Houston billionaire planning to buy Caesars Entertainment in $17.6 billion deal

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]One of the biggest names on the strip in gaming is being sold in a deal valued at $17.6 billion.

[00:00:08]>> Houstonbased billionaire Tilman Fertitta plans to buy Caesar's Entertainment and take it private. Fertida Entertainment will pay $5.7 billion and take on close to 12 billion in debt from Caesars. And Fox 5's Joe Vhill has been gathering reaction. He's live outside Caesar's Palace right now with more on this.

[00:00:30]Yeah. Well, the main question we are trying to answer is what, if anything, will happen to all the Caesars's employees.

[00:00:38]We asked Caesars about jobs, but officials say they are not adding anything beyond their press release. We have not yet heard back from Fertitta Entertainment, but we did hear from the Culinary Union, which says 10,000 culinary union members are employed at Caesar's Entertainment properties throughout the state. The union said in part, "The culinary union has had strong relationships with both Caesars and Tilman Fertitta, and we do not see that changing." And adds, "The culinary union remains committed to ensuring that workers' rights are respected, their jobs are protected, and the union contract is fully enforced." We also talked to an associate professor at the William F. Hera College of Hospitality at UNLV. when things like this happen, what typically happens with jobs or what would you expect to possibly happen with all these employees?

[00:01:27]>> I mean, to be honest, it the acquisition itself is really what drives what happens to the jobs. Who's acquiring it?

[00:01:34]Where are they from? You know, the the thing about this that I think is has some potential positives for the current Caesar's employees is that while Fertitta has experience in the city with the golden nugget, he isn't a large player. So it's not like when say Hera and Caesars merged or when MGM and Mirage merged where you had a lot of repetition of corporate jobs. Probably not going to have that much of that here because there's not a lot of people here in terms of people losing their jobs or those types of things. Um I actually I I did all of my graduate work in Houston so I'm I'm quite familiar with Fertida and with his operations with people who've worked for them and he has a very good reputation as an employer. So, I think that there's some potential positive upside, but I think, you know, some of the the layoffs we've seen in the past when you have the companies in town merge, it's unlikely to happen.

[00:02:31]Right, back live. Bellerino said this combination has a lot of positive upside, saying when there's an acquisition of a major player on the strip, it is great to see it from someone with so much hospitality and casino experience. Now, Fertina owns hundreds of restaurants and the Golden Nugget, of course, here in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and in Laughlin. We are live outside Caesar's Palace on the strip tonight. Joe Vill, Fox 5 News, local Las Vegas. Back to you.

[00:02:57]>> All right, Joe, thank you. And Fertitta also owns the Houston Rockets NBA team.

[00:03:01]Bellaro said that something interesting about Fertitta's team in the Vegas getting an NBA team. We'll dive more into that tonight at 6 o'clock.