“It’s always been a brand for gamblers and card players.”īinion keeps an eye on the Las Vegas gaming industry and has followed all the shifts and management moves, although “it’s been a while” since he’s visited the downtown casinos. “Horseshoe is where it all began for WSOP,” said Ty Stewart, the tournament’s executive director.

Caesars also attached the Horseshoe brand to casinos the company co-owned in Cleveland and Cincinnati in 2009 before selling its ownership stake.Ĭaesars timed the Las Vegas name change with previously announced plans to move the annual World Series of Poker to Bally’s from the Rio, which Caesars no longer owns but operates under a management agreement.īinion, along with his late father, Benny Binion, is credited with launching the World Series of Poker in 1970 at the downtown casino. – Binion’s original three in Tunica, Mississippi Hammond, Indiana and Bossier City, Louisiana – in addition to Indianapolis, Baltimore, and Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)Ĭaesars has six Horseshoe casinos in the U.S. (Marnell Companies) Long time casino owner and gaming executive Jack Binion at Venetian Resort Las Vegas on Tuesday, Oct. Rendering of the Horseshoe Las Vegas casino. The company has held onto the poker tournament, but sold Binion’s to downtown casino operator Terry Caudill, who also owns the Four Queens. Later that year, Harrah’s acquired the downtown Binion’s Horseshoe, along with the World Series of Poker, which gave the company the rights to use the Horseshoe brand in Nevada. We were going to have to borrow a whole bunch of money again. “We were kind of at a crossroads and I had a lot of family members in the business. “It was a business deal,” Binion recalled. At the time, Binion said Horseshoe Gaming was considering renovating its northern Indiana casino that drew business from Chicago. In 2004, Binion sold Horseshoe Gaming to Harrah’s Entertainment – the predecessor to Caesars – for $1.45 billion.

He retained a 1 percent stake so he could lawfully keep his Nevada gaming license. “I think that’s what they’re doing now by playing off of it.”Ĭaesars didn’t disclose a cost for the renovation, which includes exterior and interior changes, such as adding the brand’s gold horseshoe logo to carpeting and other signage.īinion, who will turn 85 later this month, placed the Horseshoe brand on three riverboat casinos in Indiana, Mississippi and Louisiana starting in the late 1990s after selling his ownership stake in Binion’s Horseshoe to his sister. “I think Horseshoe is a very meaningful brand for what it stands for, more so than a lot of (casino) brands,” Binion told The Nevada Independent in a brief phone conversation Monday.

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