LAS VEGAS — When Planet Hollywood co-founder Robert Earl put together a group in 2004 to buy the bankrupt Aladdin hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, it was already a fully operational property.

But the 56-year-old British entrepreneur says he's starting from "definitely ground floor" when it comes to rebuilding his wealth, after a personal loss of $1 billion as the restaurant company he built went bankrupt in 2001.

"On a personal level, I still have a lot to prove after what happened with the Planet restaurant company," Earl said. "And I plan to silence the critics, if you like, with the success that I'm hoping we're going to have in Vegas."

Ahead of this week's grand opening, the rebranded Planet Hollywood casino-hotel has gotten rid of most vestiges of the Middle Eastern-themed property where business collapsed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Plastic jewel-encrusted pillars have been replaced by textured glass. There's no more 20-foot-long Aladdin's lamp in the casino.

And each room now features a unique piece of Planet Hollywood memorabilia, like the leather jacket John Travolta wore in "Pulp Fiction," generating licensing revenue for Planet Hollywood International Inc., of which Earl is still the CEO.

As of June, the casino property was still losing money after its soft launch in April, about $15 million in the quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earl says that despite the construction-impaired earnings, he and his partners have likely doubled an $800 million investment, thanks to rising land values helped largely by MGM Mirage Inc.'s $7.8 billion CityCenter going up across the street.

"We're sitting on a very large profit even before we perform," he said. "We bought it inexpensively just at the right time. Everyone else in the industry says we stole it."

His dream of opening a Planet Hollywood casino on the Strip dates back to at least 1996, when he tried to team up with ITT Corp., then owner of Caesars Palace, to rebuild the Desert Inn.

By the time ITT was bought out by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. two years later, plans for a Planet Hollywood casino had been dropped. Wynn Las Vegas now stands where the Desert Inn had been.

A series of design flaws and marketing gaps at the rebuilt Aladdin — such as not having a players' club to track gambling action — helped speed its bankruptcy in 2003 and gave Earl another chance.

Earl now owns roughly 35 percent of the property, with investor Bay Harbour Management LC owning another 35 percent, Starwood 15 percent and outside investors the rest.

Not only does the property have a players' club, it is tapping into the marketing network of Starwood's Preferred Guest program, which awards deals to travelers who have frequently stayed at its Westin and Sheraton hotels...

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