Casino owner Stevens buys up Riviera slot machines, other equipment

Gaming machines from the recently closed Riviera will soon find new life in downtown Las Vegas.

Derek Stevens, owner of the D Las Vegas and the Golden Gate, purchased 852 Riviera-owned slot machines, four roulette wheels and spare machine parts, he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday. Stevens’ purchase accounts for 100 percent of the available gaming equipment for sale from the Strip resort, which closed at noon Monday.

The new gaming equipment will be used at both the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate, Stevens said, and some of the machines will debut at their new home casinos before Memorial Day. Slot machines will be added to the two casinos in groups of eight to 10, Stevens said.

But most, about 500 of the machines, will be resold at a private auction, he said, scheduled for the end of June. The auction will be open only to licensed gaming distributors and companies.

“We have a pretty large warehouse and we’re going to be moving everything into our systems,” he said.

Stevens would not disclose how much he paid for the machines. But his moving crews were there as early as Tuesday, taking them out of the Riviera just 24 hours after it closed.

“It was very straightforward, we wanted to increase our spare parts inventory and get some new equipment,” Stevens said.

Not all of the Riviera equipment was for sale, Stevens said. Popular, vendor-owned machines such as Wheel of Fortune and Megabucks were sent back to IGT.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.