Phil Ruffin
Las Vegas, Nevada
Drop Out, Wichita State University
United States
8
casinos, real estate, Self Made
$2,800,000,000
838
1
#838 Billionaires 2019
#302 Forbes 400 2018
Phil Ruffin owns the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino plus 50% of the Trump International Las Vegas hotel alongside friend Donald Trump.Son of a grocer, Ruffin dropped out of college to sell hamburgers with his buddies, then used the profits to buy convenience stores.From there he expanded into real estate: strip malls, office parks, and hotels, including Marriotts in Alabama, California and the Bahamas.In 1998 he bought the New Frontier Hotel & Casino for $165 million; he sold it for $1.2 billion in 2007 to Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva.He bought Treasure Island from MGM in 2009, amid the great recession, for $775 million. Now it's worth twice as much.
Donald Trump was the best man at Ruffin's 2008 wedding to his wife Oleksandra, a former Miss Ukraine.Ruffin once beat out five other billionaires, including investor Ron Burkle, at a Forbes-hosted charity poker game.
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