Fertitta Group Inc history

On April 22, 1933, the Shreveport Journal carried the following Associated Press report (accessed through Newspapers.com):

In 1976, Fertitta scraped together enough to buy a small casino off the Strip with a partner, Carl Thomas.

Thomas, a close friend and once business partner of Fertitta’s, was sentenced in 1983 for stealing from casinos.

In 1986 he purchased the Louisiana-born brothers Bill and Floyd Landry’s stake in two Houston-area restaurants: Landry’s Seafood Inn and Oyster Bar in Katy and Willie G’s in the Galleria area.

Five years later, in 2001, Fertitta won over enough people around town, including Mayor Quiroga, to push for a special election on increasing the local hotel tax from 13 cents to 15 cents on the dollar.

In 2003 he transformed two former municipal buildings on the banks of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou into the Downtown Aquarium, complete with yet another Ferris wheel and, controversially, a caged group of white tigers.

The Fertitta brothers also control Station Casinos, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.

Fertitta took Landry's private in 2010 in a deal worth $1.4 billion.

Fertitta first debuted on the Forbes 400 list in 2012 and is frequently featured in the nation’s top financial and industry publications.

The NBA approved the $2.2 billion purchase by Fertitta in October 2017.