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GGB Global Gaming Business Magazine
GENEROUS GIFTING CORPORATE CONTROL OF MARKETING SPORTS BETTING GROWING PAINS MORONGO’S ST. JEAN
May 2022 • Vol. 21 • No. 5 • $10
PostPandemic
Players Programs The evolution of casino loyalty clubs surges forward
Labor
Relations
How the ‘Great Resignation’ is impacting casinos
Meet Me In
Macau The recovery from Covid may take a lot longer
Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers
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CONTENTS
Vol. 21 • No. 5
may
Global Gaming Business Magazine
COLUMNS
22 COVER STORY 21st Century Loyalty
10 AGA Smashing ESG
The modern players club has evolved from basic player tracking functions into a marketing tool that courts loyalty and retention of players in a customized and personalized manner, thanks to technological tools that unlock and analyze a mountain of data to provide a complete view of player worth.
Cait DeBaun
12 Fantini’s Finance Earning Respect Frank Fantini
31 Making My Point The Rest of the Story Roger Snow
By Frank Legato
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES 32 Marketing Corporate Gaming Marketing far-flung properties for a corporate gaming enterprise requires coordination of strategies. By Julia Carcamo
38 The Great Resignation 16 Macau’s Long Road With junkets gone, pandemicinduced safety protocols and travel restrictions on Chinese customers, Macau’s recovery is sagging behind other markets. By Andrew Klebanow and Lawrence Shen
28 Selling the Sportsbooks With big sign-up bonuses and other giveaways hardly a long-term solution to retain sports betting customers, sportsbooks turn to more efficient marketing strategies.
4
The Agenda
6
By the Numbers
8
5 Questions
13 AGEM
Two years after Covid-19 brought the industry to a halt, casinos are still struggling to maintain staffing levels, and are seeking new strategies to lure their employees back.
With KPMG Malta’s Russell Mifsud, Scarlet Pearl’s Gretchen Holzhauser, and Incredible Technologies’ David Stone
By Marjorie Preston
46 New Game Review
42 Gifting Goodwill
50 Goods & Services
The old way of promotional gifting is giving way to a new style of player rewards, as home delivery replaces the long lines at the players club.
52 Frankly Speaking
By Dave Bontempo
53 People
36 Emerging Leaders
54 Casino Communications With Richard St. Jean, Chief Operating Officer, Morongo Casino Resort & Spa
By Bill Sokolic
MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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THE AGENDA
Thanks for the Memories
By Roger Gros, Publisher
Vol. 21 • No. 5 • MAY 2022 Roger Gros, Publisher | rgros@ggbmagazine.com twitter: @GlobalGamingBiz Frank Legato, Editor | flegato@ggbmagazine.com twitter: @FranklySpeakn Marjorie Preston, Managing Editor mpreston@ggbmagazine.com Monica Cooley, Art Director mcooley@ggbmagazine.com
f you live in or even visit Las Vegas, it’s undoubtedly a phrase you’ve heard dozens of times: “Things were better when the mob ran Vegas.” And they say it with a straight face. Of course they don’t mean the murders, the loan sharking, the racketeering and all the other things that come along with the mob. They mean the attention to the customer, the comps they used to get without even asking, the great table game rules, and the general elegance of the surroundings in a Las Vegas casino. Probably some of those memories got softer and more benevolent over time. But of course they didn’t see the skimming of millions of dollars that went to organized crime for its other nefarious activities. I doubt they took note of the treatment of the players who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay their markers that were so generously granted. The regulators who looked the other way while some of these illicit events went on under their noses. And anyone afflicted with a gambling problem had nowhere to go for help, and would usually be abused until the last penny was squeezed from his or her account. The Mob Museum in Downtown Las Vegas has become a big tourist attraction in town, and actually plays into the nostalgia for that era. While the museum doesn’t whitewash what happened in those days, it does sensationalize it and emphasizes the colorful and larger-than-life characters who “ran” the town at that time. The popularity of the book and movie Casino (and Nick Pileggi’s book is better than Martin Scorsese’s movie) has cemented the stereotypes of the era—the glamorous showrooms where high rollers are escorted to front-row booths; the degenerate gamblers looking for one last score; the gaming control board member whose brother is the sheriff; the control of the casino by the Kansas City mob; and all the other vignettes that were prominent parts of the story. But the most egregious parts of the tale—the violence, burglaries and illegal activities—were not that exaggerated. In the terrific autobiography by
I
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Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
the Vegas mobster Frank Cullotta and Dennis Griffin (Cullotta, published in 2007 by Huntington Press), murder was always a consideration. In the robbery of a jewelry store in Vegas, Cullotta’s henchman kills the owner of the store on a whim even though he was cooperative. The level of violence described in the book makes the violence in Casino seem mild. Remember, however, that Casino was set in the 1980s, the same time period described in Cullotta. The days of the mob were slipping away, but they weren’t letting go easily. They really had no choice, however, because Nevadans had finally had enough. Suddenly the rules and regulations of the gaming regulators had some teeth. The gaming law was amended to allow corporations to participate in gaming, bringing in important and sensible business practices that the mobsters never grasped. Today, gaming in Nevada is a respected industry—so respected that it has spread across the nation, because Nevada finally had the guts to kick out the mobsters that had held sway on an industry that created jobs, attracted visitors from around the world, and paid taxes like any other successful business. These new businesses were encouraged to develop a corporate social responsibility that today is a hallmark of casino companies. And since the corporations were permitted in the game, Vegas has boomed. From a population in the 1980s of approximately 450,000, today’s metropolitan Las Vegas area is home to almost 3 million people. So no. Vegas was not better when the mob ran it. Vegas has grown and gotten better in many different ways. It’s not perfect by a long shot, but it has become a city that is home for families, for diverse communities, and for people who reject the methods of the mobsters who built the city. Your nostalgia for the “good old days” is just that. It’s a memory in a rearview mirror that we can put behind us and build a better Las Vegas for the future generations.
