The Oasis casino in Mesquite, owned by Black Gaming, temporarily closed its doors in December 2008. The highway billboard for Oasis now advertises Virgin River, another one of Black Gaming’s casinos in Mesquite.
Friday, Dec. 11, 2009 | 3:29 p.m.
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A former Coast Casinos Inc. executive is involved in talks to take over some of Black Gaming LLC’s struggling hotel-casino operations in Mesquite.
In Business Las Vegas Television, an affiliate of the In Business Las Vegas newspaper and the Las Vegas Sun, reported today that Franklin Toti is in talks with Black Gaming.
Toti was a director and vice president of casino operations at Coast Casinos Inc. before Coast was acquired by Boyd Gaming Corp. in a deal completed in 2004.
Toti is a longtime business partner of Michael Gaughan, who was chairman and chief executive of Coast. Gaughan now owns the South Point hotel-casino, where Toti is an executive.
Toti’s son, Anthony Toti, is Black Gaming’s chief operating officer and is a former executive with Coast Casinos.
Michael Gaughan today confirmed his longtime partner, Franklin Toti, is in talks with Black Gaming about the Mesquite casinos.
Michael Gaughan declined to say whether he would invest in any deal with Toti for the Black Gaming properties.
“That’s between me and Frank,” he said.
"They’re working it out with the banks," Gaughan said of the talks between Franklin Toti and Black Gaming.
"I’m retired. I’m down to one place," Gaughan said of his South Point property on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Hit hard by the recession, Black Gaming said net revenue for the third quarter ending June 30 was $27.3 million, down from $36 million in the year-ago.
The company lost $4.8 million in the 2009 quarter, an improvement from the $20.3 million lost in the year-ago quarter.
Black Gaming, in default on more than $205 million in debt, has closed most of its Oasis hotel-casino while keeping the CasaBlanca and Virgin River properties open.
Besides the Toti family ties between the South Point and the Black Gaming properties, the South Point’s sports book runs -- under a pool arrangement -- the Black Gaming properties’ sports books.
The South Point sports book -- under the pool arrangement -- also runs other Las Vegas-area sports books at the El Cortez, the Palms and Cannery Casino Resorts’ Rampart Casino and its two Cannery casinos.
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