LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Jim Murren, the former CEO of MGM Resorts, will now help lead Resorts World Las Vegas as it navigates a downturn in business and disciplinary action from Nevada’s gaming regulators.
Resorts World announced Murren is now chairman of a newly formed board of directors effective Dec. 4, while Alex Dixon will become the new CEO effective Jan. 16.
“Resorts World Las Vegas has transformed the Vegas Strip with its unceasing focus on providing the ultimate guest experience, which is why I’m thrilled to join the team and help continue setting the standard for premier hospitality,” Murren said in a statement.
Murren was the chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts from 2008 through 2020. He later led Nevada’s COVID-19 task force during the pandemic and was tapped last year to serve on a gaming authority board for the United Arab Emirates.
Dixon was most recently the CEO of Q Casino & Resort and the Dubuque Racing Association. He previously held leadership roles with MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Goldman Sachs.
Also joining the board are A.G. Burnett, a former Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman; Michelle DiTondo, a former human resources executive who worked at MGM Resorts and Caesars; and Kong Han Tan, the president and CEO of Genting Berhad, Resorts World’s parent company.
The leadership shakeup comes as Resorts World battles significant headwinds in its operations.
In a third-quarter earnings report released last week, Genting said its Southern Nevada resort saw a steep revenue drop, which it blamed on “an abnormally hot summer in Las Vegas and economic uncertainty in an election year.”
The Nevada Gaming Control also filed a complaint over the summer charging Resorts World with allowing known illegal bookmakers or people with suspected ties to criminal activity to gamble inside the casino.
“The culture within Resorts World created the perception, or the reality in certain circumstances, that Resorts World is an avenue to launder funds derived from illegal activity,” the Gaming Control Board said in August.
Those visits came while Scott Sibella was president of Resorts World Las Vegas. Sibella was not named in the Gaming Control Board’s complaint, though he faces separate charges for allowing a known bookmaker to gamble at MGM Grand while he was president of that casino-hotel. Murren was chairman of MGM Resorts at the time.
Genting said in its earnings report that it has until Dec. 9 to submit a response to the Gaming Control Board’s complaint.
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