Terri Brady, Sales & Marketing Director tbrady@ggbmagazine.com Becky Kingman-Gros, Chief Operating Officer bkingros@ggbmagazine.com Lisa Johnson, Communications Advisor lisa@lisajohnsoncommunications.com twitter: @LisaJohnsonPR Columnists Cait DeBaun | Frank Fantini | Roger Snow Contributing Editors Dave Bontempo twitter: @bontempomedia Julia Carcamo | Marie Casias | Andrew Klebanow Lawrence Shen | Bill Sokolic twitter: @downbeachfilm Michael Vanaskie __________________
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Rino Armeni, President, Armeni Enterprises
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Mark A. Birtha, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Hard Rock International
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Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, President, Lifescapes International
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Nicholas Casiello Jr., Shareholder, Fox Rothschild
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Jeffrey Compton, Publisher, CDC E-Reports twitter: @CDCNewswire
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Dean Macomber, President, Macomber International, Inc.
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Stephen Martino, Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer, MGM Resorts International, twitter: @stephenmartino
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Jim Rafferty, President, Rafferty & Associates
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Thomas Reilly, Vice President Systems Sales, Scientific Games
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Michael Soll, President, The Innovation Group
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Katherine Spilde, Executive Director, Sycuan Gaming Institute, San Diego State University, twitter: @kspilde
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Ernie Stevens, Jr., Chairman, National Indian Gaming Association twitter: @NIGA1985
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Roy Student, President, Applied Management Strategies
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David D. Waddell, Partner Regulatory Management Counselors PC Casino Connection International LLC. 1000 Nevada Way • Suite 204 • Boulder City, NV 89005 702-248-1565 • 702-248-1567 (fax) www.ggbmagazine.com The views and opinions expressed by the writers and columnists of GLOBAL GAMING BUSINESS are not necessarily the views of the publisher or editor. Copyright 2022 Global Gaming Business LLC. Boulder City, NV 89005 GLOBAL GAMING BUSINESS is published monthly by Casino Connection International, LLC. Printed in Nevada, USA. Postmaster: Send Change of Address forms to: 1000 Nevada Way, Suite 204, Boulder City, NV 89005 Official Publication
GGB
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BY THE
NUMBERS Legal Sports Betting in the U.S.
U.S. SportS Betting Update t
he American Gaming Association has been publishing a map outlining the status of the legalization of sports betting in the U.S. since the federal ban on wagering was repealed in 2018. The most recent map, as of midApril 2022, shows sports betting is up and running in 30 states and the District of Columbia. It has been legalized in three other states but is not yet operational. A further 11 states have active legislation currently being considered. Two states—Georgia and
Hawaii—had bills introduced but then failed. And four states have seen no legislation introduced at all. To stay up to date with all the metrics of sports betting legalization, visit AmericanGaming.org.
Betting Billions
a
new annual report issued by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming outlines the total gaming spend by category in the United States. The first report for 2021 reveals that Americans spent more than $147 billion on gambling activities last year, and also demonstrates that commercial and tribal gaming enterprises encompass 58 percent of all gaming spend. Lottery is the next largest category at 25 percent. The report also separates online spend from traditional wagering, and estimates online spend at 7 percent of the market. Most categories increased significantly in a five-year cycle, with sports betting (+112 percent), online casino and poker (+82 percent) and online lottery (+56 percent) leading the way. Only card clubs (-1.5 percent) and parimutuel racing (-6.2 percent) experienced a decline during that period. To obtain a copy of total gaming spend by category report, contact Rick Eckert, managing director, slot performance and analytics for Eilers & Krejcik Gaming at reckert@ekgamingllc.com.
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Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
total U.S. gambling Spend for 2021
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NUTSHELL
5
“They
Questions Tom O’Brien President, Americas & EMEA, Aristocrat
T
om O’Brien was named president of Aristocrat for the Americas and the EMEA region after spending two years as general manager of the company. O’Brien has a long history in gaming, starting as an operator in Atlantic City and later moving to the supplier side. In addition to Aristocrat, he has held senior roles at Interblock and Scientific Games. He discussed his new job with GGB Publisher Roger Gros at the Aristocrat headquarters in Las Vegas in April. For a full video and audio GGB Podcast, visit GGBMagazine.com. Congrats on your new role as president of Aristocrat. Give us some idea of your responsibilities in this role.
