Thursday, March 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Owner to keep Imperial Palace

Betty Engelstad tells regulators she plans to keep both casinos for now

Imperial Palace owner Betty Engelstad said Wednesday she has no immediate plans to sell the Strip casino company founded by her late husband, Ralph Engelstad.

Imperial Palace executives said late in 2000 that they wanted to sell the company's Biloxi, Miss., casino, which opened in 1997, but the property has never sold.

But Betty Engelstad said after a meeting of the state Gaming Control Board in Las Vegas she wants to keep both the Strip flagship and the Biloxi property, at least for the time being.

"Things are going well, and we're excited about prospects for the property once the monorail gets going," she said. "We decided not to sell the Biloxi property separately. If we sell, we want to sell the two properties together."

Casino industry expert and University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson said Engelstad's plans are good for Las Vegas.

"It's great for the Strip," Thompson said. "Betty Engelstad obviously has advisers telling her that the Imperial Palace is worth holding on to. She's optimistic, and it's a plus that she's not planning a quick sale."

Thompson said the property has "an interesting niche.

"It's a lower-middle class market, popular with tour groups and low-profile conventions. But it serves a need and has a great location, and Ralph ran the place well. By keeping the IP, she's showing confidence in the whole Strip."

Ralph Engelstad died Nov. 26, and Betty Engelstad said she has gradually increased her workload since then, noting that she wasn't very involved in Imperial Palace operations when her husband ran the property.

"I'm catching on by osmosis," she said with a smile after she left the control board meeting.

Betty Engelstad is not licensed to operate a casino, but she is now undergoing a control board licensing investigation.

The panel voted 3-0 Wednesday to recommend licensing temporary trustees for the Imperial Palace's while the investigation is being completed. The trustees are longtime Imperial Palace lawyer Owen Nitz and Jeffrey Cooper.

Imperial Palace general manager Ed Crispell, the third trustee, runs the property's day-to-day operations and is already licensed, Nitz said.

The Nevada Gaming Commission is slated to vote on the trustees' temporary licensure at its March 20 meeting in Las Vegas.

"There haven't really been any significant challenges (at the hotel since Ralph's death)," Nitz told the board. "Continuity's gone forward without a hitch. It goes on as it did before."

Ralph Engelstad built and opened the Imperial Palace in 1979, and the property now has 2,700 hotel rooms and 2,600 employees, the second-largest sole proprietorship hotel in the world.