ECL Bought Water Street, Then Closed The Pass

ECL Water Street shut The Pass Casino on Aug. 1, 2026, after buying the last independent gaming hall on Henderson’s Water Street. The deal put Emerald Island, Rainbow Club and The Pass under one owner.

Tim Brooks, general manager of ECL Water Street, said the company wanted complete creative control of the three nonrestricted casinos on the corridor. The first use of that control was a dark building and a remodel with no public floor plan.

All Three Water Street Casinos, One Owner

Marc Falcone and Ron Winchell’s ECL Water Street already ran Emerald Island and Rainbow Club, which sit across the street from The Pass at 140 S. Water Street. Joe DeSimone of DeSimone Gaming sold them the third hall in a deal announced June 9, 2026, with terms kept private. Nevada regulators had to sign off, and by July 30 the company was talking about the purchase in the past tense, after a farewell party on the floor.

Brooks told local cameras the buy was a natural fit because it gave ECL “complete creative control over the three non-restrictive locations on Water Street.” He also said the company was “very, very bullish on the Water Street District and East Henderson, the gaming market.” That is the pitch the city has wanted for years, a strip of dining and gaming that feels like a downtown instead of three rival doors.

The street the city is selling is the same street ECL can now staff, price and darken as one product. Emerald Island opened in 2003 with 440 slots and no tables. Rainbow Club holds 330 slots and no tables. The Pass walked into the sale with about 350 slots on a 17,756-square-foot floor.

WATER STREET’S THREE FULL CASINOS

Henderson’s redevelopment office has spent three decades on a refined vision for the Water Street District that mixes housing, dining, jobs and a downtown people will linger in. The casino sale fits that brochure until you count the open doors. Two of them stayed lit. The third went dark.

The First Act Was Turning Out the Lights

Brooks said as early as June that The Pass would close Aug. 1 for remodeling, and that the work might take a year. World Casino Directory later listed the same close date. John Mehaffey, who tracks Las Vegas table games, posted that the hall was throwing itself a goodbye party and would close July 31, the Friday night before the company’s Saturday date.

ECL did not publish a reopen calendar, a budget, or a drawing of the new floor. Brooks said the development team was already walking the building and should have “some good direction here in the next few months.” He also said the property’s name will change. The Pass, as a brand DeSimone stood up in 2021, is scheduled to disappear with the carpet.

THE 2026 HANDOFF

1. June 9, 2026: ECL Water Street agrees to buy The Pass from DeSimone Gaming. Price undisclosed.
2. Late July 2026: DeSimone hosts a farewell party as the sale is treated as done.
3. July 31, 2026: Last night of public operation, matching the Friday close regulars were told.
4. Aug. 1, 2026: The Pass goes dark for a remodel Brooks said may last a year.

A year of construction is a normal casino story when the owner has nowhere else to put the play. This owner has two other full casinos on the same block. The dark year is a choice that only exists after the third deed lands.

Why a Year of Darkness Is Cheaper Now

Brooks was blunt about the industrial logic. The talks started in late 2025. Cadence, the master-planned subdivision about a mile away, already has about 7,500 homes up and several thousand more on the way, and he pointed to another project about four miles east that is slated for about 3,000 homes. Boyd Gaming opened Cadence Crossing in the spring to catch that rooftop growth. ECL wanted the downtown piece of the same migration.

For us to expand our footprint downtown, it made sense for one property to have control of all three casinos.

Tim Brooks, general manager, ECL Water Street

One owner can close a door without handing those players to a rival. One owner can also freeze a competing project. Brooks said plans to expand Emerald Island were put on hold when The Pass deal came across the table. The company that spent January 2024 closing on the two halls across the street just used the third deed to stop work on one of them.

Pulling the pit in January 2024 made that math cleaner. Mehaffey wrote that week that The Pass had removed all table games and that every casino in and near downtown Henderson was slots-only. By the time Falcone and Winchell bought the building, The Pass was selling the same product as Emerald Island and Rainbow Club. A year with the doors locked is a smaller risk when the operator still has 440 and 330 machines running across the street.

DeSimone Is Taking Most of the 60 Workers

About 60 people worked at The Pass. DeSimone was expected to take as many as he could to Bighorn Casino in North Las Vegas and Longhorn Casino on Boulder Highway, the two halls he was licensing in June 2026. Brooks said most of those workers would follow DeSimone, and that ECL hoped to pick up some of the rest. ECL already had about 340 people at its two Water Street casinos.

The hotel next door is the piece that does not move. DeSimone Companies keeps Atwell Suites, the 90-room hotel he built beside the casino after announcing it in March 2022. Brooks said ECL is “not familiar with the hotel business,” so the company is “happy to let Joe operate the hotel.” Guests of that hotel now check in beside a hall that has no slots, no restaurant ticket, and no sportsbook window.

