Friday, July 25, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.
The Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday approved a casino license for poker bar owner Terry Caudill to own and operate the Four Queens casino downtown.
Caudill, owner of the Magoo's chain in Las Vegas, agreed in May to purchase the property for $20.5 million in an all-stock deal. The sale is expected to close within days.
Caudill submitted loan documents for the property to the Gaming Control Board, Nevada's chief casino regulatory body, earlier this week.
After an earlier hearing with regulators this month, Caudill said he planned few cosmetic changes to the property and would retain all of the Four Queens employees as well as the casino's name.
"It's recognizable -- it's a good property," Caudill said. "There's no reason to change it."
The casino, which has roughly 1,200 slot machines, will be marketed to an even mix of locals and tourists and also will participate in events sponsored by the casino-owned Fremont Street Experience company, he said.
The sale marked the third time in four years that Four Queens' former owner Elsinore Corp. has struck a deal to sell the property. Earlier deals were called off when buyers couldn't come to terms.
Elsinore agreed to sell the casino last summer but upcoming contract negotiations with the Culinary Union -- which represents hotel and restaurant workers at Fremont Street casinos -- stymied the deal.
"It's been an awful lot of work and it took a lot of time but it was definitely worth it," said David Atwell, a resort broker who represented Caudill in the transaction.
The original deal was scheduled to close June 31, 2002, at midnight, the same day that Culinary Union workers downtown were set to go on strike, Atwell said.
The transition from a cash deal to a stock deal required Caudill to get a new set of regulatory approvals, he said.
Caudill is a former math teacher who started Magoo's in 1989 and served as corporate vice president and chief accounting officer for Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., the predecessor to Mandalay Resort Group, for 11 years. He left Circus Circus in 1994 to focus on Magoo's.
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