--- title: This Billionaire Restaurant Mogul Says He May Start Accepting Bitcoin description: Tilman Fertitta, CEO of Landry's, one of the largest restaurant groups, said he's looking into the possibility of accepting Bitcoin. authors: - name: Rob Wile url: https://money.com/author/rob-wile/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 191 covers: - Business - Career Advice - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/rjwile former_staff: true published: '2018-01-18T13:30:00.000Z' modified: '2021-07-30T19:09:18.000Z' section: Business tags: - Billionaire - Bitcoin - Cryptocurrency word_count: 425 canonical: https://money.com/tilman-fertitta-restaurant-bitcoin/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Landry's Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tilman Fertitta Interview](https://img.money.com/2018/01/gettyimages-492952412.jpg) *Tilman Fertitta, chief executive officer of Landry's Inc* You may not know who Tilman Fertitta is, but you know his restaurants. Rainforest Cafe. Morton's Steakhouse. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Those and half a dozen others are all owned by his company, Houston-based Landry's Inc. Pretty soon, those restaurants may start accepting a new form of payment. In an interview with *Money*, Fertitta said his team is looking into the possibility of accepting the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. "We try to always be on the cutting edge," he said. "If I'm a betting man, I'm expecting \[Bitcoin\] is here to stay." Unlike Warren Buffett, who believes the entire crypto movement will [end badly](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/buffett-says-cyrptocurrencies-will-almost-certainly-end-badly.html), Fertitta said he doesn't view digital currencies as much different from physical currencies. "People say they're kind of invisible," he said. "Well, all money's kind of invisible—it's just a number on a paper. If you draw it out of a bank account, it's the same thing." Bitcoin’s price fell below $10,000 this week—down 50% from its all-time high—[as a massive cryptocurrency sell-off continues](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/cryptocurrency-sell-off-continues-as-bitcoin-ethereum-sink.html). ![DENVER, COLO. - JULY 13, 2005 - Tilman Fertitta, CEO of Landry's Restaurants Inc., at the newly-remodeled Downtown Aquarium, Wednesday afternoon, 7/13/2005. The aquarium, formerly known as Colorado's Ocean Journey, reopens to the public Thursday,](https://img.money.com/2018/01/gettyimages-161353927.jpg) *Tilman Fertitta at the Denver Aquarium's restaurant* Fertitta is currently starring in the third season of 'Billion Dollar Buyer' on *CNBC*. In each episode, he meets two new small business owners who need his help taking their companies to the next level. For Fertitta, becoming a billionaire started with a mastery of basic business concepts. A college dropout, Tilman worked in various industries in different capacities, from salesman to realtor, before opening his first restaurants. But Fertitta also admits a degree of luck was involved. Landry's was part of a wave of restaurant groups, like Cheesecake Factory and Outback Steakhouse, that successfully went public in the early '90s and have been mall mainstays since (Fertitta [took](http://www.chron.com/business/article/Fertitta-keeps-strategy-as-he-takes-Landry-s-1712775.php) Landry's private in 2010 in a deal worth about $1.4 billion). "A lot of folks give up too soon," he added. "You have to keep fighting until someone shuts your door down." Starring in 'Buyer' has been an eye-opening experience for Fertitta. "A lot of people don't even understand when they're not making money," he said, adding that too many companies are putting "principle" before "profit." "When you can understand the operations and numbers, you definitely have something other people don't have." Fertitta recently purchased the Houston Rockets basketball team for $2.2 billion, but he said that being a billionaire can be as stressful as it is fulfilling. "I have the responsibility of so many different families—over 60,000 employees," he said. "You know people are building careers with you, they're going to spend 20 to 25 years with you." 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