The IP Casino Resort Spa is a resort located in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was founded by Minnesota businessman Ralph Engelstad.
History
The property opened for business officially on December 22, 1997, as the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino Biloxi, the sister of the Imperial Palace in Paradise, Nevada. When Engelstad died in 2002, the casino ownership transferred to the Ralph Engelstad and Betty Engelstad Trust. The casino operated as its own limited partnership, Imperial Palace LLC, under the Trust's oversight.
At the time of Engelstad's death, the resort was the second-largest privately owned hotel in the world. On August 22, 2005, the Ralph Engelstad and Betty Engelstad Trust announced it was selling the Imperial Palace Las Vegas to Harrah's Imperial Palace Corporation, a subsidiary of Harrah's Entertainment.
Boyd Gaming bought the IP in October 2011 for $278 million in cash plus a $10 million donation to the Engelstad Family Foundation.