1 2 3 4 5
The roles and responsibilities have changed dramatically. As general manager, I was pretty much doing customer relations. I would visit the customers and talk to all the bigger customers we had. I’d take Hector (Fernandez) to introduce him because he was primarily new to the business. So now Hector moves to CEO of land-based gaming. I move into the president spot, and the responsibilities have changed. This is your second go-around with Aristocrat. What convinced you to come back?
It’s a great story. I was asked to come back, and before I agreed, I was asked to meet Hector. I went out and met Hector for a cup of coffee for 30 minutes. It turned into three hours. So the rest of it was history. Hector and I started working together on March 2, 2020, and we’ve never stopped. We’re closer than we’ve ever been. Even when Covid changed things dramatically, it was a good time for us to get together and do all the hard work we did. Even though the world shut down that March, Aristocrat did not.
We did not shut down design development. We didn’t shut down our service teams. As a matter of fact, we went out there and started talking to our customers about what we could do for them during this down time. How can we help you? Customers were scrambling to try and move their slot machines from rows of machines to pods. We were there to help them for that. And on top of that, our design development teams just kept on working tirelessly every day. And the proof is in pudding now, as you can see we keep coming out with product after product making the top 10, top five and even No. 1 in several categories. Aristocrat has had a lot of breakthrough products in the past few years, such as the Buffalo series and Lightning Link. How important are those products to the success of the company? Is it the math?
They mean everything to us. Dragon Link is the No. 1 game right now. Our job is to keep giving the customers what we they want. So we keep refreshing those games and it seems to be working well for us. As for the math, I’ve been doing this a long time, and everybody asks that question. What I’ve learned from this company is, it has a lot to do with game mechanics along with math. Math is one way to make your customers happy, but the game mechanics themselves have to be pretty exciting as well. If they’re not, you can usually lose a customer pretty quickly. We just continue making game after game and the customers seem to be enjoying it. So we’re happy about that. How do you keep that innovation going? Is it all in the game studios?
I’d like to know the magic sauce myself. They don’t exactly give it all away to us. But I will tell you after being with the studios that they just don’t stop. Whatever they’ve done in the past, they look at it and say, how can we do a better job? Our studios are very intelligent. They test the games, put them out in the field, they see what the customers like, what they don’t like. And we try to help them with that commercially as well and give them the feedback that we get.
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Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
Said It”
“Online sports betting handle and gross revenue are bogus, easily manipulated metrics, but they help with investor expectations, even if profits don’t really exist.” —Carlo Santarelli, Deutsche Bank analyst, commenting on his belief that certain common metrics in gaming don’t mean too much
CALENDAR May 3-6: Southern Gaming Summit, Beau Rivage, Biloxi, Mississippi. Produced by the Mississippi Gaming Association. For more information, visit SGSummit.com. May 24-26: CasinoBeats Summit 2022, InterContinental Hotel, St. Julian’s, Malta. Produced by SBC. For more information, visit SBCEvents.com/casinobeats-summit. June 7-9: Canadian Gaming Summit, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Produced by the Canadian Gaming Association. For more information, visit CanadianGamingSummit.com. June 20-22: NW Indian Gaming Conference & Expo 2022, Little Creek Casino Resort, Kamilche, Washington. Produced by the Northwest Indian Gaming Association. For more information, visit WashingtonIndianGaming.org. July 5-8: iGB Live! 2022, RAI Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Produced by iGaming Business. For more information, visit iGBLive.com. July 12-14: SBC Summit North America 2022, Meadowlands Exposition Center, Hackensack, New Jersey. Produced by SBC. For more information, visit SBCEvents.com. June 18-21: SiGMA Americas, Toronto, Ontario. Produced by SiGMA. For more information, visit SiGMA.world/Americas. July 25-27: ASEAN Gaming Summit, Shangri-La at the Fort, Manila, Philippines. Produced by Asia Gaming Brief. For more information, visit AESEANGaming.com. August 24-26: G2E Asia Special Edition: Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Produced by Reed Exhibitions and the American Gaming Association. For more information, visit G2EAsia.com.
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AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION
Smashing ESG When it comes to sustainability, diversity and responsible operations, the gaming industry is hitting its marks
T
he gaming industry has long been an integral member of our communities—serving as economic hubs, partnering with local charities and nonprofits, and generating billions of dollars in tax revenue each year that goes to critical public projects. Today, however, the bar has been raised for how companies are expected to do business and deliver social good. More than ever, consumers, employees, investors and policymakers are judging companies based on how they are advancing issues across the environmental, social and governance (ESG) spectrum. The gaming industry is responding, with more than two-thirds of American Gaming Association member companies reporting more information about ESG issues today than they were just five years ago. In late 2021, the AGA conducted the firstever industry-wide assessment of gaming’s ESG efforts. Across four main ESG pillars, the project highlights how gaming companies are taking charge on ESG issues and setting ambitions to continue to grow their commitments. Advancing Sustainability Energy consumption has been a priority for operators in the desert of Southern Nevada for years, but now, gaming companies across the country are placing a heightened emphasis on reducing resource consumption and deploying alternative energy solutions. • Several companies have set targets of net zero emissions in the coming years, including Entain (2035), Global Payments (2040), TransUnion (2025), and Wynn (2050). • From 2017 to 2019, Boyd Gaming reduced its carbon emissions by more than 2 percent, equivalent to the emissions of more than 1.1 million gallons of gasoline. • Las Vegas Sands’ ECO360 program is driving a comprehensive sustainability solution for the company by implementing green buildings, responsible operations, and green meetings and events.
