As reported earlier, Caesars Entertainment is considering takeover offers, particularly a bid from Texas gaming and hospitality billionaire Tilman Fertitta. According to reports, this could be an outright sale, or a management-led buyout, depending on the figures.
Nothing has been confirmed by either Caesars or Fertitta, but Caesars has certainly been struggling recently.
While MGM and Wynn are the first names that come to mind with a potential Caesars takeover, Fertitta Entertainment boasts its own portfolio, including Landry’s Inc, the Houston Rockets and the Golden Nugget casinos.
Fertitta would step up to continue the legacy of the “Big Three” in Vegas, and while this would no doubt alter the operations of these properties, it would also likely affect the niche properties on the Strip.
However, it is also worth noting Fertitta currently owns a near-10% stake in Wynn Resorts.
What are some of the more unusual hotels in Las Vegas?
Outside of the classic Las Vegas portfolio that houses the likes of the Aria and the Bellagio, there are countless unusual properties on the Strip. These include the castle-themed Excalibur and pyramid-shaped Luxor from MGM Resorts, as well as the avian paradise in Flamingo Las Vegas from Caesars.
But if you venture away from these, you can find some of the oldest hotels on the Strip that have become cult classics in their own right.
Circus Circus was opened in 1968 and is the largest permanent circus in the world, with free acts scheduled throughout the day. It features a massive indoor amusement park in the Adventuredome, the Slots-A-Fun Casino, the Splash Zone and Pool and exclusive rides on the property.
While Vegas may be known as ‘Sin City,’ Circus Circus marketed itself as a family-friendly property where kids could enjoy themselves just as much as the adults. While it may have been popular in the 1980s, recent visitors to the hotel have noted that it is in quite a state of disrepair.
Hotel Apache was opened in 1932 and is the second-oldest hotel in downtown Vegas, after The Golden Gate. It innovated several features that are now commonplace in the area, such as being the first location in Las Vegas to have an air-conditioned hotel lobby, a carpeted casino and the first casino to make poker a mainstream table game.
The property has since pivoted itself to offering a ‘Full Haunted Hotel Experience,’ where visitors can stay in rooms where guests have reported hearing voices, doors slamming, electronic disruptions and objects shifting when nobody was in the room. They can even use ghost-hunting kits as part of their stay.
Finally, The Lexi (formerly known as the Aristan) is a beautiful property that targets the adult-only sector, being the first hotel in Las Vegas to market itself as cannabis-friendly and regularly hosting the sort of nights where everyone drops their car keys into a bowl.
How is Las Vegas changing?
Las Vegas is in an awkward position. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, tourism numbers are continuing to decrease, with the total visitor volume down 7.5% year-on-year to 38.5 million in 2025.
Total occupancy is down 3.3% to 80.3%, which has also driven the average daily room rate (ADR) down 5% to $183.52 and the revenue per available room (RevPAR) down 8.8% to $147.30.
The biggest dips were seen in June, July, September and December. And although these declining rates are probably a combination of factors, MGM Resorts International President Bill Hornbuckle did not shy away from the fact that many international travelers simply do not feel welcome in the US anymore.
“And so, there is a broader concern that there is something broader going on and we as a country need to get our act together and focus on welcoming people,” he said during the 2025 Gaming & Lodging Conference in October last year. “We – the collective government and the destinations – need to do a much better job with this.”
So between lower visitor numbers and a tumultuous political landscape, Las Vegas is no longer a safe bet for tourism.
Oliver Lovat, lead Global Gaming Insider contributor, comments: Caesars Entertainment operates some of the leading properties in key markets across North America and has some of the best people in leadership positions. It has a huge customer database, with decades of positive customer equity. It finds itself in an invidious position, due to a large amount of debt, thanks to various restructurings and activist investors. With some dutiful strategy and active management, one of the leading brands in global gaming surely has a place at the center of the North American gaming and hospitality industries for decades to come
What would a Caesars merger mean for smaller properties on the Strip?
If Caesars merged with another operator, there are a few directions the butterfly’s wings could create waves in.
First of all, an operator such as Fertitta could inject a significant investment into the franchise, transforming Caesars into something new and exciting on the Strip. This would put pressure on other operators who would also have to innovate (and renovate) to stay relevant in the tourism scene.
In this scenario, properties such as Circus Circus would be unlikely to fare well. If recent video tours are to be believed, then the premises are already past their prime. Facilities were broken, empty or dirty – and sometimes all three at once.
In another scenario, a Caesars merger could also transform the business into something more aligned with companies turning a profit, such as Wynn Resorts, which managed to increase operating income by 11.1% to $448.8m in Las Vegas during 2025.
This would have the potential to be really positive for somewhere like Hotel Apache or The Lexi, both of which offer something unique and outside of the scope of ‘normal’ properties. If Caesars is forced in line with the image of another operator, it may no longer stand out on the Strip.
Perhaps most importantly, the management-led buyout could radically transform how Caesars' properties are managed. Being closer to the day-to-day operations and figures, the existing management team likely has its own ideas on how Caesars should be run.
The future of Caesars?
One of the biggest complaints about Las Vegas at the moment seems to be the cost of the trip, particularly dynamic pricing and hidden resort fees. These seem to have shattered the public trust in visiting the Strip, as people feel like they cannot budget their stay properly. In many places, the prices for items such as water bottles are no longer even listed until customers take them to the cashier.
There is also the infamous $26 bottle of water at the Aria that made headlines last summer.
“Shame on us,” Hornbuckle said in the same interview. “We should have been more sensitive to the overall experience at a place like Excalibur. You can't have a $29 room and a $12 coffee. We lost control of the narrative over the summer, I think we would all agree to that in hindsight.”
If post-merger Caesars could pivot itself to provide cheaper rooms with clear and static pricing as a first step to repair public trust, then it could spell trouble for all of the other properties on the Strip. Sure, these tactics may have driven profit initially in Las Vegas, but Caesars’ shares are nearing a five-year low and fewer people are willing to visit the area each month.
It may seem like an arbitrary piece of news that Caesars is merely considering offers at this point, but it has the potential to transform the brand and the Strip’s ecosystem along with it. Caesars is a critical part of the Strip (and the wider US market, of course, considering regional operations).
Any changes will be monitored very closely by other operators and hotel owners in the area – especially with change already around the corner in the shape of Hard Rock's future Las Vegas property...
Caesars' last M&A took place in 2019 (completing in 2020) in a $17.3bn deal with Eldorado Resorts
