Rick Harrison Net Worth (Money & Salary)

What is Rick Harrison’s net worth?

With a net worth of $9 million, Rick Harrison is a well-known American business owner and reality television personality. He is a member of the Harrison family, which operates the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their popularity surged due to the reality TV series “Pawn Stars,” which captures the entertaining events and stories occurring at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop.

Early Life

Born on March 22, 1965, in Lexington, North Carolina, Richard Kevin Harrison is the son of Richard Benjamin Harrison Jr. and Joanne Harrison. He is the third child in the family, with an older sister named Sherry who tragically passed away at the age of six, an older brother named Joseph, and a younger brother named Chris. His father served in the U.S. Navy. When he was just two years old, the family relocated to San Diego due to his father’s military transfer. Starting at the age of eight, Harrison experienced epileptic seizures, which often confined him to bed, igniting a lasting passion for reading. He attended Taft Middle School in San Diego but left during his sophomore year to pursue a business selling counterfeit Gucci bags, making $2,000 a week. In April 1981, the Harrison family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Career

After settling in Las Vegas, Harrison’s father opened a secondhand shop in 1981 named the Gold & Silver Coin Shop, which was a modest 300-square-foot space on Las Vegas Boulevard. During the day, Harrison helped out at the shop while spending his nights repossessing cars. The shop moved to a larger location in downtown Las Vegas in 1986, but unfortunately faced a loss of lease in 1988. Subsequently, they relocated to a new commercial building on Las Vegas Boulevard. The idea of transforming their coin shop into a pawnshop had been discussed for years, as it seemed like a natural progression for their business. However, they encountered challenges due to an existing law in Las Vegas from 1955 that limited pawn shop licenses based on population. By 1988, Las Vegas had over 640,000 residents. Harrison took the initiative to call the city’s statistician weekly, eager to apply for one of the city’s limited pawn licenses as soon as the population reached the next threshold. This opportunity arose in 1989, leading to the granting of their pawn license, and later that year, they opened the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop near the Las Vegas Strip, which they co-owned until his father’s passing in 2018.

By 2005, Harrison and his father were lending approximately $3 million annually, yielding around $700,000 in income from loan interest. The pawnshop became particularly renowned by 2006 for its collection of unique sports memorabilia, also serving as a resource for gamblers needing to pawn items to fuel their journeys home.

Following the pawnshop’s feature in a 2001 PBS documentary and an appearance on Comedy Central’s Insomniac with Dave Attell in 2003, Harrison dedicated four years to pitching a television show about his business. The concept circulated through HBO and YouTube before the History Channel embraced it, ultimately shaping it into the successful series Pawn Stars, which is recognized as the highest-rated program on the network. Premiering in July 2009, Pawn Stars has since aired for 21 seasons, totaling 633 episodes as of June 2023. It stands as the most popular show on The History Channel, meriting unusual renewals in batches of 80 episodes.

This is significant for any television series, especially a reality show.

Currently, Corey Harrison, Rick’s son, is employed at the store and appears on the show alongside his childhood best friend Austin “Chumlee” Russell. Rick has the nickname “The Spotter” on the show, due to his talent for identifying undervalued items.

Personal Life

At the age of 17, Harrison’s girlfriend Kim became pregnant. Although they experienced a miscarriage, the couple chose to marry. Their first child, Corey, arrived on April 27, 1983, followed by their second child, Adam, two years later. Shortly after Adam’s birth, Harrison and Kim separated.

Harrison met Tracy, his future second wife, nine months later on a blind double date. After dating for six months and moving in together, they married eight months later while taking on the responsibility of parenting Corey and Adam. Eventually, they divorced.

After two divorces, Harrison announced his engagement to Deanna Burditt in 2012, who had also been divorced twice. The couple wed on July 21, 2013, in Laguna Beach, California, but divorced in September 2020. In 2021, Harrison tied the knot with Amanda Palmer.

Harrison has shown an interest in politics, having considered a gubernatorial run in Nevada for 2022 and is now pondering a U.S. Senate run in 2024.

Lawsuit

Following the passing of Richard Harrison, known as “The Old Man,” in 2018, Rick’s mother, Joanne, initiated a lawsuit regarding a dispute over family assets and the ownership of their Las Vegas pawn shop. The lawsuit claims that while she was hospitalized in 2000/2001, Rick had coerced her into signing away her 51% stake in the business. It further states that upon Richard’s death in 2018, Joanne inherited his 49% share of the pawn shop, but Rick has not provided complete financial documentation. Joanne claims she has not received a proper accounting of over $500,000 in cash and silver that she believes her husband obtained before his death. She seeks unspecified damages, asset accounting, and a court mandate disallowing Rick from utilizing her funds, along with a “constructive trust” for her property.

Real Estate

In 2019, Harrison put his Red Rock Country Clubhouse in Summerlin, Las Vegas, on the market for $3.99 million. The house encompasses 8,845 square feet and was constructed in 2001. He purchased the property in 2016 and invested approximately $600,000 in renovations. The formal sitting room features granite flooring that is acid-washed, cut into planks, and installed like hardwood at a cost of $45,000. It includes two bedrooms on the lower floor and two upstairs, a gym that can double as a bedroom, and seven bathrooms. The property boasts a 12-seat home theater with a 150-inch screen, a wine cellar with over 1,000 bottle capacity, an elevator, and a central sound system that allows anyone with a phone to play music in any room.

At the front, the house offers views of Red Rock Canyon’s Spring Mountains, while the backyard overlooks the Strip and the Arroyo Golf Club. The game room upstairs features a balcony, and the backyard includes a lagoon-style pool, elevated spa, and a gate leading to the golf course. Additionally, there is a 10-foot waterfall and a lazy river feeding into the pool. An outdoor kitchen is also present. Harrison chose this neighborhood as their children attended high school nearby, but now that they have grown, the space is no longer necessary.