Aladdin Sold to Japanese Businessman : 1st Foreign National to Own Las Vegas Casino

The Aladdin hotel-casino, a trouble-scarred veteran on the Las Vegas Strip, got a new owner at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday--reputed Japanese millionaire Ginji Yasuda. But, by pre-arrangement, state casino regulators padlocked its gambling operations until he can be licensed.

The Korean-born Yasuda, who is in his early 50s, is the first foreign national to buy one of the gambling palaces in Las Vegas, according to Nevada authorities. He has said he made his money in his adopted homeland of Japan for the $54-million, all-cash deal.

Until such time as Yasuda is licensed, he plans to operate the hotel with a darkened casino. Just to make sure, state agents moved through the casino shortly after midnight, taping the slot machines and safeguarding the tables from crapshooters and blackjack players.

State casino regulators have indicated that it may take as long as six months to check out the origins of Yasuda’s wealth and investigate his character.

Yasuda bought the Aladdin out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas after the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund had foreclosed its loans.

The new Aladdin owner has a Los Angeles residence and a thoroughbred stable here, President Richard Bunker of the new Aladdin said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

The Aladdin’s prior owner was Edward Torres, who bought out entertainer Wayne Newton as a partner about two years ago after a falling-out.

The owners immediately prior to the Torres-Newton regime had their license revoked by the state in 1979 following federal convictions of several Detroit crime figures for illegal hidden ownership.

At that time, the state tried to padlock the Aladdin for six months but was prevented by a ruling by then-U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne. When his ruling was overturned on appeal, the Aladdin on July 10, 1980, became the first major Las Vegas casino ever shut down in a state disciplinary action. Newton and Torres bought it shortly afterward.

Yasuda’s advisers are preparing material for his application for a casino license and expect to file it between Feb. 1-15, Bunker said.

Wealthy Parents

Bunker said he understands that Yasuda was on the Korean rifle team in the 1964 Olympics. Reports published in Japan also have said that he was an auto race driver until about 1970. His parents were wealthy, according to the same reports, and Yasuda came to the United States after his father bought a Hollywood mansion.

Yasuda had a Korean name of Park Sam-Kyu, according to reports. Bunker said it is “not uncommon” for such a name change, “according to information I get.”

Some 95 Aladdin employees were left without jobs by the casino closure Wednesday. Some 220 other employees were required to reapply for their jobs by Yasuda, who previously served notice that he would not accept existing union contracts.

Bunker, a former chairman of the state Gaming Control Board, said 191 employees were working by Wednesday afternoon. Asked about any repercussions from canceling the union contracts, Bunker said: “It (the new ownership) has gone for 14 hours now and its all OK so far.”

In addition to the hidden ownership scandal of the late 1970s, the Aladdin also was the subject of 1979 indictments and later criminal trials over construction kickbacks.

In 1983, a U.S. organized-crime strike force prosecuted the case and won a conviction of the Aladdin’s former general counsel, Sorkis Webbe Sr. of St. Louis, on charges of evading income taxes on $160,000 in kickbacks.