Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is acquiring Caesars Entertainment in a massive $17.6 billion deal, per @ericsandler
The deal will merge Caesars’ iconic properties (including Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, and Harrah's) with the Rockets owner’s Golden Nugget brand.
(https://t.co/kfJSbxCEXB)
10 Wild Facts About Tilman Fertitta (the Guy Who Just Bought Caesars)
1. His great-great uncles ran organized crime in Galveston. Sam "The Velvet Glove" Maceo and Rosario "The Iron Glove" Maceo were Sicilian barbers turned Gulf Coast mob bosses who controlled gambling, prostitution, and drugs across Texas. His grandfather ran the operation alongside them. Their illegal casino, the Balinese Room, hosted Frank Sinatra, the Marx Brothers, and some of the biggest names in American entertainment.
2. The Texas Rangers raided the casino 64 times without a single bust. It sat at the end of a 600-foot pier. When Rangers rushed the door, a buzzer sounded, gambling equipment disappeared into hidden wall pockets, and the house band played "The Eyes of Texas" to slow them down.
3. The Maceos invested in the Desert Inn — the largest casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip when it opened in 1950. By the early fifties, the dealers and pit bosses who worked for the Maceos had mostly migrated to Las Vegas, taking the operation with them.
4. The Rangers finally got them on May 30, 1957 — by sending undercover detectives inside first. The Balinese Room was shut down for good. Tilman's great-uncle Anthony left for Las Vegas.
Tilman Fertitta was born 26 days later.
5. His third cousins are the Fertitta brothers — Frank and Lorenzo. They bought the UFC for $2 million and sold it for $4 billion. They also own Station Casinos.
6. By age 21, he had won a free Cadillac selling Shaklee vitamins door to door.
7. In 1993, Tilman tried to buy the Houston Rockets for $81 million. He lost — outbid by $4 million. In 2017, he came back and paid $2.2 billion for the same team. That was roughly 71% of his net worth at the time.
8. Because he owns an NBA team, his own casinos are banned from taking bets on Rockets games. He spent $2.2 billion to own a team and now can't take action on it anywhere he operates. After the Caesars deal, that restriction applies to a much larger list of casinos.
9. He is the current U.S. Ambassador to Italy.
10. He just signed a $17.6 billion deal to acquire Caesars Entertainment — the parent company of Caesars Palace, Harrah's, the Flamingo, and 49 other casinos. It is the largest casino acquisition in American history.
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Please, I need help to bring this lawn tennis kit for kids in my community. There are two standard courts wasting away and underutilized. So I got a free lawn Tennis Racquets and Balls from level playing field, but shipping it Nigeria is now a problem.