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Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
by Cait DeBaun
Strengthening Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) AGA members are strengthening DEI at all levels of their organizations, elevating equity of opportunity, and supporting social justice efforts in their communities and across the country. • In 2019, the All-In Diversity Project recognized IGT as one of the highest-ranking participants in its annual benchmarking of inclusion, and at companies like AGS, 50 percent of leaders on the senior executive team are people of color. • In November 2021, Penn National Gaming announced a $4 million commitment to fund a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship Program in partnership with
“
Emergency Student Aid Fund to provide financial support to students enrolled in Virginia’s five HBCUs. • Across 2021, Aristocrat’s Employee Relief Fund delivered more than $186,000 in grants to support a total of 247 employees. Responsible Leadership Responsible leadership in our communities starts with investing in responsible gaming, but also extends to establishing rigorous business and supply chain standards. • GeoComply has established an independent nonprofit arm, Conscious Gaming, that leverages innovation and technology to enhance responsible gaming initiatives, such as setting out to establish a national self-exclusion program. • In 2022, DraftKings launched its State Council Funding Program, a new responsible gaming initiative offering every state problem gambling council $15,000 per year for three years—representing a commitment of more than $1.5 million. • Seminole Hard Rock has trained more than 27,000 team members to detect and respond to signs of human trafficking. The findings demonstrate our deep commitment to advancing sustainability, strengthening DEI, investing in communities, and leading responsibly. Our members’ efforts are improving the planet, gaming communities, and our employee and customer experience. This is just a starting point for the AGA and our members. The AGA will use the findings to drive honest conversations among our membership—and the industry broadly—about strengths and opportunities to improve. Working together, this initiative will only make the gaming industry stronger.
The AGA will use the ESG findings to drive honest conversations among our membership—and the industry broadly—about strengths and opportunities to improve.
historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in states where the company operates. • During the pandemic, MGM Resorts’ Supplier Diversity Mentorship Program has supported more than 100 diverse small business suppliers through workshops and seminars relating to growth in turbulent times. Investing in Communities Gaming companies are upping the ante on giving back to their communities—spurring economic development, delivering in times of crisis, expanding education programs, and partnering on various philanthropic initiatives. • Delaware North has donated $1 million in West Memphis, Arkansas to establish a hospitality training program that has already awarded 170 degrees. • With a $1 million donation, FanDuel established the FanDuel-Washington Commander
”
Cait DeBaun is vice president, strategic communications and responsibility for the American Gaming Association.
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FANTINI’S FINANCE
Earning Respect While casino financials have been good, when can we expect the return of convention and international visitors?
E
very earnings season has a theme. For nearly a year, the theme for casino operators has been achieving and maintaining high EBITDA margins and the rapid, though uneven, return of customers. Those will continue to be important themes. Maintaining margins will be a challenge as casinos bear the costs of reopening more amenities. Casinos still await the full return of older patrons, and in Las Vegas the return of convention attendees and international visitors. Indeed, the full return of customers in those three categories could be a huge boost to casino profitability. Older customers comprise a disproportionate share of profitable gamblers. Convention business is a key component to the success of big Las Vegas Strip operators such as Caesars and MGM Resorts. International visitors stay for longer periods of time and typically spend more than domestic customers. Indeed, the full return of customers combined with operators maintaining spending discipline could mean that 2022 is a boom time for casinos, especially in Las Vegas. But what makes first-quarter earnings reports and investor conference calls different and especially important will be signs that indicate how well casino operators are withstanding surging inflation and how well gaming technology companies are managing their supply chains. To date, the bull-bear debate has been dominated by optimism over the return of customers. But higher operating costs can erode those hard-fought higher EBITDA margins and inflation, at some point, can erode consumer confidence and spending power. Finally, there is the fear that the Fed might have to, basically, force a recession to quell inflation, and international dislocations caused by the war in Ukraine could both further fuel inflation and worsen any recession. It might be early to tell if inflation is taking its toll, but it will be worth listening for it on those investor calls and whether companies begin to issue more cautious financial guidance. 12
Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
By Frank Fantini
All That Glitters…
