Edward Doumani, who partnered with Steve Wynn in the 1960s to buy the Golden Nugget casino in Downtown Las Vegas and to build the Golden Nugget Atlantic City a few years later, has died. He was 80.
Originally from Los Angeles, Doumani, an attorney, moved to Las Vegas in 1960 with his father, M.K., and brother Fred. The trio opened the La Concha casino in 1961 and the El Morocco in 1964, both on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip.
Doumani met Steve Wynn as a fellow investor in the Frontier on the Strip. Wynn convinced him to partner on buying the Golden Nugget. “Steve told my dad we ought to buy the Golden Nugget gambling hall,” Doumani’s son Lorenzo told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It had no rooms, and my dad convinced Steve and the rest of the board to build rooms Downtown. He was instrumental in turning the Golden Nugget from a gambling hall to a full-fledged hotel.”
Doumani and his brother purchased the Tropicana in the mid 1970s, completely renovating the property before selling it to Ramada in 1977. “When he came to Vegas, it had 50,000 to 60,000 people, and he believed in the promise of Vegas,” Lorenzo Doumani told the Review-Journal. “He was an attorney by trade, but decided to go into development and convinced his dad they should build a hotel.”
A memorial celebration will be held October 22 at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, which uses the original lobby of the La Concha Motel.
