He is the chairman, CEO, and owner of Landry's, Inc.[2][3] He also owns the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Houston Rockets.

[7] Forbes calls him the "World's Richest Restaurateur.”[8] Fertitta became the star of Billion Dollar Buyer on CNBC.

[9][10][11] On December 21, 2024, Fertitta was nominated by then President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the United States Ambassador to Italy and San Marino.

[24] In 2004, Fertitta was elected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame, becoming the second-youngest Texan to ever earn that distinction, behind only Michael Dell.

[32] Fertitta first built the Key Largo Hotel in Galveston, Texas and then sold it in order to buy the rights to Landry's.

[38] Since then, Landry's has opened casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

[40] In addition to restaurants, hotels, and casinos, Landry's also owns amusement parks, aquariums, and the Kemah Boardwalk.

He also added the Boardwalk FantaSea,[41] which is a luxury yacht cruise service where guests ride along the Galveston Bay.

The redeveloped pier includes an amusement park, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant, as well as shops.

[45] During the process of building the Houston Texans as an NFL team, Fertitta was one of the original investors in creating the franchise.

He was a partner of Texans owner Bob McNair until 2008 when he had to sell his interest in the franchise because he owns the Golden Nugget casino chain (a Landry's subsidiary) and NFL rules state any staff member of a team cannot be associated with gambling.

[47] On September 4, 2017, he agreed to purchase the Rockets from Leslie Alexander, pending league approval, for an NBA record $2.2 billion.

[5] Fertitta paid for the Rockets by selling $1.415 billion worth of bonds and was competing with Houston-native singer Beyonce Knowles to purchase the team.

[49] By buying the Houston Rockets he also became the owner of Clutch Gaming, a professional eSports organization focused on League of Legends.

Fertitta has continually stated his interest in owning a hockey team and believes that one would boost the economy of downtown Houston.

[56] On March 1, 2024, it was reported that Fertitta had purchased the River Oaks District, one of Houston's most prominent mixed-use developments, for $450 million.

[59][61] In April 2020, Governor Greg Abbott named Fertitta to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[65] Mark Kelly, a Democrat and current United States Senator from Arizona, is considered to be a very close friend of Fertitta.

[67] On January 12, 2016, it was announced that Fertitta would star in his own reality TV show titled Billion Dollar Buyer on CNBC.

[77] In 2009, Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed Fertitta to the board of regents of the University of Houston System.