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Wednesday, December 01, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: John L. Smith
Ghosts of El Rancho rise to haunt Gore campaign manager
In a city riddled with dark intrigue, the El Rancho might be the last great Las Vegas ghost story.
With so much business activity on the Strip, why does it sit darkened?
The boarded building is enough to make you wonder whether the owners were intending a ghost-town-themed resort. How haunted you find it depends on how deep you dig into its past and interesting network of ownership.
In recent years, former House of Representatives Democratic whip Tony Coelho, who now manages Al Gore's campaign for the presidency, has been listed as one of those owners. In a May Washington Post article, Coelho called his business association with the El Rancho through New Mexico businessman Nunzio DeSantis and the International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. of Cherry Hill, N.J., "one of my biggest disappointments in the last 30 years."
Now there's a man with the gift of understatement.
Perhaps Coelho's only larger public disappointment came after he neglected to report a loan for a $100,000 junk bond investment with California banker Thomas Spiegel. Always known as a tenacious political fighter, Coelho was uncharacteristically quiet in 1989 when he resigned from Congress in the wake of the savings and loan scandal.
Coelho has been making big bucks in the private sector ever since. The ITB/El Rancho deal ranks among his unsuccessful ventures.
Not only has it been a financial failure, but in an election year it has been seized upon by Gore's enemies. The story is drawing national media attention. Part of that focus has led to the Strip and the darkened El Rancho.
Having sat on the board of Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., Coelho was no stranger to gaming operations. He resigned his position with Circus Circus, now the Mandalay Resort Group, after deciding to pursue the El Rancho project with DeSantis.
DeSantis' business activities, which have ranged from operating an enormous auto lending company to owning a company that purchases life insurance policies from terminally ill people, have attracted attention from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And the El Rancho looks so peaceful as it stands there rotting away on Las Vegas Boulevard. It's hard to imagine the care-worn joint could still be controversial in 1999.
But then again, this is the El Rancho.
What began as the Thunderbird in September 1948 was reinvented as the Silverbird in 1976. By August 1982, it was resurrected yet again as Ed Torres' El Rancho. Although a gaming licensee, Torres had worked for Meyer Lansky in Havana and had been acquainted with some of organized crime's most notorious characters, according to law enforcement sources and the state Gaming Control Board. Not that those associations prevented him from being found suitable by Nevada's high standards.
But not even the experienced Torres could turn a profit there, and the El Rancho busted out in 1992. Torres sold the property to Las Vegas Entertainment Network Inc., which failed to reopen its doors, then passed it to the International Thoroughbred Breeders Corp., an operation as colorful as anything painted by Jackson Pollock.
My favorite ITB officer was Robert Brennan, who has the dubious distinction of being fined $71.5 million by the SEC. If my scorecard is correct, Brennan sold his interest to DeSantis and Coelho, who thus far have failed to make magic at the El Rancho.
It's hard to blame them. This is one cursed casino site.
Failed development plans have added to the El Rancho saga in recent years. The most entertaining unkept promises are the Countryland USA and $1 billion Starship Orion themes. Countryland was to have included a pair of hotel towers shaped like cowboy boots. Starship Orion was going to be a Star Wars-like casino-resort.
These days, you can't line dance or act like an alien at the El Rancho. You can't double down or play a nickel slot there, either.
That's not to say the place is dead.
After reviewing video footage shot by KVBC-TV, Channel 3, which managed to gain access to the El Rancho for its series on the shuttered casino, it's clear the joint is very much alive. Perhaps the new owners see its true potential.
Throughout the El Rancho's colorful history, potential is one thing it has had in abundance.
Potential, and ghosts.
Whether those apparitions manage to haunt the present from the Strip to the White House remains uncertain.
John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Reach him at 383-0295 or Smith@lvrj.com.
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