A contemplative Phil Ruffin Sr. says, ‘Life is five minutes. Remember that.’

In more than two decades of interviews with billionaire businessman Phil Ruffin Sr., a thing or two has become abundantly clear:

He doesn’t suffer fools, and he’s not one for chitchat. You get on the phone, handle your business and hang up quick. He’ll usually let you know when that moment has come.

So it was surprising and almost a bit confusing recently when he invited The Eagle to his Harper Trucks office in Wichita to discuss his new Gilley’s entertainment center and then . . . he kept talking.

Ruffin discussed his Las Vegas casinos, Treasure Island and Circus Circus. He chatted about his Wichita businesses and developments, like the one he’s creating near Kellogg and Webb Road by his east-side Marriott.

Then there was his buddy President Trump, feeding hungry kids and even aging and appreciating life.

Was it simply the case of a 90-year-old reminiscing? Who knows?

Regardless, as is always the case with Ruffin, it was interesting.

The interview below happened Dec. 10 and has been edited for length and clarity.

Well, you’re looking good.

I feel good.

You must, still jetting from Vegas to Wichita once a week for half a day of whirlwind meetings.

Well . . . I’m gonna die at my desk. I work. That’s what I do. You know, I’m like Warren Buffett, we just work, and that’s all.

Not even any golf?

Broke both hips, so I don’t play golf anymore, you know? I don’t shoot pool, so I just do business.

Speaking of which, how are your Vegas casinos?

Treasure Island has been a real success. Strip property. Everybody wants to buy it. I don’t sell. I’m not selling anything.

But Vegas has been a tough market lately, hasn’t it?

Las Vegas has so much debt that they haven’t been able to upgrade their hotels like they should have. Getting too pricey. . . . They have a $50 resort fee, $50 parking fee. So you’re going to spend $100 before you even walk in the damn place, you know. And people object to that. . . . There’s thinking our prices are too high, and so the traffic in Vegas is way down. . . . We had a bad year.

Yet you still spent $33 million upgrading Treasure Island. Why?

We started having (plumbing) leaks. . . . Oh, my God, we couldn’t have that. . . . We run a first-class deal, and so I just said, fix it all. I’ll blindfold myself to write the checks. . . . The problem was we had to take out about a third of the hotel rooms. . . . Thirty million was just like the ante. Their big cost was having all those rooms out that we couldn’t sell, and so it probably cost us double that. . . . It’s all done now, and the hotel’s really in really good shape. We win all the awards. We win . . . best hotel, best gaming, best this, best that. You know, best Gilley’s.

Now you have a new, far bigger Gilley’s with parimutuel betting in Park City where your dog track once was. Did you ever think you’d finally get any sort of gambling there after years of trying?

No, I didn’t. . . . We had plenty of chances to sell the property, but I don’t like to sell things, you know, and so this is going to be something else that Wichita has not seen. This is an entertainment center.

So what’s up with your potential 18 acres of development by your east-side Marriott?

We’ve had some inquiries, and it could be something next year, and we’ve held off a lot of stuff that we didn’t want out there, you know, we rejected some things, car dealers and stuff like that. . . . We wanted real development. So we’re talking to some major people. They’re all kind of putting everything off until the first of the year, and they’re worried about the tariffs and this and that, you know, but it’ll be developed, and we’ll have some interesting things out there. . . . But, you know, things don’t happen easy.

You’ve already got a lot of hotels, like the Hyatt in Wichita and Casino Miami in Florida, but you’re looking to add more, right?

More hotels, more casino hotels, probably. . . . There’s some big convention hotels that we’re kind of looking at. What happens is the brands come to you, like Hyatt and Marriott, you have to remodel it, and they’re not cheap, and lot of these people don’t have the money to remodel, so they put them up for sale. But to buy one . . . you have the acquisition cost, then you have the remodeling cost. So hard to pencil it out.

