Don’t tell Lenore Davis that Reno isn’t a gambling town. 

The San Francisco Bay Area resident still prefers Northern Nevada’s older casinos despite her proximity to California tribal properties.

“Honestly, I wish they had never happened,” Davis said of her home state’s $12 billion Indian gaming market. 

Tribal casino competition has been cited as the main cause behind Reno’s overall gaming revenue decline, which has sunk by more than 12 percent since 2000 and led to the closure of older casinos including the Sundowner and Golden Phoenix. 

A new wave of Northern California tribal casino expansion this year sent up the warning flag to Reno gaming operators. However, through the first eight months of 2025, Reno gaming revenue is up more than 4 percent compared to last year, and visitation is up almost 2 percent, even as tourism still lags pre-pandemic traffic.

Davis, who has been coming to Reno since the mid-1990s, stayed at Fitzgerald’s until the resort closed in 2008, eventually becoming the non-gaming Whitney Peak Hotel in 2014.

“We still come to Reno twice a year, staying Thursday through Sunday,” Davis said on a Friday morning in September while gambling on a dragon-themed slot machine on the main floor of the aging CalNeva Casino.

But loyal customers such as Davis are becoming rarer, challenging a Reno market that is much more dependent on gaming as part of its revenue mix than the Strip. To counter the trend, inspiration is coming from the Las Vegas playbook. 

Two projects to revive aging resorts in the downtown area are underway, and the development of a 10,000-seat sports arena 3 miles east of Virginia Street is indicative of how non-gaming businesses are helping boost operators’ bottom lines. 

Over the next few years, billions of dollars will be spent to create large entertainment venues while adding restaurants, bar enhancements, nightlife attractions and remodeled hotel rooms.

For Jacobs Entertainment CEO Jeff Jacobs, who rebranded the Sands Regency into the J Resort in 2023 and opened a 20,000-capacity festival grounds — a block south of the hotel-casino — non-gaming offerings are the best way to grow Northern Nevada’s prospects. By the time he’s done, Jacobs expects to spend more than $1 billion to create an arts and entertainment district that will encompass eight square blocks in downtown Reno. 

“Rather than going head to head with the existing big boxes in a mature market, we’ve decided to grow with non-gaming amenities that will attract non-gaming customers,” Jacobs said in an interview. “We’re focused on driving room nights, whether they’re gamers or not, until we build up our book of business.”

Reno casinos are still much more dependent on gaming revenue than their Strip counterparts.

According to the Gaming Control Board’s annual Gaming Abstract, which measures all forms of revenue generated during a fiscal year, Strip resorts in 2024 collected total revenue of $21.9 billion. Gaming accounted for $5.7 billion of the overall figure — 26 percent. That same year, Reno resorts collected $1.5 billion in total revenue, with $647.9 million coming from gaming — 43 percent.

Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said in an interview Friday that she has long sought economic diversification for the city, but she never realized how much gaming revenue carried the overall load. 

She said new developers coming into Northern Nevada are bringing along a broader vision.

“You would see in a portfolio the arts and culture and food and tourism. It’s all these different sectors,” Schieve said. “That’s really now what's happening. You have these outside visions that I think see the potential that maybe a lot of people missed for many years.”

Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Mike Larragueta hopes Reno can mirror the Las Vegas model. He said a renewed effort to reopen the historic Harrah’s Reno as a non-gaming hotel and office complex would remove a blight on the center of downtown, adjacent to the Reno Arch.

Harrah’s Reno closed in 2020. An effort to rebrand the building as the non-gaming Reno City Center collapsed in 2022 when the owners filed for Chapter 11  

“The Harrah’s property is a big footprint, and having a chain link fence around a major property like that in the heart of your city is not digitally appealing,” Larragueta said. “A city’s center is always going to be a draw for visitors.”

Meanwhile, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport is more than 18 months into a 10-year, $1 billion expansion project and experienced its busiest month in 20 years during August with more than 489,000 passengers. The airport served 4.8 million passengers in 2024, its highest traffic count in nearly two decades.

