Jacobs Entertainment

Jacobs Entertainment, Inc.

Industry	Gaming Entertainment Hospitality
Founder	Jeff Jacobs
Headquarters	Golden, Colorado, U.S.
Key people	Jeff Jacobs, Chairman & CEO
Products	Casinos Hotels Entertainment Restaurants
Website	jacobsentertainmentinc.com

The company was formed by Cleveland real estate developer and former Ohio state representative Jeff Jacobs.^[2]^[3] In 1995, it announced a joint venture with Black Hawk Gaming & Development to build a casino hotel in Black Hawk, Colorado.^[4] Jacobs was also reported to be exploring gaming opportunities in 10 other states, as well as South Africa and Aruba.^[2] Later that year, the company purchased 50 percent of Colonial Downs, a horse track under development in New Kent, Virginia, for $5 million, and was negotiating to purchase River Downs, an Ohio horse track.^[5]^[6]

In 1996, the company made a $9 million investment in the Boardwalk Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.^[7]

The Lodge Casino, the company's $73-million joint venture with Black Hawk Gaming, opened in 1998, with Jacobs owning a 25 percent share.^[8]

In 2002, Jacobs and his father, former Cleveland Indians owner Richard E. Jacobs, consolidated their gaming holdings into a reorganized Jacobs Entertainment, Inc., which simultaneously purchased all outstanding shares of Black Hawk Gaming & Development and Colonial Holdings.^[9] The combined company at that point owned The Lodge Casino and The Gilpin Casino in Black Hawk; The Gold Dust West Casino in Reno, Nevada; Colonial Downs racetrack; and six truck stop casinos in Louisiana.^[9]

The company applied for a license to operate a casino in Orange County, Indiana, in 2003, but withdrew its bid in the face of stiff competition.^[10]^[11] It also made plans to develop a casino in D'Iberville, Mississippi, but pulled out of the project in 2004.^[12]

Jacobs held discussions about buying New York racetrack Vernon Downs in 2005, and Casino Aztar Caruthersville in Missouri in 2007, but neither acquisition materialized.^[13]^[14]

In 2006, Jacobs spent over $2 million in support of an Ohio ballot measure that would have authorized the company to open a casino at the Nautica Entertainment Complex, owned by Jeffrey Jacobs. The measure would ultimately fail.^[15]^[16] In later years, Jacobs' expanded Cleveland properties would be collectively renamed as the Nautica Waterfront District.

Jacobs purchased the Piñon Plaza casino in Carson City, Nevada, in 2006 for $14.5 million, and rebranded it as the Gold Dust West Carson City.^[17] The company opened its third casino under the Gold Dust West name in Elko, Nevada, in 2007.^[18]

In 2008 and 2009, the company bought out the shares of Richard E. Jacobs, leaving his son as the sole owner.^[19]

The company acquired the Nautica Entertainment Complex from Jeffrey Jacobs in phases between 2008 and 2012.^[20]^[21]^[22] It then purchased the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, located in the complex, in 2014.^[23]

Jacobs offered itself for sale to MTR Gaming in 2013 for $145 million in stock, but withdrew the offer after MTR agreed to be acquired by Eldorado Resorts.^[24]^[25] The Jacobses had begun purchasing shares in MTR Gaming in 2006, eventually accumulating an 18 percent stake in the company.^[24]^[26] Later in the year, Jacobs made a competing offer to buy MTR, and then withdrew it after Eldorado increased its offer.^[25]^[27]

Since 2008, Jacobs has pursued plans to develop a casino in Diamondhead, Mississippi.^[28] The state gaming commission rejected the proposal in March 2017, but the company filed an appeal.^[29]

Jacobs purchased the Sands Regency Casino Hotel in Reno, a few blocks away from the Gold Dust West Casino, for $30 million in July 2017.^[30]^[31]^[32] The company soon began a $500-million plan to redevelop the corridor between the two casinos with mixed-use developments and retail and entertainment venues.^[33]^[34]

In April 2018, Jacobs sold Colonial Downs, which had been closed since 2014. The track was sold to Revolutionary Racing, a Chicago-based group of investors and gaming executives, for a price of more than $20 million.^[35]