No. 28: Tilman Fertitta
Age: 56Home: HoustonNet Worth: $2.4 billion
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Jump to… Telling Fortunes No. 1: Alice Walton No. 2: Michael Dell No. 3: Richard Kinder No. 4: Harold Simmons No. 5: Andrew Beal No. 6: Charles Butt and Family No. 8: Ray L. Hunt Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12: Dannine Avara, Scott Duncan, Milane Duncan Frantz, Randa Duncan Williams No. 7: Elaine Marshall and Family No. 13: Jeffrey Hildebrand No. 14: Robert Rowling No. 15: Trevor Rees-Jones No. 16: John Paul Dejoria No. 17: Henry Ross Perot Sr. No. 18: Kelcy Warren No. 19: William Herbert Hunt No. 20: Jerry Jones No. 21: John Arnold Nos. 22, 30, 31, and 37: Robert Bass, Edward Bass, Lee Bass, and Sid Bass No. 23: David Bonderman No. 24: Richard Rainwater No. 25: Mark Cuban No. 26: Dan Friedkin No. 27: Timothy Headington No. 28: Tilman Fertitta No. 29: Rodney Lewis No. 32: Robert McNair No. 33: Fayez Sarofim No. 34: Ray Davis No. 35: Gerald J. Ford No. 36: Drayton McLane Jr. No. 38: Henry Ross Perot Jr. No. 39: Joe Jamail Jr. Nos. 40 and 41: Dan Wilks and Farris Wilks The Forbes Methodology
Tilman Fertitta got his start as a fourteen-year-old working at his father’s Galveston restaurant, Pier 23. After buying Landry’s, a restaurant he’d worked at as a college student, he built an empire that included restaurants, aquariums in Denver and Houston, the San Luis Resort in Galveston, and the Kemah Boardwalk. Next came casinos: in 2005 he bought the Golden Nugget Las Vegas and the Golden Nugget Laughlin, and in 2014 he plans to open an eight-hundred-room Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, Louisiana. If gambling ever becomes legal in Texas, you won’t have to look hard for his name; it’ll be everywhere.
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Jump to… Telling Fortunes No. 1: Alice Walton No. 2: Michael Dell No. 3: Richard Kinder No. 4: Harold Simmons No. 5: Andrew Beal No. 6: Charles Butt and Family No. 8: Ray L. Hunt Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12: Dannine Avara, Scott Duncan, Milane Duncan Frantz, Randa Duncan Williams No. 7: Elaine Marshall and Family No. 13: Jeffrey Hildebrand No. 14: Robert Rowling No. 15: Trevor Rees-Jones No. 16: John Paul Dejoria No. 17: Henry Ross Perot Sr. No. 18: Kelcy Warren No. 19: William Herbert Hunt No. 20: Jerry Jones No. 21: John Arnold Nos. 22, 30, 31, and 37: Robert Bass, Edward Bass, Lee Bass, and Sid Bass No. 23: David Bonderman No. 24: Richard Rainwater No. 25: Mark Cuban No. 26: Dan Friedkin No. 27: Timothy Headington No. 28: Tilman Fertitta No. 29: Rodney Lewis No. 32: Robert McNair No. 33: Fayez Sarofim No. 34: Ray Davis No. 35: Gerald J. Ford No. 36: Drayton McLane Jr. No. 38: Henry Ross Perot Jr. No. 39: Joe Jamail Jr. Nos. 40 and 41: Dan Wilks and Farris Wilks The Forbes Methodology