But the biggest splash came Tuesday, when Grand Sierra Resort broke ground on its $435 million, 10,000-seat sports and entertainment arena that is expected to be the first phase of a $1 billion redevelopment of the 2,000-room hotel-casino. 

The arena, which will become the home court for the Nevada Wolfpack men’s basketball team and is receiving public funding, is expected to draw headline entertainers and other sporting events that have normally bypassed Reno. But the two-year development won’t include an expansion to Grand Sierra’s casino floor.

“The arena will create more demand for the entire Reno market,” Grand Sierra General Manager Shannon Keel said in an interview before the groundbreaking. “If our property is full and we can’t sell any additional rooms, that’s going to be a win-win for our competitors to fill their rooms.”

Reviving the city’s center 

Mark Huse, who oversees operations of Caesars Entertainment’s three downtown Reno resorts, commonly referred to as The Row — Eldorado, Silver Legacy and Circus Circus — said the company views the new projects not as competition, but as welcome additions to the market.

As with many properties in the Caesars chain, The Row has increased its non-gaming amenities, adding Gordon Ramsay-branded dining locations in addition to long-established restaurants, such as La Strada and Brew Brothers at the Eldorado. The resort and restaurants were launched by the Carano family, who took control of Caesars in a $17.3 billion acquisition in July 2020.

“We have a lot of customers who come here for different reasons,” Huse said. “It’s all about creating options. Our customers have discretionary dollars and we need to help them decide how to spend them.” 

The former Harrah’s Reno was purchased this year by Boise, Idaho-based Ahlquist Commercial Real Estate Development and has been rebranded as Revival Reno, turning the property’s former room towers into a combination of boutique hotel and office space.

In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal in July, Ahlquist CEO Tommy Ahlquist said he was looking at splitting the project into different pieces with different owners responsible for development. 

“It gives you tons of flexibility,” he said.

Last month, Las Vegas-based hospitality operator Fine Entertainment announced it would transform 180,000 square feet of property near the Reno Arch into more than half a dozen restaurants, taverns and nightlife attractions. 

Fine officials declined to comment on the project. The company will add several brands that are well-known in Las Vegas, including PKWY Tavern and The George Sportsmen’s Lounge, whose original location is part of the Durango Casino Resort’s sportsbook.

Huse said Caesars’ three casinos would benefit from the foot traffic from Revival, especially from the office and hotel components. The Row operates a combined 4,060 rooms, 225,000 square feet of casino space, and 50 restaurants, bars and lounges.

“We have different entertainment choices, and we think that works well with the changing building across the street,” Huse said. 

A sports arena for Reno

Two years ago, Grand Sierra owner Alex Meruelo announced that a sports arena would be the centerpiece of a planned $1 billion project for the hotel-casino, which sits on 150 acres. The property, built by gaming pioneer Kirk Kerkorian, opened in 1978 as the MGM Grand Reno. 

The venue saw opposition from several Reno resort operators earlier this year when Grand Sierra sought public financing from the city through tax increment financing (TIF) to pay for a portion of the arena’s development costs. Critics don’t consider the area blighted enough to qualify for the financing, and some say TIF arrangements can be overly opaque and keep tax dollars away from municipal governments, which still have to provide services to the region. 

The naysayers quieted once the city approved an estimated $68.1 million in funding. Jacobs said he was the only local casino operator that did not oppose the public financing.

“I’ve done a lot of urban development. I know how difficult it is,” Jacobs said. “I think it’s good for the market to have a 10,000-seat arena.”

Grand Sierra officials touted renewed support for the venue last Tuesday. The company said more than 500 attended the groundbreaking for the 300,000-square-foot venue in the Grand Sierra parking lot. The initial two-year construction will include a 2,800-space parking garage, a community ice center and a central plaza connecting the arena with the resort. 

As part of the overall plans, which include an expanded aquatic golf facility and employee housing, Grand Sierra could add a new hotel tower in the future.

The arena, which will have suites and hospitality clubs, is expected to be ready for the 2027 college basketball season. Nevada students who attend the games via buses from the university will have a designated entrance. 