But you can do it because you’re in a good financial position?

We pay cash for everything. . . . We only have a little debt on Treasure Island, and we have more cash in the bank if we ever want to do that. But that’s not necessarily smart. . . . Interest rates right now are a little bit too high, you know, and so we’re hoping . . . the Fed will cut next year somewhat.

Do you ever talk to your buddy President Trump about things like that or advocate for something to change, say with tariffs?

He doesn’t listen.

But you have been trying to persuade him to help the impoverished?

I’ve been pushing for him to address that issue, and I think he’s going to. . . . Remember Milton Friedman? He was the greatest economist that ever lived. He suggested for these people a negative income tax, because they’re working, but they’re not making enough money to live on. . . . I’m after Donald to give them some money. . . . I think he’s thinking about giving $2,000 per family or something like that. That’s not enough. I’m recommending . . . $14,000. He won’t go that high because of the debt problem.

But you see so many other problems that need solving?

They tell me that some of the . . . vegetables and fruit are dying in the farms because they can’t get people to come in. You know, they’re afraid of ICE. . . . They’re afraid to go work. They might get shipped off to El Salvador or someplace.

So what are you recommending to the president?

I said, “Well, I think you should give them . . . work permits. . . . You should go to the farmers. How many work permits do you need?” . . . It would also affect the price of groceries. Because they have to pay a lot of money, sometimes double time, to get people to pick the fruit. . . . I think he liked it, but I don’t see any work permits.

You call Trump the best negotiator who ever lived. Why?

I’ll tell you a true story. In ’08, when all the banks shut down — remember ’08? Banks weren’t loaning any money. We had just built 1,300 rooms for Trump Hotel, right? And only 300 closed. We have 1,000 rooms unsold and a $500 million debt.

So what did you do?

I can’t tell you exactly how he did it, but he did it. He used the Trump system.

Wait, what does that mean? Something legal or something illegal?

No, no, it’s legal.

What did he do?

In a nutshell, we quit making payments. The banks, they wouldn’t talk to us. You stop making payments, and they’ll talk to you. And so he calls me up and says, “Ruffin, don’t make any more payments on that hotel.” What? “No, don’t make any more payment.” He said, “I know what I’m doing.” I said, “We can’t call the banks and ask them to give us a reprieve on that?”

But he insisted. So then what happened?

Nothing. First month, second month, third month. Now the banks get interested. Banks called. Donald negotiated lower rates. A discount on the debt. All kinds of things that, I mean, he’s a genius. I’d never done that before, you know. I never stopped making payments. . . . But he said, “That’s the only thing that’ll get them to the table.” And he was absolutely correct. So I had to learn from Donald.

So your family is going to spend another New Year’s Eve with Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago. Are you going to try to get him to come see your new Gilley’s in Park City?

No, he’s busy . . . trying to settle everything all over the world, and maybe he’s going to be successful, I don’t know. . . . He’s a great businessman, and he’s using business tactics, you know. And that’s how he’s getting this stuff done. . . . There’s no better negotiator on the planet than him. That’s what he does. He’s done that his whole life, you know. . . . He’s got some good advisers up there, and we’ll see how it goes.. . . I know that they’re elite up there, his Cabinet and everything . . . I just (want to) make sure they know what’s going on down here at the street level. And that’s why I’m pushing him to give some money out there. . . . I’m sure he will.

So you want every family in America to get . . .

No no. . . . From (household incomes of) $70,000 on down, I think that’s kind of the poverty area, you know, I don’t know if they’re gonna do it. You asked what I suggested. I’m telling you, that’s what I suggested. It hasn’t happened yet.

What else have you learned from Trump?

He doesn’t sleep. He works too hard. . . . You call him day or night. . . . He’s always up. . . . He can’t help himself. That’s just what he does. He’ll do six different things at the same time. You know, can you imagine solving nine wars so far?

So do you think you’ve been able to teach him anything?

