Ralenkotter boosted Vegas tourism, but a former Strip CEO's company helped push him out
I was honored that Rossi Ralenkotter wanted to talk with me about a subject he had never discussed publicly — his departure from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. He knew his time was running out. The attendees at his memorial service last week were a cross section of Las Vegas and Nevada history. It was a fitting tribute.
Toward the end of the hourlong memorial service for Rossi Ralenkotter last week at St. Viator Catholic Church, hundreds of attendees listened to an instrumental version of The Beatles’ In My Life.
The music was a fitting tribute to the former CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), who succumbed to cancer on Oct. 10 after a 16-year fight with the disease. He was 78.
The opening lyrics could have described Ralenkotter’s four-and-a-half-decade influence on Las Vegas, which no longer resembles the dusty desert town where he grew up.
“There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better;
Some have gone and some remain.”
It also reflected Ralenkotter’s love for the Beatles. On Aug. 20, 1964, a 17-year-old Ralenkotter attended both performances by the British rock ’n’ roll band at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The story told by his family was that he took a different date to each show.
Ralenkotter’s career was recognized in a Wall Street Journal article last week that lauded his efforts to transform Las Vegas from a gambling community into an international tourist destination, growing from almost 8.5 million visitors in 1973 to nearly 43 million in 2016.
During those years, he became one of the more influential leaders in the U.S. travel industry. However, he never aspired to any role outside of Las Vegas.
South Point Casino and Hotel owner Michael Gaughan, who had known Ralenkotter since elementary school, said the unique initiatives and programs he used to market Las Vegas are now the normal course of business.
I met Ralenkotter as a reporter in the late 1980s and early 1990s, covering gaming and tourism for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. During my nine years with R&R Partners, I was part of a team that worked closely with the LVCVA. I covered the agency again as a reporter from 2004 to 2016.
He and his wife, Mary Jo, met more than six decades ago while attending Bishop Gorman High School. They had been married and divorced from different people when they reconnected in 1989, marrying and raising their blended family of five children, which has since grown to 10 grandchildren.
I also had a window to his personal side, which I believe is one of the reasons a family representative approached me this summer to interview Ralenkotter, who decided to let the disease run its course after doctors said there wasn’t much more they could do.
We had a 45-minute visit at Southern Highlands Golf Club in the community where he lived on Aug. 4. Separately, KLAS-TV Channel 8 journalist George Knapp also interviewed Ralenkotter.
He retired from the LVCVA in 2018, after the tourism agency was embroiled in controversy over the misuse of airline gift cards. A two-year investigation into the LVCVA by the Las Vegas Review-Journal uncovered the travel card abuse and led to Ralenkotter’s departure.
Ralenkotter told me he made a mistake and apologized. “I think that anybody in any career that lasted as long as mine should be judged on the strength of what you accomplished,” he said.
But I also knew the backstory behind the newspaper’s investigation. It was launched shortly after the family of the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who controlled The Venetian and Palazzo resorts and The Venetian Expo and Conference Center, secretly purchased the media outlet in December 2015.
The Adelsons created a shell business with a frontman. I was part of the reporting and editing team that uncovered the Adelsons as the newspaper’s true buyer a week later.
A new editor arrived in January 2016 with his marching orders. He told a now-former deputy editor the newspaper needed to investigate the LVCVA. The request came after the editor revealed to me and other reporters that, before accepting the job, he had dined several times with the Adelson family.
Adelson had long feuded with the LVCVA, which, like Sands, ran a major convention center. Ralenkotter believed the quarrel began in the mid-1990s when the agency turned down a request by the billionaire to purchase The Venetian Expo.
Through Las Vegas Sands, he fought for years to cut the LVCVA’s funding.
In January 2016, Adelson, who was behind the effort to build what is now Allegiant Stadium, wanted to divert hotel room tax revenues that supported the LVCVA toward the stadium project. Ralenkotter objected, saying, “The LVCVA has many responsibilities in its mission to bring visitors here. We always need to make sure we are adequately funded to fulfill that mission.”
