Who Really Owns Popular Las Vegas Strip Casino Properties?

^{Surprisingly, MGM Resorts does not own the real estate underneath the New York-New York Hotel & Casino. (Photo: courtesy of Paul IJsendoorn)} 

Las Vegas real estate has been in the news the past couple of weeks because of the pending Caesars acquisition and a potential deal to take MGM Resorts private.

The two companies operate nearly half of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. However, they don't own the real estate under all of those casinos.

The idea that a well-known casino name doesn’t own everything connected with the property is relatively new.

Companies you may have never heard of, such as VICI Properties and BREIT (Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust), own much of that real estate. Caesars, for example, operates Harrah's but doesn't own the land beneath it. Instead, Caesars pays rent to VICI for the property.

Both companies adopted an "asset-light" strategy, keeping operations while selling off real estate to generate revenue. That money may have been used to upgrade properties and pay down debt. As we know from the Fertitta deal, Caesars still carries a significant debt load.

Not all Las Vegas casino operators work this way. Wynn Resorts, Boyd Gaming, Station Casinos, and others own 100% of their real estate and casino facilities.

Why Real Estate Owners Won't Impact Your Trip

The relationship between a real estate owner and a casino operator rarely matters to the day-to-day guest experience.

Casino operators run the building and manage rooms, gambling, restaurants, shows, and other amenities. The real estate company, meanwhile, owns the land underneath and collects rent from the casino operator.

This rarely comes into play unless an operator wants to demolish a casino and build something new. The Tropicana implosion in 2024 is the most recent example of where that dynamic could play out differently.

Coincidentally, the company that owns the real estate on that site was among the first to enter the casino real estate business.

Get to Know Casino Real Estate Companies

Casino-focused real estate companies aren't exactly new, though they tend to get less attention than the casinos themselves.

Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI) was the first casino- and gaming-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). It launched as a spinoff of Penn Entertainment in 2013.

GLPI owns casino real estate throughout the U.S., but only one small piece of the Las Vegas Strip. The company owns the land where the Tropicana once stood. Bally's Corp. is leasing that site, and GLPI has granted the soon-to-be Las Vegas A's rights to about nine acres for a stadium.

Bally's still has the right to develop the remaining land, but there has been no movement beyond a press release and rendering of a potential project surrounding the stadium.

VICI Properties was created when Caesars Entertainment emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2017. Starting with only Caesars-owned properties, VICI has since expanded its portfolio across Las Vegas and the broader U.S.

The company owns land under approximately 40% of Las Vegas Strip casinos. Although VICI controls some of Caesars' real estate, the casino operator still owns about 20% of the land under its Strip properties.

The other major non-operator in Las Vegas is Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT), which officially launched in January 2017. Its first casino real estate acquisition was Bellagio in 2019.

BREIT owns the real estate for a handful of Strip casinos, which account for only about 10% of its overall portfolio.

VICI Leads Way in Casino Property Ownership

There are 28 separate casino properties on the Las Vegas Strip, counting The Venetian and Palazzo together and Wynn and Encore as a single operation, since each pair shares an operator.

This map breaks down who owns what along the Las Vegas Strip, with VICI Properties and Caesars Entertainment controlling a significant share of the boulevard. And, yes we know the Aria doesn't look like that! (Image: Sandra Esparza / Chat GPT)

One company owns vastly more Strip real estate than any casino operator. VICI owns the land under 11 of those 28 properties, a portfolio that grew well beyond the Caesars assets it started with to include some of the Strip's biggest names and one of its most anticipated upcoming openings.

• Caesars Palace 
• Excalibur 
• Hard Rock (formerly The Mirage)
• Harrah's Las Vegas 
• Luxor 
• Mandalay Bay 
• MGM Grand 
• New York-New York 
• Park MGM 
• The Venetian
• The Strat

Although VICI was spun out of Caesars, it does not own all of that company's Strip real estate. Caesars still holds the real estate under six of its own properties.

• Flamingo Las Vegas 
• Horseshoe Las Vegas 
• The Linq
• Paris Las Vegas 
• Planet Hollywood
• Vanderpump Hotel (formerly The Cromwell)

VICI owns the real estate under six MGM Resorts casinos. For three others, ownership is split between Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust and additional partners, with MGM holding a minimal stake in one.

• ARIA (100% Blackstone BREIT) 
• Bellagio (73.1% Blackstone BREIT, 21.9% Realty Income, 5% MGM Resorts) 
• Cosmopolitan (Blackstone REIT, Cherng Family Trust, Stonepeak Partners)

Phil Ruffin owns 100% of the operations and real estate at both Treasure Island and Circus Circus. The latter includes Slots-A-Fun casino and the open land used as the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.

Wynn Resorts owns its own real estate along with a vacant plot across the street. At one point, it appeared that Wynn might begin construction on that parcel this year, but nothing has started and there are no current plans to move forward.

The Meruelo Group owns Sahara Las Vegas outright, and Genting Group owns Resorts World Las Vegas outright. The Elardi family has owned Casino Royale for about a decade. The Federal Aviation Administration approved a new, taller structure for Casino Royale several years ago, but there have been no reported developments since 2023.