found a buyer in 2019.
Texas businessman Phil Ruffin bought the Frontier in 1995. He added the Treasure Island in 2009, which he acquired from MGM. When MGM put Circus Circus up for sale in 2019, they sold it to Ruffin for $825 million.
Real estate on the Strip fetches approximately $50 million per acre, which is why Ruffin seeks $5 billion for the 102 acres. The new owner will implode Circus Circus and redevelop the area. There's rumors that it could become a Formula One development, or part of a new NBA area, or even a film studio. There's also a strong possibility that the area will become the location of a mega-resort which MGM had originally envisioned.
The north-end of the Strip is in the middle of a revitalization period with two new casinos opening up this decade including Resorts World in 2021 and the Fontainebleau in 2023.
