Billionaire Phil Ruffin is selling his legendary Circus Circus casino on the Las Vegas strip and it could be yours - for a measly $5 billion.
The Circus Circus sits on 102 acres near the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, near the iconic Las Vegas Sphere, the SAHARA hotel and the Fontainebleau hotel. The spot is known for its budget food and drink, as well as family entertainment, making it a top attraction for families visiting Sin City, Forbes reports.
“Let’s just say there is interest,” Ruffin told Forbes. “It’s worth $5 billion.”
“We do well,” he added. “We sell $2 beer, $2 hot dogs, $2 popcorn. People love it. A guy can eat and drink for six bucks.”
Circus Circus is an iconic part of Las Vegas with a decades-long history. The casino opened in 1968 with trapeze acts and trained elephants as their main attractions. The casino is home to a food court and buffet, one of the few left on the Strip, and a water park, local outlet 8 News Now reports. But, is now one of the oldest hotels and casinos on the main stretch of road.
Despite its age, a new attraction, SpongeBob’s Crazy Carnival Ride, opened at Circus Circus last March.
The building’s Circus Circus sign was even once listed as the “world’s largest freestanding sign” in the Guinness Book of Records.
“It’s the best piece of land on the West Coast,” Ruffin told Forbes. “It’s got the highway, it’s got the Sahara, it’s got 2,000 feet on the Strip, and it’s the last Strip property. And 102 acres is just a massive amount of land—you can almost build a city on it.”
Not everything about the property is perfect, however.
“Have you been in there? It’s gruesome,” an executive of a high-end casino further down the Strip told Forbes. “The North Strip is a rough neighborhood.”
For example: in 2018, a man fatally stabbed two people after breaking into their room at the Circus Circus, Forbes reports.
Ruffin hopes to buy another property on the Strip after selling Circus Circus to avoid paying capital gains taxes, he told Forbes. The 89-year-old is also a close friend of President Donald Trump’s. The president was Ruffin’s best man at his wedding, and they have spent every New Year’s Eve together at Mar-a-Lago for the last 12 years.
“I speak to him all the time,” Ruffin told Forbes of Trump. “I give him suggestions; he doesn’t take [them].”
The pair co-own the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, where Matthew Livelsberger, 37, injured seven people and died by suicide after blowing up a rented Tesla Cybertruck.