In Pennsylvania, revenues last football season ac… is not gold, the old saying goes. tually declined 2.5 percent when growing promoThat could be the title of two recent research tional costs are netted out. notes by Carlo Santarelli, the Deutsche Bank gaming Weaning operators off high promotional spendanalyst who has long been a sobering voice of reason ing may be more difficult than the several-years-out amid the hoopla and hype over online sports betting projections many companies make. Again, illustrated and iCasino. in detailed charts, Santarelli shows that when promoIn the process, he saved a lot of money for intional spending declines, so do gross revenues. vestors who heeded his calls In the end, operators will reach during the now monthsa steady state in which online sports What makes firstlong collapse of digital gambetting will be profitable and higherquarter earnings ing stocks. iCasino more so, though digreports and investor margin In his most recent notes, ital profitability will be lower than conference calls Santarelli questions the value Santarelli says. different and especially anticipated, of using gross gaming revFurther, in analyzing data, inimportant will be enues and handle as measvestors will have to acknowledge that signs that indicate ures of the true total when promotional costs finally do how well casino addressable market for digidrop to the often-discussed 20-30 operators are tal. As before, he makes his of revenue, the result will be withstanding surging percent case in no-nonsense presena total addressable market well below inflation and how well many of today’s projections, tations supported by data. gaming technology Santarelli says. Santarelli uses New Jercompanies are sey, Pennsylvania and several The data and analyses offered by managing their other states to illustrate that, Santarelli support our long-held thesupply chains. after deducting promotional sis that sports betting and iGaming expenses from gross gaming will be tougher businesses than their revenues, net gaming revenues are appreciably lower, touters contend. suggesting a substantially smaller addressable market There is another caution that investors should than many believe. consider—regulatory risk. Some of the numbers are stunning. Gambling ads flooding the airwaves, making blaFor example, in New Jersey, the average customer tant appeals to risk taking and doing it at times and lost $320 last year, but the net was really just $120, in ways sure to reach youngsters, is an open invitaSantarelli lays out in detailed calculations. In Penntion to sterner regulation and restrictive legislation. sylvania, year-to-date promotional costs are 63.8 perWe have only to look at rules being imposed in cent of gross revenue. Michigan is 73.4 percent. European countries to see the possible future in Gross revenue and handle amount to bogus and America. And we have only to listen to the almost easily manipulated metrics. Relying on them “will blithe comments of some American casino executives simply elongate the process to a steady state, as operthat they are ahead of the problem gambling curve to ators attempt to continue to show gross revenue and suspect that they don’t get it. handle growth, to satiate investor expectations,” In the end, state governments might do the job Santarelli says. for the industry of bringing ruinous promotional Further, the argument that promotional costs wars under control. will decline as markets mature so far isn’t playing Frank Fantini is principal at Fantini Advisors, investors and out. In fact, promotional costs are rising even in consultants with a focus on gaming. somewhat mature markets, Santarelli points out.
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AGEMupdate AGEM Member Profiles Silver Member Profile Inspired Entertainment www.inseinc.com
Inspired offers an expanding portfolio of content, technology, hardware and services for regulated gaming, betting, lottery, social and leisure operators across land-based and mobile channels around the world.
Bronze Member Profile APEX pro gaming a.s. www.apex-gaming.com
APEX gaming provides complete gaming solutions for all applications, such as slot machines, multiplayers, online and mobile. Since its incorporation in 2003, APEX gaming has grown to be an international company offering complete gaming solutions to its customers in all gaming segments, and impeccable after-sales relationships.
AGEM April 2022 Meeting Recap • The April monthly meeting took place at Ainsworth Game Technology and had both in-person and attendees via Zoom. AGEM’s Secretary Tom Jingoli made welcoming remarks and noted AGEM’s appreciation to Ainsworth for hosting the AGEM meeting and allowing Executive Director Daron Dorsey to keep an office within the Ainsworth facility while awaiting completion of AGEM’s new office at the Black Fire Innovation facility, currently scheduled for completion in May. • AGEM’s petition pushing for the approval of gaming technology in the cloud continues to see success. The latest version of the proposed regulations is supported by the Nevada Gaming Control Board members and staff and was scheduled to be on the April 21 Nevada Gaming Commission agenda for adoption. AGEM’s counsel, Dan Reaser, represented AGEM at the hearing and remains in dialogue with commissioners and staff on the matter. • AGEM looks forward to continuing work alongside the American Gaming Association in combating unregulated gaming machines in United States markets. The continued collaboration is aimed at federal, state and local enforcement efforts and will be a focus of AGEM for the years to come. • On the trade show front, the ICE 2022 London show was under way as of the meeting time, with AGEM’s Director of Europe Tracy Cohen representing the association for the week. With the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention scheduled for the week of April 18-22 in Anaheim, California, Brian Sullivan from Clarion Gaming joined the meeting remotely and gave a brief overview of the upcoming convention. Sullivan noted the show is on track for success with many AGEM member companies exhibiting and updated AGEM attendees that the show will require proof of vaccination or negative test results for entry due to local health regulations. • On the responsible gaming front, AGEM’s Director of Responsible Gaming Connie Jones provided attendees with an upcoming schedule of events and conferences where AGEM will be both sponsoring and participating. Those include the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) conference in Seattle, Washington in late April and the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling convention in early May. • On the membership front, Daron Dorsey and Tom Jingoli updated the membership that FY2023 membership invoices will be generated and circulated in the weeks to come in a more automated format than in prior years. Jingoli also noted that a 10 percent increase in dues across all membership levels was recommended and approved by the officers and Board of Directors. Dorsey also requested the membership review and to confirm their respective company contacts for AGEM membership and committee assignments in order to assist AGEM with efforts to update association records.
Forthcoming Events • AGEM will once again be a co-title sponsor of the 23rd AGA/AGEM Golf Classic Presented by JCM Global on May 11. Per organizers at JCM, this year’s event has already sold out its golf spots and is poised to be a great success for a worthy cause, the International Center for Responsible Gaming.