WHO THE SALE MOVES

• The 60 casino workers: DeSimone is trying to carry as many as possible to Bighorn and Longhorn rather than leave them on a dark Water Street floor.
• Atwell Suites: The 90-room hotel stays with DeSimone and now sits next to a closed casino it was built to feed.
• The sportsbook: Boomer’s Sportsbook opened a ninth Nevada book at The Pass on April 24, 2026, then lost the room when the building went dark on Aug. 1.
• Railroad Pass: DeSimone keeps that older hall between Henderson and Boulder City, so he is exiting Water Street gaming without exiting Henderson gaming.

DeSimone framed the buyer as the shop with the customers. “They have a critical mass of customers in that submarket,” he said, adding that ECL is “poised to bring more profitability and that’s better for the team members and customers.” He also said ECL had shown a strong commitment to Henderson and that he was confident it would keep investing in The Pass. The investment, on day one, was a lock on the door.

Boyd’s First Hall Kept Getting Sold

The corner opened as the Wheel Casino on Feb. 15, 1961, and went dark within a year. In 1962 it came back as the Eldorado Casino, the first hall the Boyd family ever ran. The Boyds took control in 1966, and Boyd Gaming put the property into the corporate book in 1993, using the small floor as a training ground for young executives. The 2026 deal is the fifth ownership change on that corner.

Covid closed Nevada’s casinos in March 2020. Boyd kept this one shut and sold it to DeSimone in December 2020. DeSimone reopened it as The Pass on April 1, 2021, after a fast locals remodel, and sold local Henderson ownership on Water Street as the point of the project. Emilia’s Café, named for his daughter, and Ristorante Italiano were part of that reboot. Five years later he is out of the casino and still in the hotel.

FIVE CHANGES ON ONE CORNER

1. Feb. 15, 1961: The Wheel Casino opens, then folds inside a year.
2. 1962: The Eldorado Casino opens; it becomes the Boyd family’s first hall.
3. 1993: Boyd Gaming takes the property into the corporate portfolio.
4. December 2020: DeSimone Gaming buys the closed Eldorado and reopens it as The Pass on April 1, 2021.
5. Aug. 1, 2026: ECL Water Street takes the deed and closes the floor for remodel.

The city’s downtown page still invites people to shop, eat, and play in classic casinos along Water Street. Henderson formed its Redevelopment Agency in 1995 to push money and housing into that old commercial core. The classic casino in this transaction is the one with the lights off.

Two Slot Floors Across the Street Stay Open

ECL Gaming’s public map is not a Strip portfolio. The company’s own site lists taverns, pubs, and sports bars under Jackpot Joanie’s, Winchell’s Pub & Grill, Bully’s, Lucky 7’s, Rounders and Golden West. CDC Gaming, in the sale story, put the wider ECL Gaming count at about 50 other Nevada properties, four casinos in Kentucky, one in New Hampshire, and 26 in Wyoming. Water Street is the place where that tavern-and-slots machine now holds every full casino license on the block.

Brooks promised a prettier building, not a third competing brand. “We’re going to upgrade the food and beverage, remodel the entire inside, and make it a beautiful property,” he said. “It’s nice now, but we’re going to improve on what Joe DeSimone started.” He had not defined the full scope of work. He did say that when The Pass reopens it should hold between 450 to 500 devices, up from about 350, and that ECL plans to add 50 jobs compared with the staffing in place at the sale.

Those extra machines and jobs only show up after a year in which downtown Henderson’s third casino contributes nothing to the street the city is trying to fill. Emerald Island and Rainbow Club can absorb the regulars. That is the quiet product of owning all three doors. Brooks also mentioned a possible lift from a future mixed-use plan at the old Fiesta Henderson site on Lake Mead Boulevard, closed since 2020 and about 2 miles from Emerald Island. Even that bet assumes people will walk a downtown that has one dark marquee on it.

Brooks Says the Name Will Change

Brooks said renovations may take a year and that The Pass name comes off. He has not said what replaces it. He has not said whether tables return, whether a sportsbook comes back after Boomer’s short stay, or whether Emilia’s Café and Ristorante Italiano survive the interior strip-out. The only hard promises on the record are a full inside remodel, a bigger slot count, more food and drink, and those 50 jobs on the far side of the dark year.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The deed: ECL Water Street owns Emerald Island, Rainbow Club and The Pass, the three nonrestricted casinos on Water Street.
• The close: The Pass went dark on Aug. 1, 2026, after a late-July farewell party.
• The hotel: Atwell Suites stays with DeSimone and is not part of the casino sale.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The new name: Brooks said it will change and has not announced the replacement.
• The calendar: A year is the working estimate, not a filed reopen date.
• The floor mix: Slot target is 450 to 500; tables, the sportsbook and the restaurants are not locked.

Brooks said ECL wants Water Street as a destination with three casinos and a row of restaurants. The company now has the deeds to make that true, and it started by subtracting a casino. The name comes off with the carpet, the two slot floors across the street stay open, and the third hall sits dark while Henderson keeps selling the block as a place with classic gaming in it.