Following Adelson’s death, Las Vegas Sands sold its Strip holdings for $6.25 billion and now only operates casinos in Macau and Singapore.
Toward the end of our interview, Ralenkotter credited Adelson for what he built in Las Vegas, but said the billionaire had a misguided opinion of the LVCVA.
“He didn't really think that the town needed a convention authority because Las Vegas sells itself,” Ralenkotter said. “That's not the case. There's competition all over the world.”
CEO: Gaming and Leisure won’t fund all of Bally’s Strip project
Gaming and Leisure Properties CEO Peter Carlino likes the plans for a 500,000-square-foot retail, dining and entertainment district that Bally’s Corp. has proposed to surround the planned $2 billion Major League Baseball stadium on the Strip.
However, Carlino said the real estate investment trust isn’t ready to put money into the development, which is also expected to include a 3,000-room hotel-casino.
“We see tremendous potential and opportunity in Las Vegas,” Carlino said during Gaming and Leisure’s third-quarter conference call last week. “It's unlikely that we will finance the entire project. But there are profit-making elements that I think we could participate in.”
Gaming and Leisure contributed $175 million to Bally’s for last year’s implosion of the Tropicana Las Vegas. But the casino operator used just $45.5 million of the funds.
Carlino was noncommittal on Las Vegas. Bally’s is already receiving $940 million in financing from Gaming and Leisure for its $1.7 billion Chicago casino resort.
Also, Bally’s could be looking at the real estate investment trust to help fund a $4 billion, 500,000-square-foot resort in New York City, should the company win one of three gaming licenses.
What I'm reading
🧳 Travel industry sounds alarm over government shutdown — Siobhan Hughes, The Wall Street Journal
Americans “expect and deserve a fully functioning federal government during the peak holiday travel season.”
🎰 UAE Gaming Regulator Says More Resort-Casinos Are Coming — Bailey Schulz, Skift
Jim Murren expects the United Arab Emirates will have two to four resorts over the next five to 10 years.
🏗️ Norfolk casino project advances with gaming license approval — Tracy Cooper, 13NewsNow (CBS)
Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia expect to open a temporary casino this month while the $750 million permanent property is built.
💸 Rob Goldstein grossed $41M on his second Las Vegas Sands share disposal in a week — GGR/Asia
The retiring chairman and CEO sold 700,000 shares on Oct. 29, following the sale of 300,000 shares two days earlier. He collected a total of $59 million on the two sales.
News, notes and quotes
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MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle and his wife, Wendy Hornbuckle, agreed to lead a philanthropic effort in funding children’s health services in Nevada, including the development of the state’s first stand-alone children’s hospital. Intermountain Health first announced its plans in October 2024 to build Nevada’s first stand-alone children’s hospital, which will be located at UNLV’s Harry Reid Research and Technology Park. The development is expected to cost more than $1 billion.
🚖 Zoox plans to add service to and from the Sphere next year
Sphere Las Vegas will become a stop for Amazon’s robotaxi service Zoox early next year. The $2.3 billion entertainment venue will have a dedicated pick-up and drop-off zone for autonomous ride-hail vehicles. As part of this partnership, Zoox will receive brand exposure across Sphere’s platforms, including custom-branded content on the Exosphere. Zoox is currently providing service in the resort corridor to five designated locations, including Resorts World, Luxor and New York-New York.
✈️ Las Vegas gaming attorney headed to the UAE
Former Sightline Payments attorney Jennifer Carleton was named chief of licensing and investigations for the United Arab Emirates’ General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority. Carleton was the chief legal officer at Las Vegas-based Sightline. Wynn Resorts is developing the $5.1 billion Wynn Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah, which is expected to open in 2027.
Updated at 9:50 a.m. on 11/5/2025 to reflect the correct number of Ralenkotter grandchildren.