AGEMindex Associate Member Profile AmericanChecked Inc www.americanchecked.com
AmericanChecked is a leading, nationally accredited consumer reporting agency providing corporate gaming businesses and tribal enterprises with high-quality, comprehensive background screening services. AGEM is an international trade association representing manufacturers of electronic gaming devices, systems, lotteries and components for the gaming industry. The association works to further the interests of gaming equipment manufacturers throughout the world. Through political action, trade show partnerships, information dissemination and good corporate citizenship, the members of AGEM work together to create benefits for every company within the organization. Together, AGEM and its member organizations have assisted regulatory commissions and participated in the legislative process to solve problems and create a positive business environment.
In March 2022, the AGEM Index improved by 2.45 points to 955.40, marking a 0.3 percent increase from the prior month. Compared to one year ago, the index added 191.27 points for an annual growth rate of 25 percent. During the latest reporting period, nine of the AGEM Index companies reported stock price declines, with three posting an increase. Those results translated to seven companies posting negative contributions to the index and five companies reporting positive contributions. The top contributor to the monthly index was Konami Corp. (TYP: 9766), which reported a 22.39-point index gain as a result of a 19.6 percent increase in stock price. Crane Co. (NYSE: CR) reported an 8.74-point gain to the index due to a 7.1 percent increase in the company’s stock price. The largest negative contribution to the index was sourced to International Game Technology PLC (NYSE: IGT), whose 19.4 percent decline in stock price led to a 19.41-point decrease in the AGEM Index. In the latest reporting period, all three major U.S. stock indices trended upwards after two consecutive months of negative growth. The S&P 500 increased by 3.6 percent, while the NASDAQ rose by 3.4 percent. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average observed a 2.4 percent increase over the month.
MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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The normally bustling Shoppes at Venetian mall in Venetian Macao is nearly empty these days
Long Road Back
The
Macau’s recovery from the pandemic is not imminent; in fact, it could be years in the making By Andrew Klebanow and Lawrence Shen
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acau’s casino industry is in crisis. Only two months ago, casino operators had reasons to be optimistic. A spike in visitation during the Lunar New Year foreshadowed a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. It was generally believed that the success of Macau and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at keeping Covid-19 infections at a very low level, albeit under very strict health and safety protocols, would allow for the resumption of less restrictive travel across the border that separates Macau from neighboring Guangdong Province. Then in February 2022, a surge in Covid-19 infections in Hong Kong, followed by massive pandemic-induced lockdowns in cities across the PRC, brought cross-border traffic to a near halt. Casino revenues and hotel occupancy rates collapsed in March, and through April, Macau’s normally bustling streets were free of tourists, shopping malls were deserted, and casinos were empty, except for employees waiting for customers. In addition, the arrest in December of prominent people whose organizations were leading junket providers brought to an abrupt end a critical source of gaming demand. Immediately after those arrests, a succession
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of casinos announced that they were closing their junket rooms. Junkets, which at one time accounted for over 70 percent of Macau’s gaming revenue, are now unlikely to play any role in the casino industry’s recovery. Satellite casinos, located in hotels across the Macau Peninsula and long reliant on junket promoters, have begun to close, and some are not expected to reopen. What was once an unthinkable question is now being spoken publicly: Can Macau’s casinos continue to absorb the losses incurred over the past two years, keep their employees on their payrolls, and continue to draw down credit facilities until such time that the market turns around?
Macau By the Numbers Like most of Asia, Macau’s health authorities took steps to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in February 2020. Border crossings were closed to all but returning residents. Slowly, restrictions were modified to allow for a modest amount of tourism. Hotel occupancy initially plummeted from above 90 percent to below 20 percent before starting to creep up in September 2020. While occupancy rose above 60 percent for two months, it had been hovering at around 50 percent until the most recent pandemic surge in the PRC.
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The casino floors at Grand Lisboa (left) and Galaxy Macau (below) have few players but full staff as the gaming companies are reluctant to lay off workers due to the concession bidding process that will last the full year of 2022
Taxis stand idle at Venetian Macao
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Gaming revenue during the past two years saw similar rates of decline. From February 2018 through January 2019, Macau’s casinos generated $37.4 billion in gross gaming revenue, referred to as Period 1 in the accompanying table. The market saw a modest decline of 4 percent in Period 2, before dropping by 84 percent during Period 3, the first year of the pandemic. While it recovered in the latest period, GGR is still 72 percent below the period ending in January 2019.
