William G. Bennett (November 16, 1924 – December 22, 2002) was an American gaming executive and real property developer. The sale was handled by Salomon Brothers. With the announcement, Bennett bought 900,000 of his Circus Circus shares for $60.25 a share, or $54.2 million. Following his departure from the Webb Corporation, Bennett partnered with William Pennington in a corporation that leased novelty electronic playing machines to casinos. In Might 1974, he and Pennington leased the Circus Circus Resort and On line casino from house owners Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin, forming Circus Circus Enterprises. The pair would eventually exercise an possibility to purchase the property in a fancy transaction accomplished in 1983. Bennett and Pennington brought about sweeping adjustments to the property, including the development of the on line casino’s first 395-room tower and bringing the on line casino’s corrupt carnival-style midway underneath corporate management. With the opening of the property, Circus Circus Enterprises turned Nevada’s largest employer, with 18,000 workers. In 1965, Jacobsen hired Bennett to work at Del Webb’s Sahara Tahoe property in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. William attended Glendale Highschool and Phoenix College and served as a Navy dive-bomber throughout World War II. He attributed this to the company’s pay construction; Despite managing two of the firm’s most profitable properties, Bennett was paid the same $150,000 wage as the company’s different lesser-burdened managers. Bennett and Wynn performed enterprise together and often fraternized within the Mint’s Zodiac Bar. The underwriting was led by Michael Milken and the outstanding investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. Bennett labored as a casino host at evening and worked in quite a lot of the resort’s various different departments in the course of the day, slowly studying the operations of the varied completely different departments of the property. Las Vegas Review Journal. In 1991, Bennett announced he would step down as CEO of Circus Circus Enterprises. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Basis, Inc., a non-profit organization. Bennett’s grandfather Archilbald W. Bennett got here to Arizona from Kansas in 1898, settling in Peoria earlier than moving to Glendale. Unlike most properties at the time making an attempt to appeal to a mature, upscale clientele, Bennett and Pennington marketed the property to center-class households. Following a 1995 lawsuit settlement, Bennett was pressured to relinquish the Hacienda property to Circus Circus and resign his seat on the board. Years later, in 1983, Wynn would persuade Bennett to take Circus Circus Enterprises public. Bennett’s stores had been profitable and he lived a lavish way of life with a house on Exeter Boulevard in the upscale Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix and membership in the prestigious Phoenix Nation Club. Nevertheless, Bennett’s efficiency was rewarded by Webb with inventory options and upon leaving the company in 1971, Bennett realized $5 million from his sale of Del Webb inventory. Following his departure from Del Webb, Wynn offered him a high rating place on the Golden Nugget Corporations; nonetheless, Bennett declined the provide so as to pursue his dream of proudly owning his personal property. A friend of Bennett’s established a financial company for his investments. Noted for pioneering Las Vegas as a destination for center-class vacationers and their households, he’s best remembered for his institution of gaming giant Circus Circus Enterprises in 1974. He served as chairman of Circus Circus between 1974 and 1994. Beneath his management Circus Circus developed quite a few additional properties all through Nevada, together with the Excalibur and Luxor casinos in Las Vegas. Whereas managing the Mint, Bennett grew to become acquainted with liquor salesman Steve Wynn who, like Bennett, would later go on to grow to be one among Las Vegas’s most legendary on line casino owners. This web page was final edited on 16 August 2024, at 00:08 (UTC). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Textual content is available under the Inventive Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.Zero License; additional terms might apply. Following this, Bennett became embroiled in a controversy after personally buying the Hacienda Resort and On line casino immediately south of the Luxor regardless of Circus Circus Enterprises’ own curiosity in doing so. Bennett turned chairman of the corporation upon its formation. On March 15, 1962, Bennett’s wife Barbara died while on vacation with him in Guaymas, Sonora; he sold the furniture retailer to deal with different investments and remarried to Lynn Hummel, an administrative clerk at the store, later that same yr. The next 12 months, Bennett suffered a heart-attack at age 71. Despite this, Bennett proceeded to extensively remodel the property, enlarging the on line casino and adding a variety of household pleasant sights. In 1995, Bennett purchased the Sahara Lodge and On line casino for $193 million. Roughly 5 months after his promotion to night common manager of the Sahara Tahoe, he was transferred to Webb’s Mint property in downtown Las Vegas. In 1993, the corporate again made history with the opening of the iconic $375 million Luxor Resort and Casino, instantly south of the Excalibur. Following his return from the struggle, he established a series of furniture shops in Phoenix. Through the use of this site, you comply with the Terms of Use and Privateness Policy. Following the first decline in annual revenue in the company’s historical past, Bennett stepped down as chairman of Circus Circus Enterprises in 1994. The decline in earnings was attributed to the exorbitant costs associated with the construction of Luxor’s signature pyramid-shaped construction and the new Grand Slam Canyon at Circus Circus. The business plan proved extraordinarily profitable, and Circus Circus Enterprises opened an extra Circus Circus property in Reno in 1978, where Pennington became on-site manager whereas Bennett continued to focus on the Las Vegas property. Jacobsen had facilitated the development and growth-centered Del Webb Company’s diversification into the sphere of gaming and hospitality. Bennett responded by requesting a company plane to transport him between Reno and Las Vegas. Bennett was able to promote his stock in Circus Circus for $230 million. Mismanagement of the company prompted the worth of Bennett’s appreciable stake to plummet, bankrupting him. Al, Stefan (2017). The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream. By his connections in Phoenix, Bennett had change into acquainted with Del Webb Corporation president L. C. Jacobsen. Jacobsen wished to recruit individuals with enterprise backgrounds into the Del Webb Corporation with the hopes that their experiences would assist in the administration of its hotel and casino properties. Circus Circus Enterprises was taken public on October 25, 1983, opening at $15.00 a share and shutting at $16.87. During his time at the Webb Corporation, Bennett had noticed a high turnover price for Webb’s managers. The property had been dropping $4.5 million per 12 months. Bennett managed to improve conditions at the property, eventually managing to show an annual profit of over $10 million. Webb, a frugal survivor of the nice Depression, responded, “No damned airplanes, Air West has all kinds of them.” Bennett took the job anyway with none additional pay. Many former Circus Circus workers followed Bennett to the Sahara with the promise of matched compensation and benefits. During this time, his spouse Lynn worked as a cashier in the Cage at the Sahara Tahoe. In 1983, they bought the Edgewater Lodge and On line casino in Laughlin. Pennington retired from the corporation in 1988. Bennett opened his first new property in 1990, with the revolutionary new $300 million 4000-room Excalibur Hotel and On line casino at the southwest nook of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. William Gordon Bennett was born on November 16, 1924, in Glendale, Arizona, to Allen Milton “Jack” Bennett, a neighborhood rancher, and Marjorie Dean Williams.