Blake L. Sartini

Blake L. Sartini
Chairman, President and CEO
of Golden Entertainment, Inc.
Personal details
Born Blake L. Sartini
(1959-01-16) January 16, 1959
Stockton, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Spouse(s) Delise Sartini
Children Blake Jr.
Lorenzo
Sandra
Residence Las Vegas, Nevada
Alma mater University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Business Administration(BA)
Occupation Gaming and Entertainment Entrepreneur

Blake L. Sartini (born January 16, 1959) is an entrepreneur in the Nevada gaming and entertainment industry.

He is Chairman, President and CEO of Golden Entertainment, Inc., an owner and operator of distributed gaming, taverns and casinos based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was formed in 2015 by the merger of Golden Gaming (founded in 2001 by Blake Sartini) and Lakes Entertainment.[1] The Golden Entertainment group of companies operates 9,250 slot machines and video lottery terminals, as well as 22 table games in Nevada and Maryland across four casino properties, 48 taverns and 670 route locations..

Early life

Blake L. Sartini was born in Stockton, in the San Joaquin County of California. He is the son of Arthur Dennis Sartini and Sandra Louise Myers. He attended junior college in Stockton, and in 1964, when Blake was 5 years old, Arthur took a job as the assistant executive director of the Las Vegas Housing Authority.[2]

Education

Sartini attended Ed W. Clark High School, where he played football as a tight end and defensive end. He enrolled in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and in 1982 earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Career

Station Casinos

In 1983 Sartini married Delise Fertitta, and in 1985 year began working with his father-in-law at Station Casinos as a table games foreman at Palace Station.[3] Over the course of a decade he worked his way up to executive vice president, chief operating officer and director of Station Casinos. He was one of the four founding members when it became a public entity in May 1993.[4] Under Sartini’s leadership the company grew from one property with 2,000 team members and $150 million in revenue to eight casinos with 12,000 team members and $850 million in revenue.[5]

Golden Gaming

Throughout the 1990s Sartini served as president of the Station Casinos subsidiary Southwest Gaming Services, a slot route operator that he originally founded in 1985. In 2001, he acquired the company from Station Casinos[6] and it became Golden Route Operations, a division of Golden Gaming, LLC.

In 2002, he formed the Golden Tavern Group subsidiary — now known as PT’s Entertainment Group — and acquired the PT’s chain of taverns.[7] It is now the largest tavern operator in Nevada, with 49 establishments including PT’s, Sean Patrick's Irish Pub & Grill and Sierra Gold.

The third division is the Golden Casino Group, which consists of the Pahrump Nugget Hotel & Casino, the Gold Town Casino and the Lakeside Casino and RV Park in Pahrump, Nevada and Rocky Gap Casino and Resort in Flintstone, Maryland.

The Gold Town and Lakeside Casino and RV Park were purchased as part of a larger deal in March 2012 with Affinity Gaming[8] that made Golden Gaming the largest casino operator in Nye County, and also (through Affinity’s slot route business) the largest slot route operator in Nevada.[9] In January 2013, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved the issue of an interactive gaming license to Sartini Synergy Online, the interactive arm of Golden Gaming.[10]

Sartini Enterprises and Service1st Bank

In addition to his gaming and entertainment interests, Sartini is also founder, chairman and CEO of Sartini Enterprises, Inc. a family investment company established in 2007.

In 2007, Sartini co-founded a startup bank called Service1st Bank of Nevada.

The bank was acquired in September 2009 by Global Consumer Acquisition Corp., which soon became Western Liberty Bancorp.[11] Western Liberty in turn was purchased by Western Alliance, the parent company of Bank of Nevada, in August 2012.[12] As its largest shareholder, Sartini was also a board member of Service1st through its acquisition and took a director role after its acquisition, which he served through 2011.

Philanthropy

Sartini started the Sartini Family Foundation to enable charitable donations and has made significant contributions to the following organizations:

Sartini was the chair of the capital campaign for Bishop Gorman High School which raised over $50 million. This was put toward the construction of a new campus.[13] He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Foundation.

Personal life

Sartini has been married to his wife Delise since 1983. They have three children: Blake Jr., Lorenzo, and Sandra.[14]

References

External links

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