Zero-Covid and its Impact on Macau Macau’s current malaise is rooted in the PRC’s Zero-Covid policy. Shortly after the emergence of the pandemic, Macau and the PRC implemented a multi-pronged strategy that sought to identify and isolate anyone who was infected or had come into contact with someone who was infected. Even as health officials sought to tamp down the spread of the virus in Wuhan, the PRC implemented draconian strategies to limit the virus’ spread in other cities. At the core of these strategies is a mobile app. Whenever a person enters a public building, they would have their QR code scanned, and one of three colors are displayed. Green allows the resident to move on; yellow indicates that the person may have been in the general presence of someone who was infected; red indicates that the person had indeed been in close proximity with someone who was infected. A red code would require that the person be immediately quarantined along with others who may have been in the vicinity. Macau’s mobile app works with those used by residents of Guangdong Province, allowing visitors from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai to cross into Macau, present their mobile devices for scanning, and visit Macau’s casinos. The mobile app allows for the creation of a travel bubble between Macau and various provinces in the PRC. The implementation of other programs such as the individual visit scheme visas (IVS) that would allow more tourists to enter Macau from other provinces were planned for later this year. For the moment, those plans are on hold. Travel to and from Hong Kong, a market that once accounted for 15 percent of Macau’s gaming revenue, has yet to resume, given the gateway city’s very high infection rate. Another key element of Zero-Covid is a quarantine for all visitors entering Macau, Hong Kong and the PRC. While quarantine policies vary by jurisdiction, what it means is that anyone arriving from another country is subject to a strict quarantine in a designated hotel or government facility for a period ranging from seven to 21 days. That policy is expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future.
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The Blacklist and the Travel Quarantine Prior to the pandemic, PRC authorities announced the formation of a blacklist of countries that had previously encouraged Chinese nationals to visit their casinos. While the names of those countries were never revealed, it was assumed that Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia were on that list. The veiled threat was that there would be some kind of economic sanctions against those nations. The problem with economic sanctions is that they instigate some form of economic retribution by the sanctioned nation. It becomes a zero-sum gain situation. Zero-Covid’s quarantine policy can achieve similar goals at no economic cost to the PRC. For example, as international travel resumes, residents of the PRC will once again be free to travel internationally. They may choose to visit Jeju for a gaming vacation experience, or they can go to Macau. Should they visit Jeju, upon return they will be required to quarantine in a government-designated hotel or other facility at their own expense. Should they choose to gamble in Macau, they would not be subject to any quarantine. If the PRC’s quarantine policy remains in place after the current pandemic abates, it will have a profound effect on the region’s gaming industry. Faced with possible quarantines if they visit other countries, Chinese gamblers will devote all their discretionary gaming dollars to Macau’s casinos. In other words, Macau will no longer have to compete with other countries for a share of the PRC’s gaming dollars. When the lockdowns are lifted and IVS programs are restored, Macau’s gaming industry will come roaring back, to the detriment of other regional competitors.
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Debt Service Trends One looming question is how long Macau’s concessionaires can survive the current state of business until they run out of cash. To answer this, the authors conducted a simple and accepted financial calculation. Using publicly available data, the following projections were made. Galaxy Melco Wynn Sands MGM SJM
As long as needed Around 18 months 12-18 months 9-12 months 6-9 months 3-6 months
The Future of Junkets The arrest of Alvin Chau, the CEO of Suncity Group, in December 2021 and the subsequent closure of Suncity’s Macau VIP clubs marked an end to what was once Macau’s largest junket operator. At its peak, Suncity alone accounted for about 25 percent of Macau’s gaming revenue. It was hoped that junkets would help fuel a rebound once pandemic restrictions were lifted. Instead, the event precipitated the closure of other junket rooms, and a complete rethinking of Macau’s junket model. Once Macau begins its recovery, it will do so without any reliance on junket operators and will instead count on mass market and premium mass market players. The end of junkets in Macau does not mean that this portion of the gaming
industry will cease to exist. The term “water seeks its own level” can be aptly applied to describe the future of junkets. Rather than disappear, junket operators will shift their business activities to markets that are more receptive to their business models, specifically Cambodia, Vietnam, South Korea and the Philippines. They will continue to provide essential services such as short-term loans and travel arrangements; they just will not be providing those services in Macau’s casinos. Macau’s casino operators will have to take on the responsibility of issuing credit to premium mass players and with it, a higher level of risk that comes with debts that are uncollectable.
Lessons from the Past Today, Macau’s future remains uncertain, yet this is not the first time the industry faced economic calamity. Readers should be reminded that in 2010, many in the gaming industry wondered if Macau would survive the financial crisis. At the time, Sands Cotai Central and Galaxy Macau stood half-built with construction, all but halted as operators struggled to secure new loans to complete their projects. By 2012, the financial crisis abated, those properties were ultimately completed, and Macau went on to enjoy a decade of unprecedented success. Rest assured, Macau’s gaming industry will once again recover. The question is, can everyone hold out until then? Andrew Klebanow and Lawrence Shen are principals at C3 Gaming. They can be reached at info@C3GamingGroup.com. Charts are by C3 Gaming partner Gerard Parisi.
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Macau integrated resorts and popular tourist spots are usually bustling with thousands of people, but the strict health and safety protocols enforced by the Chinese government have made the gambling mecca something of a ghost town. Where there once were crowds there is now only empty space waiting for the crowds to return. And no one knows when that will be.
