Forget the Tourists, This Las Vegas Native Is Betting on the City’s Residents

When people talk about Las Vegas, they talk about the Sphere. They talk about Formula 1 on the Strip, the upcoming Raiders season or the towering new hotels going up on Las Vegas Boulevard. What they fail to talk about are the 3 million people who call this city home, who experience a daily life far removed from casinos, wedding chapels or bachelor parties.

Guy Madmon has been thinking about that gap for a long time. He grew up in Las Vegas, built a fuel and convenience store business on the East Coast, and returned in 2014 to build a new company rooted in his hometown’s community. A decision he says was both meaningful and fulfilling. Today, as co-founder of LV Petroleum, he oversees over 75 travel centers and more than 180 quick-service restaurants that have expanded nationally, employing more than 5,100 people under major franchise brands like Arby’s, Dunkin’, Bojangles, Sbarro and Starbucks.

Ask him what he’s really building, though, and he doesn’t lead with the numbers. He leads with the neighborhoods.

Starting From One Singular Gas Station

Madmon’s path back to Las Vegas started in New Jersey, where he and his business partner, Val Amiel, bought a run-down gas station in 2008 with no employees or outside help. They operated it themselves for over a year before they could afford to hire anyone. By 2011, they had scaled to 33 stations across the state.

Then Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012, devastating 29 of their 33 locations and forcing them to decide whether to rebuild in New Jersey or start fresh elsewhere.

“I always wanted to come back to Vegas,” Madmon says. “This is home. I knew the city, I knew the people and I knew there was real opportunity here, not just on the Strip, but in the neighborhoods.”

They started the same way they had in New Jersey: one gas station, just the two of them. That location became the foundation of LV Petroleum.

Knowing the Neighborhood

“Everyone’s focus is always the Strip, the casinos or the hotels,” Madmon says. “But I grew up here. I know what life actually looks like for the people in these neighborhoods. It’s not the Sphere. It’s a gas tank that needs filling and dinner that needs to be on the table. That stuff doesn’t make the news, but it matters.”

Las Vegas’s metro area now has more than 3 million residents, with roughly 40,000 new people arriving in the past year alone. The city has added professional sports teams, a $2.3 billion entertainment venue in the Sphere and a Formula 1 street race that draws global attention.

But that growth has also created a second economy, Madmon explains, one that exists entirely outside the casino floor that has been underserved for years.”

“The residential side of Las Vegas is massive and it keeps growing,” he says. “But the conversation is always about what’s happening on the Strip. Nobody’s talking about what those 3 million people need every single day – the nurses, the teachers, the truck drivers, the construction workers. Those are my customers.”

The Case for ‘Boring’ Infrastructure

There is a version of the Las Vegas story that gets told over and over. It involves billion-dollar construction projects, celebrity chef restaurants inside hotel lobbies and entertainment concepts that exist nowhere else on earth. Madmon is not dismissing any of that. He just thinks it crowds out a different story.

“A gas station is not glamorous,” he says. “But you can’t run a city without them.”

And that strategic mentality for finding the often-ignored necessities sustaining an economy extends to the rest of Madmon’s businesses as well.

When LV Petroleum expanded its food service division, Madmon was deliberate about the partnerships he chose. With a focus on accessible, convenient, everyday dining, the company now operates more than 30 franchise brands. A recent highlight: the company is currently leading a 20-unit Bojangles push in Las Vegas, one of the largest single-market expansions of the brand in the country.

With over 30 new LV Petroleum locations opening through 2026 and more projects like the Bojangles expansion underway, Madmon is putting real money behind becoming indispensable to local communities. Whether staffing gas stations with overnight security or launching into community-driven initiatives, Madmon is determined to create a company Las Vegas can rely on.

“Everybody asks me why this industry. And I get it, it’s not sexy by Vegas standards,” he says. “But that’s not what these neighborhoods are asking for. They’re asking for a hot meal that’s ready early and won’t break the bank. That’s what I want to give them.”

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