Keel said Grand Sierra plans to hire an experienced general manager to operate the arena, which is expected to host 95 events annually. The venue is expected to attract entertainers and sports contests that long bypassed Reno because there wasn’t a suitable venue in the market.

“We’ve looked at our property in a way that we have something for every customer,” Keel said. “There are so many different options that we can bring to the property.”

Nevada Athletic Director Stephanie Rempe said in an interview before the groundbreaking that the arena could be a ticket to hosting NCAA March Madness first and second round regional playoff games.   

“Ticket sales logistics and the division of proceeds with Grand Sierra are still being finalized,” Rempe said. “It’s hard to determine what it will cost to play in the arena. We’re working with GSR to make sure we're all on the same page as we move forward. This is a win-win for the school and the resort.”

Decades in the making

Jacobs said he first got the idea for creating an arts and entertainment district for Reno while operating the Gold Dust West Casino near downtown. He spent five years buying and demolishing roughly 80 downtrodden properties, creating a location for the district that aims to draw both locals and tourists, although the effort has drawn protests from activists who say it’s eliminating some of the few residences available to some of the city’s poorest residents. 

Schieve credited Jacobs with paying for the removal of buildings that were “long past their shelf life,” and moving the residents to more suitable conditions. She defended Jacobs 17 months ago when the matter came up during a Reno City Council meeting.

“It’s always been a challenging property,” Schieve said of the area that bordered much of Jacobs’ hotel-casino. “Now we finally have a developer who has a proven track record. If you go look at his existing projects, they are phenomenal. I think that gives you a benchmark and an idea of who can make a project happen.” 

Jacobs completed a similar entertainment-type project in Cleveland 40 years ago with the same goal as Reno — to attract visitors and locals back to downtown.

The outdoor festival grounds are part of the Reno Neon Line that includes more than a half-mile of lighted sculptures, many of which were built for Burning Man.

“We also have works created for us by internationally acclaimed artists, including two new pieces to be installed in the Spring with our north expansion opening,” Jacobs said.

The remodel of the 700-room J Resort is continuing with a new entrance and additional amenities. 

“Most of our customers are local,” Jacobs said. “I’ve been reluctant to do heavy marketing in the Bay Area until I have a front door.” 

He added that the expansion should be complete by summer 2026. 

Once the J Resort expansion is complete, Jacobs will focus attention on a $300 million expansion to his casino in Black Hawk, Colorado, before continuing work on the J Resort, including a new conference space, an indoor/outdoor pool, a spa and additional hotel rooms.

Positive signs on the gaming front

Larragueta said any development in Reno, be it a new project or the renovation of an older location, is good for the community. The visitors authority said the market has averaged more than 3.8 million annual visitors over the past four years since the pandemic decimated the travel industry in 2020. However, in the four years preceding, Reno averaged 4.2 million visitors. 

Stephen Ascuaga grew up in Northern Nevada gaming. His late father, John Ascuaga, founded the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, growing the small property into a popular resort that catered to visitors and locals.

Now working as the corporate director of business development for the privately owned Peppermill Hotel & Casino, Ascuaga outlined the numerous renovations and expansions the South Virginia Street casino has undertaken over the years. The property has grown from a small coffee shop in the 1970s to a destination hotel-casino with more than 1,600 rooms, 10 restaurants and more than 100,000 square feet of convention space. 

Despite becoming one of Reno’s larger resorts, Ascuaga said the customer base continues to carry a local flavor.

“We’re always a mix of tourists and locals. On most weekdays, our customers are 60 percent local,” Ascuaga said. “On weekends, it’s flipped the other way. That’s a reason why we’ve added amenities, such as a spa and the pool area. We’re a regional draw. People come to get away.”

Ascuaga said Peppermill operators “are big fans of what Jeff has done at J Resort” and believe the Grand Sierra arena will boost business throughout the Reno market.

“Northern Nevada has diversified, and it's taken time,” he said. “Honestly, we all want a healthy downtown Reno.”