Michael Gaughan: The Unsung Hero of Las Vegas Gaming

Michael Gaughan wields as much influence in the Las Vegas gaming community as the chief executives who oversee some of the Strip's largest publicly traded resorts.

The 81-year-old Gaughan carries that respect with just a single 2,100-room hotel-casino that sits on 56 acres along Las Vegas Boulevard, 6 miles south of what is considered the Strip’s southern border.

It only took about two years for Gaughan to realize that he would not be comfortable in the corporate gaming world after he sold his four-property Coast Casinos to Boyd Gaming for $1.3 billion in 2004. He took a seat on Boyd’s board and agreed to oversee the final construction phases of the then-South Coast resort, which was nearly 70 percent complete.

Gaughan immediately had seller’s remorse. Ten months after the property opened in December 2005, Gaughan traded his stock in Boyd Gaming — valued at $512 million — back to the company in exchange for ownership of the resort, which was renamed South Point Hotel and Casino.

The transaction returned Gaughan to his roots as a solo casino operator — an increasingly rare breed in a casino market now dominated by multibillion-dollar corporations. And in a gaming market where the only consistency is change, Gaughan — who shuns the spotlight and had to be convinced to have his photo taken for this story — has been a constant for almost the last two decades, expanding the South Point into one of Las Vegas’s most successful gaming operations.

What do you think?

• Is Michael Gaughan's approach to running a casino refreshing in today's corporate-dominated landscape?
• Do you believe South Point's success is sustainable in the long run?
• Should more casino operators follow Gaughan's business model?