Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

February 5, 2005

Golden Boys No More? Golden Nugget Las Vegas Sold.

Posted by Hunter

If you follow Las Vegas you've probably already heard... Tim and Tom of 'The Casino' fame are selling the Golden Nugget after only thirteen months.


If you follow Las Vegas you've probably already heard... Tim and Tom of 'The Casino' fame are selling the Golden Nugget after only thirteen months. The Golden Nugget lost money over the course of the last year as Tim Poster and Tom Breitling re-tooled the marketing strategy at the company. For years the Nugget had a stable yet stagnant customer base. It is widely regarded as the nicest property in downtown Las Vegas and former owner MGM MIRAGE didn't do much advertising, instead focusing on their Strip properties. So, the big question is why are they doing this? I see a couple of possible answers to that question: 1. They didn't have confidence that they could turn the property around. 2. They were worried about extending their one year gaming license. 3. They legitimately saw an opportunity to make a nice profit and decided to get out. It seems like perhaps the biz was a lot harder than they thought it was going to be... Maybe I'm wrong but these guys seemed like the perfect downtown Las Vegas fairy tale... Hopefully we'll get some more info coming down the pike soon.

Categories: Downtown Las Vegas


Comments

Read archived comments (3 so far)
February 9, 2005 4:53 PM Posted by dr_al

FWIW, I think the *perfect* downtown fairy tale would be someone with slightly deeper pockets.

February 27, 2005 4:49 PM Posted by Marlon

Those two were fools to think they could fill the shoes of casino great Steve Wynn, or even a financially sound corporation as the MGMMirage. The best thing they could have done was to get out before they turned a beautiful and successful property into profit declining trash heap, such as the other hotels down there.

March 10, 2005 8:07 AM Posted by Bellagiofan

Tim and Tom's most serious mistake was to cooperate in the production of the disastrous reality series. The damage to the Golden Nugget image as a high-end facility was near irreparable. The two of them came off as immature frat boys and Tim displayed an ego that was over the top. When they allowed staff members to be shown as irresponsible, as drunks vomiting on the sidewalk of competitors and as attendees at a private S&M bondage party, we stopped watching and stopped patronizing the Nugget -- after an 18 year relationship that included 5-6 visits per year.