@theventure: Kirk Kerkorian's best deal was a plot nobody wanted. In 1962, he bought 80 acres across the Las Vegas Strip from the Flamingo for $960,000. It was cheap for one reason: a thin row of other people's lots sat between his and and the road, so it couldn't be reached from the Strip. So he offered those owners a trade. He gave them bigger plots inside his own land in exchange for the thin strip they could never build on, and they agreed. Now his land fronted the Strip. A developer named Jay Sarno rented it and built Caesars Palace there. By 1968, the rent and the sale had made Kerkorian about $9 million. In his last interview, at 93, he called it his best deal. Follow @theventure for the greatest founder stories ever told!

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Monday 02 November 2026 19:34:24 GMT