Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, January 24th.

Today on Forbes, The Last Casino Mogul.

At nearly 6 o'clock on a Tuesday night in late December,

about 500 gamblers are lined up at the Golden Gate Casino on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas

to pick up a ticket for a couple of free drinks

with Derek Stevens, its billionaire owner. The dancing bartenders, as they are known,

dressed in brawlets, panties, and go-go boots, shake their hips to the black-eyed peas,

I got a feeling, as two guests make their way over to shake his hand. The 58-year-old Stevens bought this property, the oldest hotel and casino in Las Vegas, in 2006,

as well as the D, which is just down the street five years later.

He says, quote, every casino needs its own attraction, and people are attracted to an open bar.

Across Fremont is his

crown jewel, Circa, which he opened in 2020 at a cost of $1 billion. Back at the front of the

Golden Gate line, each drink voucher comes with a golden envelope, which usually contains $5

preloaded on a card, but it could be as high as

$1,000. The Golden Gate hosts this very happy hour every night, seven days a week, and it's safe

to say that gamblers spend more money on the slots than they cost the casino with their free drinks.

Stevens, who is wearing a white Oxford under a blue shirt with a Richar

Meal Watch, is the last of a dying breed in Las Vegas, the independent casino mogul.

With his three properties, which he owns with his younger brother, Greg, Stevens is worth

$1.2 billion, Forbes estimates. In a town built by legends like Jay Sarno, Kirk

Corrion, Benny Binion, and later reinvented by Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, almost all the big

operators today, from MGM to Caesars, sold their land and buildings to REITs, often called

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