Being a betting man, I’d wager that two years from now the joy and happiness Cantor CEO Lee Amaitis showed at the opening of the Palms book last Friday isn’t repeated at the Sahara.

“I would love to be at the Sahara. That would be big,” Amaitis said of the planned refurbishing of the Sahara, which suspended operations earlier this year. “I am interested in everybody in the state of Nevada.”

The word recession doesn’t apply to Amaitis, whose family continues to branch out from the hub at the M resort. The Palms marks the seventh property to come under Cantor management and perhaps the most ambitious investment to date.

“The Palms book is one I have been dreaming about for a long time,” Amaitis said at the opening. “A fantastic location in town with a reputation of always being known as a really good book. When it first opened it was one of the premier books in Nevada.”

In recent years, the word spread that Palms was getting a little stale and aging. Stale, aging are magnetic words to Amaitis.

“There was a need to invest here and I jumped at the opportunity to redo it,” he said. “This part of town is a good draw from a tourist and locals perspective. Locals will come from Summerlin for the high-tech. Tourists will come because the Palms is hip.”

Amaitis is convinced this will be one of Cantor’s better performing properties. He plays down comments about slow business at the Tropicana, saying that things are a lot better there than it used to be.

“Cantor’s business motto is to bring people to the destinations,” he said. “Give the customers a good time and treat them with the best in technology. I love the management at the Trop and the parking is easy in and out. They are light years ahead of where they were before we arrived.”

Amaitis is most proud of the $150 million that Cantor has invested in properties and technologies in Nevada. Not bad for a company most challenged as an outsider.

“Now we are firmly embedded,” he said. “People have taken us seriously now and that makes a difference. The first couple of years they were wondering who those guys were. We’re no longer a flash in the pan. We have real money. We are here to stay.”

Cantor also models itself with integrating poker and sports books, while attracting high rollers like boxing’s No. 1 attraction Floyd “Money” Mayweather.

“Floyd has wagered in our books and we’re glad to have him,” Amaitis said. “Having built the poker room inside this book at the Palms was a passion of mine. The two go hand in hand.”

Mike Colbert, director of sports operations at the M, was at the Palms for the opening, which served as a model to the latest state of the art high-definition viewing.

“You have a great view of all the screens and Palms now has a very nice race book,” Colbert said. “I hate to judge this one as better than our previously remodeled books, but I don’t think we’ve built one as nice as this.”

There is also an enclosed VIP room for high limit poker.

“This is going to be a great poker experience,” Thomte said.

GT photo By Gabrielle Reisler