Phillip Gene Ruffin (born March 14, 1935) is an American businessman. He owns the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino and Circus Circus Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, in addition to a number of other enterprises including hotels, casinos, greyhound racing tracks, oil production, convenience stores, real estate, and the world's largest manufacturer of hand trucks. He is also a business partner of former United States President Donald Trump, with whom he co-owns the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. On the Forbes 2019 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked No. 838 with a net worth of US $3.1 billion. Early life and education Ruffin was born in Potter County near Amarillo, Texas, the son of Blanche (née Cohlmia) and Roy J. Ruffin. He is of Lebanese descent (his family's surname was originally "Rufan"). He was raised in Wichita, Kansas where his father had a grocery store. He has four siblings: Elaine Ruffin Nemer, Roy Ruffin Jr., Pat Ruffin, and Pam Ruffin. In 1953, he graduated from Wichita North High School where he was a wrestling champion. "After he won the state championship," states one profile, "his father, who never attended a match, asked him if he was the one they were talking about in the newspaper." He attended Washburn University in Topeka for three years and Wichita State University but never got his degree. Career In 1972, Ruffin pioneered self-serve gasoline in Kansas, creating a chain of 60 convenience stores in the Midwest. In 1987, he then used cash from the convenience stores to build his first hotel, a Marriott in Wichita. His businesses also included oil distribution and one of the country's largest manufacturers of hand trucks. In 1994, Ruffin leased his convenience stores to Total, using the money to purchase more hotels. Then, in 1995, Ruffin acquired the Crystal Palace casino resort in Nassau in the Bahamas. Mortgaging the casino, Ruffin then purchased the New Frontier Hotel and Casino. New Frontier Hotel and Casino Ruffin is best known for his purchase of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, one of the Las Vegas Strip's venerable properties. When he bought the resort from Margaret Elardi and her family, it had been mired in a longtime strike, the longest running in American history, with employees represented by the Culinary Workers Union, one of the most powerful labor organizations in Las Vegas. Ruffin settled the strike very soon after