In Fallon, Las Vegas

Chrysler Chief Lee Iacocca to buy a Nevada Casino

2007-01-09
Reading time 1:29 min

The item is on the agenda for the Nevada Gaming Control Board's meeting Wednesday in Las Vegas. Full House operates the Deadwood Gulch Resort in Deadwood, and manages an American Indian casino in Oregon and a racetrack casino in Delaware. The company is also developing Indian gaming projects in Michigan, Montana and New Mexico.

Iacocca has been a director for the company since 1998. Former Showboat executive Andre Hilliou, who operated the company's casinos in Atlantic City and Sydney, Australia, serves as chief executive officer and a director for Full House. "This is a strategic purchase for the company where they can go into a small, locals market and make a big splash," said Las Vegas gaming attorney Tony Cabot of Lewis & Roca, who represents Full House.

Stockman's has a 780 sqm casino with 280 slot machines and four table games. The adjacent Holiday Inn Express has 98 rooms. Full House Resorts went public in late December, raising us$ 21.3 million in an initial public offering. The company planned to use us$ 10.5 million of the proceeds to fund its acquisition of Stockman's. Shares in Full House rose 7 cents, or 1.89 percent, Friday to close at us$ 3.77 on the American Stock Exchange.

Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said Friday he waived Iacocca's appearance in front of the panel Wednesday at the request of Cabot. Iacocca, who owns about 12 percent of the shares in Full House, is scheduled to be out of the country.

Cabot said Iacocca would appear before the Nevada Gaming Commission when the panel meets January 25 in Las Vegas to act on the control board's recommendation. Iacocca turned around the fortunes of Chrysler Corp. as the carmaker's chairman and chief executive officer in the 1980s. The manufacturer was on the verge of bankruptcy when he took over, appearing for the company in a national advertising campaign. He made famous the phrase, "If you can find a better car, buy it."

In 2005, he reappeared in a Chrysler advertising campaign. In September, Full House announced that it had entered a consulting agreement with Iacocca in which the former automobile industry executive would help market and advertise the company and its projects over the next three years in exchange for stock incentives.

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