A.I. Was Broker Who Sold Land Beneath Las Vegas Casino

• An A.I. program named “Marcus” connected the owner of the land beneath the Eastside Cannery Casino with its most likely purchaser
• That purchaser was Boyd Gaming, which had been paying its landlord millions of dollars of rent, even though it closed the Eastside Cannery in 2020 and never reopened it
• Honestly, it didn’t take A.I. to figure this out 

The land under the Eastside Cannery Hotel & Casino was sold by a unique real-estate agent — one who was never alive.

Marcus is an A.I. program that uses machine learning to react to and anticipate the real-estate market, steering toward capital providers only those capital seekers most likely to benefit from a deal. It was introduced last year by Agrippa, a broker-free Las Vegas agency.

“Marcus is designed to be an omniscient dealmaker,” said Blake J. Owens, Agrippa’s founder, in a statement. “Its mission is simple: decode the who, what, when, where, and why of every transaction by forecasting behavior, uncovering hidden leverage, and thinking several moves ahead, like a chess grandmaster.”

Cannery Opener

In April, Marcus helped close the $45 million deal through which Boyd Gaming purchased the 30 acres of land beneath its Eastside Cannery, the Las Vegas casino hotel it closed during the pandemic shutdown and still hasn’t reopened.

“We worked closely with the seller of the ground lease and saw firsthand how market dynamics, buyer intent, and long-term incentives intersect,” Owens said.

When interested buyers surfaced through Agrippa, Marcus analyzed dozens of variables and ultimately identified the building’s existing owner, Boyd, as the optimal purchaser.

The seller was Cannery Casino Resorts, the company that founded the Eastside Cannery.

In December 2016, Boyd paid the company $230 million for the operating rights to the Eastside Cannery (as well as its Cannery Casino in North Las Vegas).

However, Cannery Casino Resorts retained ownership of the land, for which Boyd had been paying millions in rent a year even though the Eastside Cannery was closed.