Don Barden was not only the first African-American casino owner of Las Vegas, but he was also a special man, who started everything from scratch and one who, due to his ambition, managed to build a media empire. This is his success story.

 Born on December 20, 1943, Barden grew up in a family that advocated hard work. His father, Milton, scrambled to earn a living, working as a mechanic, a farmer, and an auto-plant laborer, among other jobs. When Don was not hard at work, he turned his attention to sports. In high school he quarterbacked his football team. He also excelled at basketball, and at one time captained both teams. After high school Barden enrolled in Central State University in 1963. College was expensive, however, and Barden did not have enough money to pay for four years of schooling. He dropped out after his freshman year and set out to make his way in the world of business.

Barden moved to Ohio, where a brother was living, and worked over the next few years as a hired hand in shipbuilding yards, a plumber, and a restaurant worker. Like other entrepreneurs in the United States, Barden realized that the best way to make money, create jobs, and make a difference in the community was to go into business for himself–and that is just what he did.
Barden’s first real estate deal involved the U.S. government, which was in the market for a new building to house its military recruiting station in Lorain. Throughout his career Barden would work hand-in-hand with the federal government, either negotiating deals for minority representation of community businesses, or in the case of the military recruiting station, just being in the right place at the right time. In that instance, he scouted around Lorain until he found a suitable structure, then approached the government and received a commitment from the military that it would indeed lease the facility. With the government’s commitment in hand, he went to the bank and secured a loan to purchase the building. Barden invested $25,000 and, two years later, sold the building for $50,000.

Now that he was firmly established in Lorain, Barden explored new opportunities. He turned to publishing and, with a partner, tried to start a newspaper in 1967. That particular enterprise failed, but he tried again, eventually creating the Lorain County Times. Using the newspaper as a springboard for even greater community involvement, Barden entered politics, serving two terms on the Lorain City Council, from 1972 until 1975.

Barden moved from the political pulpit to the media pulpit in 1977, when he took to the airwaves at WKYC-TV in Cleveland. For three years he held sway on a talk show that aired on Cleveland’s National Broadcasting Company (NBC) affiliate. Barden kept his eyes open to the changes that were occurring in the entertainment industry; prognosticators were predicting the demise of network television as more and more people turned to cable. Barden saw that cable was coming, and with it would come the potential for great profits. Though real estate development deals were still his main business venture in the late 1970s, Barden kept his eyes trained on the media landscape, looking for an opening.

Barden used his television acumen and “his community leader status” to put together an arrangement that would start him on the road to becoming a cable television magnate.

Barden turned his attention to cable and its profit potential full-time. Barden had a clear aim: to find communities in the West and Midwest that were primarily black, and, using his know-how and connections, attempt to wire as many as he could for cable television. His first opportunity was in Inkster, Michigan. That community awarded Barden a contract to wire 10,000 of its homes. Barden completed the job on time and on budget. In 1981 and 1982, he negotiated his reputation for good work into contracts wiring other communities.

The City of Detroit, with its 375,000 households, wanted to get wired for cable and put the big job up for bids in 1982. Barden was prepared. He invested his own money and took out bank loans. Eventually he put $500,000 together to write a proposal on how he could do the job for Detroit. The city hired a consultant to review Barden’s plan as well as the plans of other would-be cable wirers. The consultant gave his approval to Barden, recommending to Detroit’s cable commission that he get the job. Mayor Coleman Young signed off on the Barden plan, as did the Detroit City Council.

The work was just beginning for Barden, however. Over the next three years he worked hard to put the cable television operation together. The project required an enormous capital investment, for it entailed laying massive amounts of wire, both above ground and through underground conduits, as well as the purchase of facilities and equipment. Barden needed approximately $100 million, so he set about finding a partner.

According to the New York Times, Barden found his deep pockets north of the border, in the Canadian communications company Maclean Hunter, Ltd., of Toronto. In 1984, when Maclean Hunter agreed to purchase 25% of Barden Cablevision, Inc., for $230,000, the company was Canada’s largest communications enterprise. Barden would eventually sell 60 percent of his cable company, retaining the other 40 percent for himself. However, he always maintained 51 percent of the voting rights in the company. According to Black Enterprise, Maclean Hunter lent Barden’s company $15 million and a Canadian bank put up an additional $80 million.

In 1986, Barden began the task of wiring Detroit. Making cable available was the first step. Then Barden had to solicit a pool of dependable subscribers. Barden then sold his cable television holdings for over $100 million and went on to pursue opportunities in casino/gaming industry. 

When one of Barden’s companies acquired the Fitzgeralds Las Vegas Casino in Las Vegas he became the first black casino owner in Vegas. In 2007, Barden was awarded the rights to build a Casino in the North Shore Area of Pittsburgh, adjacent to Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The selection was made over heavy objections of local taxpayers who preferred another competing offer from Isle of Capri Casinos. That offer would have built a new multi-purpose arena adjacent to a casino complex in the area now occupied by the Civic Arena. Isle of Capri agreed to foot the entire cost of the new complex, valued at the time at 290 million dollars. Barden’s selection by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Gaming Commission forced the city of Pittsburgh and the buildings principal tenant, the Pittsburgh Penguins, to come up with an alternate plan, using taxpayer money to fund the facility.

In 2008, Barden defaulted on the casino project. He was unable to secure bridge loans that would have permitted work to continue on the North Shore Casino project. Work at the site was stopped for weeks, until another investor could be found. Only after Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm of JMB Realty bought controlling interest in the project, did work continue. Barden retained a minority interest in the project.

On May 19, 2011, Don Barden died of lung cancer at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan. He was 67. Earlier that year, his wife Bella had filed for legal separation, saying in court documents that her 67-year-old husband was so sick with cancer that he could not make his own business and financial decisions.

Don Barden will remain alive in the memory of the Las Vegas residents, not only through the gambling investments he had made here, but also by the fact that he was a pioneer, and one who has always fought against prejudice.