He didn’t learn anything from me. . . . I make suggestions, and sometimes he takes them, sometimes he doesn’t.

At the same time you were playing hardball with the banks, you also were playing the market in a big way since you’d just been paid $1.24 billion for your New Frontier Hotel and Casino in Vegas. It ended up being another big lesson for you. Why?

I didn’t have any operational stuff that I needed to be in. So . . . I’d go (to) the office, I’d look at a screen that had all the . . . stock market stuff. And when you have a billion three — and we had more than that because I had some other cash, about a billion five — you can’t buy $1 million worth of stock here. . . . You have to buy $50 million here, $100 million here. So I did that and lost $60 million because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

Did you not have help?

I had help that was not as qualified as they should have been, you know. And so then I went to a major, major financial house and brought in their top dog to run my money. And it’s been great. She makes about 20% on our money, so she does extremely well. Very sharp and costs me a lot of money, but that’s OK. But I couldn’t stand going to the office and watching this screen all day, right? I’m just — Jesus. That’s not — I couldn’t do that. And you know, I’m not going to stay home. What do you do at home, you know?

So you like building things?

Yeah, I like to do things. That’s what I do.

So did the Frontier buyer (El Ad Properties, the group that used to own the Plaza Hotel in New York) just approach you out of the blue? Otherwise, you’d still have it?

Well, Steve Wynn approached me, and he offered me 10 million shares of the Wynn, that was $500 million, and I turned that down. And the guy that built the Cosmopolitan out of New York, he offered me $500 million, and I think it was $18 million a year for 10 years or something like that. And I was thinking about that. So I had the contract up here in the safe.

But you decided against it?

I just said, I’m gonna tear that contract up, I’m not gonna sell it. . . . Everybody said, “You’re crazy as hell.”

Then, though . . .

And so I’m sitting in my office in the Frontier, and these guys come in with suits on. Beautiful guys. You know, they look great. “Hi, Mr. Ruffin . . . We want to buy the Frontier and the land.” Well, you say what you always say: “It’s not for sale,” which is BS. And so they said, “Would it be for sale for a billion two?” I said, “Well, you’re close.” That’s what I said.

And you talked them right up to 1.3?

No, so I said, I’m at $1.3 (billion), and so . . . I turned it down reluctantly. Came back to Wichita, and they flew into Wichita, and we made a deal at $1.24 billion, and that’s how it happened. . . . They were out of Israel, and they. . . had a lot of money.

So how did you even keep a straight face in that meeting? Because you had only been offered $500 million, and all of a sudden it’s more than doubled. And you didn’t just go, “Sold!”

No, no, no. No, I’m a pretty good negotiator, you know. So I just thought it was worth more money.

Unbelievable.

And, you know, the Frontier was making money.

Yes, I remember. That’s why you cried when it came down.

It was making a lot of money, and it was easy.

What’s still on your business bucket list that you really want to do?

I can’t tell you right now, but maybe later on in ’26 I’ve got . . . a plan, and it involves massive expansion.

Related to your 102 acres at Circus Circus?

That’s very valuable land.

So is that where you want to expand?

I’m not going to get into that. Let me put it this way, there’s a hell of a lot of interest in that 102 acres. It’s the last piece of ground on the strip. And nobody has 102 acres except me, and so the price could be . . . $4 (billion) or $5 billion dollars if we ever decided to do something with it.

Outside of business, you’ve been supporting Three Square free lunches for children in schools. Why is that important to you?

You know, there are 30 million people in poverty that has now crept up to about 50 million people in poverty. It’s kind of affecting the middle class now, and so that bothers me a lot. . . . We found out that (the children) weren’t . . . really eating (the lunches). They’re sending them home to their brothers and sisters at home, so they’ll have something to eat. Really, in this country, not having things to eat?

Then you heard families were requesting potatoes to stretch the meals?

