There are few stories more American than a hometown boy who rolls the dice, builds something real and drags a whole neighborhood out of the doldrums. Derek Stevens did exactly that in Downtown Las Vegas, betting his family fortune and reputation on a vision most inside-the-beltway developers would have deemed too risky. Forbes calls him the last independent casino mogul for good reason — he owns his properties outright and isn’t leasing his legacy to faceless real estate investment trusts.
Walk into Circa and you’re staring at what free enterprise looks like when it’s allowed to compete: a three-story, movie-theater-style sportsbook the industry calls the world’s largest and a heated, adult-only Stadium Swim with a 143-foot screen that turns sports into a civic event. Those are not freebies or gimmicks; they are attractions that bring Americans downtown and keep money local instead of sending it to distant corporate headquarters. The tech behind that spectacle is built by specialists in the display business — the kind of private-sector innovation that fuels prosperity.
Stevens didn’t just build a pretty resort; he built a financial engine. Circa cost roughly $1 billion to build, and Forbes estimates Stevens’ portfolio and net worth at roughly $1.2 billion, with his downtown properties pulling in hundreds of millions a year in gambling revenue. Downtown gaming has surged under his stewardship, proving that risk-takers who invest locally can out-compete the bloated, Wall Street-backed enterprises that hollow out American industries.
What conservative voters should admire is his insistence on owning the dirt. While Strip operators sold off land and handed profits to distant investors, Stevens kept ownership in American hands and used smart tax strategy and debt to make a bold project pencil out. That kind of fiscal prudence — leveraging tax rules meant to encourage capital investment and building equity rather than chasing quarterly appeasement — is the hard-headed, entrepreneurial approach our country should reward.
This is not some coastal technocrat parachuted in; Stevens came from the heartland manufacturing world, running Cold Heading Co. before he and his brother bought the Golden Gate in 2006 and later The D. He moved his investments to Nevada for low taxes, cut deals, and bought whole parcels block by block, even paying top dollar for a tiny t-shirt shop when it was the missing piece. That’s plain-dealing capitalism: sweat, negotiation, and long-term thinking, not virtue signaling or government grants.
The contrast between a privately built downtown revival and the decline on parts of the Strip is a lesson in what freedom and investment produce. Americans are voting with their feet for affordable, walkable entertainment that treats adults like adults and rewards risk with jobs and tax revenue. If we want more revitalized cities, we should back those who invest, not those who extract rent while hiding behind layers of managers and compliance officers.
Derek Stevens is not a sanitized corporate mascot; he’s blunt, scrappy and unapologetically American, and when President Trump visited Circa early in 2025 it was no surprise that a successful entrepreneur would draw the attention of leaders. For hardworking Americans who believe in the dignity of honest labor and the power of private enterprise, Stevens’ story is a reminder: we don’t need more government schemes to revive cities, we need men and women willing to risk their capital, own their ground and build something that lasts.
