Lucky Man Wins $6.4 Million At Flamingo Las Vegas Casino

A lucky gambler in Vegas kicked off the year on a high when he won the biggest Pai Gow progressive jackpot of all time. The poker player was Pai Gow, which is typically played using a 52-card deck and a joker, at the Flamingo Las Vegas Casino. The Vegas-based poker player took home approximately $6,443,401 for his troubles.

This was the first major jackpot won in Vegas since the beginning of 2023. The local poker player has since been identified as Thomas Evans Zanot. Based on reports from local publications, Zanot won the jackpot with a straight flush, via the joker. Specifically, the winning card combination was the 8, 9, 10, the jack, the queen, as well as the ace of spades.

What most people don’t realize is that Zanot is a professional poker player with winnings totaling $1.120,076 million from various live poker tournaments. Thomaz Zanot, originally from Arizona, has been playing pro poker since 2014. His last live poker tournament was at the $9,800 No Limit Hold ’em –at December’s World Poker Tour Championship that was organized at the Wynn.

Almost all casino properties in Las Vegas offer Face Up Pai Gow Poker. To take part in the base game, a poker player needs a minimum wager of between $15 and $100 based on the table and the casino one is playing at. The game was introduced by a well-known casino owner known as Sam Torosian in the 1980s.

Since its introduction to the floor, the evolved game has become a mainstay in modern casinos. Also commonly referred to as double-hand poker, the game is played using a 52-card deck and a joker in place of conventional Chinese Pai Gow dominoes. In the simplest explanation possible, the objective of the game is to make 2 poker hands- a 5-card hand, as well as a 2-card hand.

When a player has 2 poker hands that beat the dealer’s hands, they are declared the winner. This explains why Pai Gow Poker is commonly referred to as double-hand poker. Four-winning combinations for Pai Gow Poker are similar to traditional poker and include a Four of-a-kind, Full House, Royal flush, and all that jazz.

Pai Gow Poker is relatively easy to learn, which is why it has remained such a hit with both novice and experienced poker players. Though slow-paced and simple to understand, the game does pack a punch and comes with all the bells and whistles that you would expect from conventional poker games.

At the end of January, another poker player who was staying at Caesars Palace Las Vegas scored a $1,040,252 jackpot at a slot machine on the casino floor. Caesars Entertainment is also the parent company of Flamingo Las Vegas. Two additional Caesars Entertainment properties namely, Paris Las Vegas and Harrah’s Las Vegas, also recorded massive jackpot wins at the beginning of 2023.

The sale of the Flamingo Las Vegas Casino still on hold

In May 2022, Caesars Entertainment Inc announced that it would start looking for a buyer for Flamingo Casino for at least $1 billion. Caesars Entertainment Inc announced that it wanted to offload one of its properties as part of its effort to reduce its mounting debt. Last year, the company announced that it had accumulated $13.5 billion in net debt by the end of Q1 last year.

Several potential buyers including private equity firms and additional operators passed on the purchase of the Flamingo Casino. Many of the interested parties reportedly passed up on the purchase of Flamingo owing to the older state of the casino property, which requires a lot of upgrades and maintenance. As a triple net real estate investment trust, VICI will not be responsible for the repair as the new operator of the venue would handle that responsibility singlehandedly.

The Flamingo is easily one of the oldest casinos on the Strip. Originally launched in 1964, the casino was constructed under the direction of well-known gangster Bugsy Siegel.  Another big issue is that once the sale of the Flamingo Casino has been completed, the casino hotel would likely lose business when separated from Caesars’ lucrative loyalty program. 

Plus, Vici Properties, which is a real estate company that operates several Caesars properties, has the right to veto the sale of multiple Caesars casinos including Bally’s Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Paris Las Vegas, and Flamingo, which no doubt complicated the sale of the property. In addition, Vici Properties also owns the land and real estate assets of Harrah’s Atlantic City, Harrah’s Laughlin, and Harrah’s New Orleans.

Aside from the Flamingo, another property that Caesars considered offloading was Planet Hollywood, which is situated further down the Strip. After much deliberation though, the team at Caesars opted to keep the property for its massive theatre, which still attracts thousands of visitors each month.

But it now appears that the Flamingo will stay after all

Just before the end of 2022, Caesars Entertainment announced that it would be keeping its portfolio of properties in Vegas intact following a year of signaling to investors plans to offload Flamingo. CEO Tom Reeg announced to hold off the sale of Flamingo Las Vegas during the brand’s 3rd quarter earnings call.

According to the CEO, the market hadn’t been favourable. Additionally, Tom Reeg also confirmed that the cash flow of the Flamingo had continued to rise over the last few months, which allowed Caesars to maintain operations of the property. The company’s 9 properties on and near the Vegas Strip have since returned to normal operations after a devastating pandemic.

Final Thoughts

The Flamingo Las Vegas is one of the most notable casino resorts on the Strip. The landmark casino has been around since it was opened as the 3rd resort to open its doors on the strip. Today, the 2600-capacity casino hotel is the oldest Strip casino to still remain operational.

 As such any brand that successfully purchases the casino hotel would own an important piece of Las Vegas history. Fortunately, the sale of the casino is off, which means that Caesars will still maintain control of the hotel in the future.