Cannery Casino Resorts was an outgrowth of Millennium Management Group, a casino management company. Millennium was founded in 1996 by two long-time gaming executives, Bill Paulos and Bill Wortman. Millennium's first venture, in 1997, was to join a consortium competing for a license to develop a casino in Detroit, the proposed
Greektown Casino Hotel. The Greektown casino opened in 2000 under Millennium's management. Cannery Casino Resorts was created in 2001 by Millennium to develop the
Cannery Casino and Hotel in
North Las Vegas. In 2002, Millennium assumed management of the casino at the
JW Marriott Las Vegas under a ten-year lease agreement and rebranded it as the Rampart Casino. Meanwhile, Millennium transitioned to a consulting role at Greektown, as the casino's owners took over management. The Cannery opened in 2003 at a cost of $105 million. In 2005,
Oaktree Capital Management agreed to buy 33 percent of Cannery Casino Resorts. Wortman bought a 20 percent stake in the
Rockingham Park racetrack in
New Hampshire in 2005, and Cannery obtained an option to buy the park outright. The company led an unsuccessful lobbying effort to legalize casinos in New Hampshire, and proposed a $450 million expansion of the park with up to 5,000 slot machines. Oaktree's stake in the company increased to 42% as part of the deal. In December 2007, Australian gaming company
Crown Limited agreed to buy CCR for $1.75 billion. The agreement was ended in March 2009, however, with Crown instead buying a 24.5 percent stake in the company for $370 million, and paying a $50 million termination fee. In May 2014, Cannery agreed to sell The Meadows to
Gaming and Leisure Properties for $465 million, with the proceeds going towards reducing company debt.
Boyd Gaming purchased Cannery in December 2016 for $230 million. == Casinos ==