Nevada regulators are paving the way for Red Rock Resorts to get in on the tavern gaming business where they will compete in Las Vegas against Golden Entertainment.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board recommended that the Nevada Gaming Commission enable Red Rock to add to its casino operations. The licensing of the taverns requires an amendment to Red Rock’s order of registration.

Red Rock attorney Marc Rubinstein told the Board that the company operates a number of smaller properties under its Wildfire brand and believes this new tavern brand and division “are a natural progression of its business model of serving the local population.”

Red Rock submitted applications to open two taverns, one at 7225 Aliante Parkway in North Las Vegas, the other at 6345 N. Lamb Blvd. in North Las Vegas. Two more applications are pending and three more locations are in the pipeline after that.

“How many ultimately get developed and opened will depend on market conditions and the ability to identify suitable tavern sites,” Rubinstein said.

Red Rock’s Christopher Fiumara, chief of operations, said all seven will be completed by the end of 2025 or early 2026. The Lamb Boulevard location will open at the end of September, while the Aliante Parkway will open in January.

In a previous earnings call, Red Rock President Scott Kreeger told Wall Street analysts that the tavern business is a great investment, with “a unique customer with a different profile than our core customer. It skews younger and toward the sports better. So we like that kind of customer.”

At the time, Kreeger talked about two additional taverns coming online in early 2025 and the remainder throughout the year.

“We’re actively seeking to grow our number of units in the market and we think it’s an opportunity for us to expand into what we call the micro market within the valley,” Kreeger said.

Lorenzo Fertitta, vice chairman of the board, said, “Everyone is focused on different segments of the market at that end of the business. What we call smaller properties seem to be very healthy and consistent and actually growing. So as a sign relative, it’s a very local market, but that’s going very well from an operating standpoint.”

Nevada Independent gaming reporter Howard Stutz in May called this is a version of a family feud. Golden CEO Blake Sartini is the brother-in-law of Red Rock’s top executives, CEO Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta.

“The Fertittas and the Sartinis have long played on opposite sides of the gaming sandbox,” Stutz wrote. “Red Rock Resorts has dominated the Las Vegas locals casino market and Golden Entertainment has single-handedly expanded southern Nevada’s tavern industry. The lines between the companies blurred in 2018 after Golden’s $850 million purchase of American Casino & Entertainment Properties that included the two Arizona Charlie’s casinos,” Stutz wrote. “That gave the company a small piece of the neighborhood casino business currently dominated by Red Rock.”

Taverns, which are often a combination of a restaurant and bar, have a maximum limit of 15 slot machines, which are found in a bar-counter format.

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