The Fertitta name is ubiquitous in Southern Nevada given the ownership role the Fertitta family has with Station Casinos and the UFC.
Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta’s third cousin — Fertitta Entertainment owner and CEO Tilman Joseph Fertitta — doesn’t have quite the same high profile here, despite his ownership role with the downtown Golden Nugget, Golden Nugget Laughlin and Landry’s restaurant chain, his major investment profile with Wynn Resorts Ltd. and his attempt to explore the development of a Strip casino.
Tilman Fertitta may be more recognizable on the big national stage, especially in Houston, as not only a multi-state casino owner and restaurateur, but a sports franchise owner and investor, a theme park operator, a reality TV star, a best-selling author and, yes, the US ambassador to Italy and San Marino.
Became ambassador 25
The latter title was the latest addition to Fertitta’s resume when the United States Senate confirmed the nomination by President Donald Trump on April 29, 2025. He officially began his ambassadorial duties on May 6, 2025, when he presented his credentials to Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
But Fertitta had a long rise to business success over the years, and Forbes ranks him among the 100 richest Americans with a net worth estimated at $11.3 billion.
Fertitta was born in Galveston, Texas, on June 25, 1957, and grew up in Houston. At an early age, he peeled shrimp at his father’s Galveston seafood restaurant. He attended Texas Tech University and the University of Houston, studying business administration and hospitality management but never graduated.
Fertitta became the sole owner of Fertitta Entertainment, which owns Landry’s and eight casinos under the Golden Nugget brand with properties in Colorado, Louisiana, New Jersey, Illinois and Mississippi in addition to Nevada.
Through his restaurant and hospitality business, Fertitta owns more than 600 properties in 36 states and over 15 countries. His restaurants include a signature collection of more than 60 award-winning restaurant concepts such as Catch, Mastro’s, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Chart House and two of New York’s most famous — Keen’s Steakhouse and The Corner Store. He also owns more than a dozen popular casual food brands such as Rainforest Café and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. His hotel division includes two Forbes Five Star properties, the Montage Laguna Beach Resort Hotel and The Post Oak Hotel in Uptown Houston.
In addition to restaurants, hotels and casinos, Landry’s also owns theme parks, aquariums and the Kemah Boardwalk. Landry’s Inc. first acquired the Kemah Boardwalk in 1999. After acquiring the boardwalk, Fertitta added some Landry’s restaurants and some rides. In 2007 he added the Boardwalk Bullet which is a high speed wooden roller coaster. He also added Boardwalk FantaSea, a luxury yacht cruise service where guests cruise the length of Galveston Bay.
Fertitta is also a big sports fan, and his company owns the Houston Rockets National Basketball Association team, which was purchased in 2017. That ownership prevents his casinos from taking sports bets on Rockets games.
Sports franchise
He has also had an interest in developing franchises for all other major sports leagues.
Fertitta was one of the original investors who developed the Houston Texans’ National Football League team, but had to part with the franchise in 2008 because NFL rules at the time prohibited any connection to gambling.
With the Houston Astros Major League Baseball team, in 2003 Fertitta purchased the naming rights to the Crawford Boxes, part of the left field seats at what is now known as Daikin Park. When fans sitting in “Landry’s Crawford Boxes” catch a home run, they are rewarded with a gift card to one of Landry’s restaurants.
Fertitta is also a huge National Hockey League fan and in 2018 was in the running to bring the defunct Arizona Coyotes franchise to Houston. Salt Lake City eventually won the franchise and the team became the Utah Mammoth, a team that the Vegas Golden Knights knocked out in that year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. But Fertitta has been persistent and is expected to receive consideration for an NHL expansion team someday.
Fertitta has had other sports ambitions, trying to revive the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Comets franchise and return it to Houston. He also showed interest a year ago in buying Sheffield Wednesday, a club in the English Football League from controversial owner Dejphon Chansiri.
“Shut up and listen!”
Fertitta starred in the CNBC reality television show “Billion Dollar Buyer” and also wrote a New York Times best-selling book, “Shut Up and Listen!”
In a 2019 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Fertitta described the book as an examination of how to become a successful businessman.
“It’s an easy read,” he said at the time. “People like it. They like all the Tilmanisms, the 95:5 rule, there are no idle clients, don’t take your damn vocabulary out, know your numbers, know what you know, know what you don’t know, and it’s a simple, fun book that people like, whether you’re a CEO or a young entrepreneur or a newspaper writer. That’s how we can learn something from you and everyone else.”
Prior to assuming the role of Ambassador, Fertitta served as Chair of the Board of Regents of the University of Houston System for more than 11 years. In recognition of his contributions, the Fertitta Center, a sports arena, and the Tilman J. Fertitta Medical School were named in his honor. He also serves as chairman of the Houston Police Foundation and supported the creation of the Houston Police Department’s state-of-the-art Tactical Training Center, named after his family, which provides advanced, life-saving training for law enforcement.
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