Flickr Creative Commons, Eric Drost
Dan Gilbert sold JACK Entertainment, his casino business that operated casinos in Cleveland and Detroit, to his now-former management team in December, the Cleveland Jewish News reported over the weekend.
The major development was, for some reason, not announced publicly. Matthew Cullen, JACK Entertainment board chairman, confirmed the sale when asked for comment by CJN on its scoop.
“As of December 2020, JACK Entertainment’s ownership has changed and no longer has any affiliation with Dan Gilbert’s family of companies,” Cullen said. “The JACK management team, who have been with the company since its inception, remains in place and now owns the controlling interest of the company."
Cullen also said that JACK's main operations have been moved from Detroit to Cleveland.
Gilbert, who suffered a stroke in early 2019, is now one of the 30 richest people in the world after taking Rocket Companies public last summer with some $34 billion to his name. He founded JACK, formerly known as Rock Gaming, in 2009.
The first phase of the Cleveland casino opened in 2012.
JACK sold its Cleveland real estate — the casino and Thistledown racino — to Vici Properties, a spinoff of Caesar's Entertainment, in 2019 for $843 million. It operates them still in a leaseback agreement. It was just one of Gilbert's gaming properties sold in a stretch that netted JACK some $2.6 billion over the course of that year.
Gilbert bought Detroit's Greektown casino in 2013 after its bankruptcy, only to announce he was selling it in 2018 for $1 billion. Last year, it was announced that Gilbert was closing its JACK headquarters in Detroit and laying off of all its 92 employees.
Terms of the December sale were not disclosed.
A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication, Cleveland Scene. It is republished with permission.
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