I found out that you could buy packages of dry potatoes that you can put water in . . . and it serves eight people. So I called Three Squares in. I said, “Let’s start putting potatoes in there.” . . . They said, “Well, it’s costly.” Well, these people are hungry. You’ve got to do something about it.

And a shocking $250,000 later you had potatoes?

I thought it was going to be a lot less. I said, “Go ahead and do it.” If it feeds the children, I’m okay with that. . . . Feed the family.

You also gave money for school supplies?

That’s how desperate it is. So the poverty level is high, and, you know, I hope they do something about it. . . . There are a lot of problems. The problem came . . . when they allowed all the PACS to start. All this money, you know, you used to be able to give only $5,000 now. Now you can give $5 billion if you want to. And there’s some of these big companies throwing that money in, and it’s causing problems.

And you think the system is broken?

I think the system is wrong. . . . They need term limits. They put term limits on the president, but they didn’t on Congress. They should have, but they didn’t expect these people to be there a lifetime, and so, you know, they’ll never change because they’re never going to vote it. They’re never going to vote themselves out. But they spend like crazy, and we spend way too much money, and they’re too many agencies.

And you think there’s something that could be done?

When Elon (Musk), who’s a friend of mine, went in there, and he thought there’s a lot of overspending that could be cut, you know, too many agencies and some of the agencies doing the same thing, but it’s so hard. He found out what the deep state was like. They’re entrenched, and they’re there. Even when the president goes, they’re still there. And some have been there 20 or 30, years. It’s called the deep state, and it’s hard to change them. . . . Trump’s doing his damnedest, you know, cut where he can. It. But every time he cuts, there’s resistance. And you know, when the Musk people went in there, they found a lot of these people had offshore accounts here and there. Cayman Islands. What the hell they doing with money in Cayman Islands? You know, bothers me. I’m not accusing anybody of anything, but it bothers me.

Why?

I don’t have an offshore account. Why would people need offshore accounts? It just sounds strange to me.

So are some of these bigger issues, such as feeding families, are these the things that are occupying your mind lately? Are you thinking of your legacy and what you can do to leave the world better?

No, not really. I just don’t like . . . the idea of the children not being able to eat, you know, and I can do very little about it. . . . There’s a whole lot of issues . . . that I oppose. . . . Why did we give Argentina $20 billion, and we had to borrow the $20 billion to give them $20 billion. We had to borrow the money. That goes against what I think is the right thing to do. I think they spend way too much money. . . . There’s not a damn thing I can do about it. . . . I don’t like politics, I don’t like to be in politics. I could have been, you know, I could have taken a position or whatever but I didn’t want to. . . . It’s like a cesspool.

It’s kind of ironic that you don’t like politics, and one of your best friends is the number-one politician.

In the world. Yeah, he is. But he wasn’t a politician when we were together. We were both single. . . .

Hitting the town . . .

We had a lot of fun together. . . . We knew the same girls.

So are you willing to share what your succession plan is for your businesses?

I’ll find someone to replace me at some point, but I don’t want to do it now because I’d probably fire him, you know, if he did something I didn’t like, that’s not good. But I’m not quite ready for that yet. I still go to work at 5:30 every morning.

Your three adult children are all in your businesses, and you hope to groom your younger two kids as well, right?

They could take over, but they’ll find someone to replace me at a big number. But, I mean, it would be costly, but that’s what they’ll have to do. . . . When I start slowing down, if I do, I’m going to bring some top guns in that know how to do multiple offerings. We have a lot of hotels and a lot of businesses, we’re into a lot of stuff.

Is it hard to believe you’re at this stage of your career and life?

The years go by so fast. Life is five minutes. Remember that. It’s all it is. You’re old before you know it.

But you have longevity in your family, right?

Well, my mother lived to 103, and she was even driving a car at 95.

So how long do you plan to live?

Maybe 103. I hope so.

This story was originally published January 22, 2026 at 4:22 AM.