Gary Green Acquires Say When Casino at Colossal Lithium Site

• Casino developer Gary Green has purchased the Say When casino in the remote border town of McDermitt, Nev.
• He plans to quintuple its gaming space and add a hotel, entertainment complex and more
• The property sits adjacent to what is projected to become one of the world’s largest lithium mines by 2028

Say when? In about 18 months. That’s about how much time Gary Green estimates it will take him to expand the Say When casino in McDermitt, Nev., which he recently purchased for an undisclosed amount.

Green, whose Florida-based Gary Green Gaming has developed and consulted on more than 30 casinos for Native American tribes, acquired the Say When from the Elordi family, which opened the roadhouse-style gambling hall in 1973.

“For decades, my team and I have been making fortunes for casino operators, owners and tribes,” Green told Casino.org. “This one is finally for us. It’s my turn.”

Mine Reader

The 2020 census recorded McDermitt’s population as 95, with 310 more on the adjacent Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation. However, it’s about to welcome an estimated 3,000-10,000 miners, engineers, executives and contractors to the area to work fulltime on Thacker Pass for decades.

Developed by Lithium Americas for a reported $2.93 billion — with $650 million more committed by General Motors — Thacker Pass is an 18K-acre mine projected to supply up to 25% of the world’s surging lithium demand by 2028. Construction began on the project in 2023.

“This is not just a casino acquisition,” Green said. “It’s a stake in the next great American boomtown. We see this not as a gamble, but a guaranteed play. Lithium is the new oil, and we’re building the infrastructure for its human side — the place where business gets done, where workers unwind, and where the culture of this new economy gets defined.”

Green plans to expand the Say When’s casino footprint from 12K to 60K square feet, then add a three-story hotel, 24-hour restaurant, entertainment complex and shopping district to its 15 acres.

The casino will stay open during the transition, which will begin in about six months. Once the property is relicensed, Green says he may rebrand it with another name.

“In all our years of development, this represents the most compelling convergence of market timing, location exclusivity, and scalable demand we’ve ever seen,” Green said. “That’s why we’re buying it directly.”

Green, who grew up in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, is a fascinating figure with a career that defines eclecticism. It includes serving as a former Trump Organization vice president and recording three albums for Folkways Records as an “outlaw folk singer” in the ’70s, for which he was inducted into the California Music Hall of Fame.

“It’s been an interesting life, let me tell you,” he said.