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Know Thy Customer Loyalty programs have evolved from basic logs of wagers, wins and losses into customized programs to reward and retain loyal players By Frank Legato
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or decades, players clubs were built around early player tracking technology. Everything—rewards, comps, free rooms, free buffets, tournament invites—was determined by evaluating the most basic data from the slot floor: Who bet the most, who bet most frequently, who lost the most, who won the most. Daily gambling information was calculated to determine comps, cashback coupons—to be replaced by free play—gifts and other perks designed to draw players back to the casino and keep them coming back to redeem offers and play more. Offers would go out weekly in the U.S. mail. One drawback of the original system was that it was difficult for casinos to zero in on the profitability of any particular offer by zeroing in on how individual players responded. “One of the big hindrances that casinos have is the ability of the casino management system itself to tell them what offers people redeemed,” comments David Patent, a longtime slot management executive with Harrah’s Entertainment, Rush Street Gaming and Jamul Casino who is now CEO of VizExplorer, a developer of business and gaming revenue optimization and player development software. “If a customer has four offers and they come in and redeem one or two, it’s almost impossible for the casino to know which offers they actually redeemed. “The CMS just doesn’t tell them, and that’s been a big barrier for casino operators to understand what is actually motivating the visit. Was it the regular free play? Was it the bonus offer? Was it the birthday offer?” VizExplorer is one of several companies that offer a combination of data mining, business intelligence and even artificial intelligence to complement the data set available on a given player. Companies like Viz, Acres Manufacturing, Axes.ai, Quick Custom Intelligence and others are creating a new marketing discipline that governs the modern loyalty club. The traditional casino management systems are still in place, dominated by Light & Wonder’s ACSC, IGT Advantage, Aristocrat Oasis 360 and Konami’s Synkros. However, through partnerships with companies offering business intelligence software, third-party data collection engines, artificial intelligence/machine learning and other new technologies—some capabilities even resulting 22
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from partnerships between these third-party suppliers—today’s players clubs are exploring new ways to zero in on which customers are the most loyal (and profitable), what players are doing, how much they are spending and where in a resort they are playing at a given moment—data that is helping hosts offer real-time service such as the industry has never seen. “In players clubs today, what we’re seeing is a very strong data-centric way of thinking about (customers),” says Andrew Cardno, the well-known expert in data visualization who is founder and chief technology officer of Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI). “In gaming, there’s always been a lot of data. It just wasn’t made into a form that was usable. “Four or five years ago, it was acceptable to expect my hosts to log into the CMS system to find information on their players. Today, it’s not. We need something that integrates the data, that shows the patterns in a meaningful way for a modern hosting environment. That means real-time information, it means really deep summary information, it means trained analysis... Show me the meat-and-potatoes reporting that lets me do the things I need to do in order to run my host team in today’s world.” More and more, the “meat and potatoes” lie in drilling down sessionlevel information, and using technology to respond in real time, while the player is still on-property. “It’s very easy to look and see how much a player wagered yesterday,” says VizExplorer’s Patent. “The next step is, what hours was the customer playing? Did he play for a single two-hour session, or did he come and play for half an hour? Did he then go to lunch? Did he have a retail transaction and then back to the floor and play for another two hours?” Many casino operators are building these data sets into their host systems, to the point where machine learning can actually recommend an action immediately to the host staff. “The system customizes itself by having an understanding of each player,
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personality and desires, which is learned by watching their patterns,” says John Acres, CEO of Acres Manufacturing, which produces the Foundation system. Foundation collects data directly from each slot machine—according to Acres, 1,000 times the data collected by a traditional CMS. Acres says this kind of rich, real-time data triggers recommendations for the host on the best action to take regarding a particular customer. “The system itself will automatically choose what will best incentivize you and the reward that you get,” Acres says. “At 2 o’clock on a Tuesday, after you just won a couple hundred dollars, the reward might be very different than the reward you get at 9 o’clock on a Friday night when you’re down $100.”
Changing Rewards Tapping the wealth of data that is generated on a casino floor has changed the way operators are utilizing their players clubs. Penn National Gaming is one of the first operators using the Acres Foundation system along with its ACSC casino management system, at its properties in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Jennifer Weissman, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Penn National Gaming, says the evolving technology has led to an evolution of its players club, MyChoice—in which players earn and redeem not only in Penn’s 44 physical locations in the U.S. and Canada, but through its online
casinos and its Barstool Sportsbook. “First and foremost, (MyChoice has) evolved because the industry has evolved, and there are so many more ways for customers to engage in gambling activities,” Weissman says. “So, we’ve got a deep understanding of what’s happening with our customers when they’re playing online, and when they’re playing in our bricks-and-mortar casinos. And we utilize that information to make sure that they have the most rewarding experience possible, regardless of when and how they choose to engage with us. “We utilize data from all kinds of touchpoints, and we’re also utilizing it not just in typical ways that you might have thought about—rewarding customers with things like free slot play and more tier points—but making sure that we understand the kinds of services that our customers are looking for, whether or not that’s speed at the hotel front desk, or the ability to order their favorite drink, or the ability for them to order food, regardless of where they might be in the casino.” “So much of where we’re going and what we’re doing is to remove friction from the consumer experience,” adds Todd George, Penn’s executive vice president of operations. “And I think we find a lot of inspiration from retail. They’ve been balancing this for a number of years, trying to figure out where their bricks-and-mortar stores are going to fit in when you can go to their online component or go to Amazon and find anything. “So for us, it’s making it so (customers) don’t have to wait at the mailbox anymore. They can get their offers on our app. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, they don’t have to go to the cage anymore. They can make a deposit onto their phone on the app and immediately walk in and engage either a slot machine or a table game. So you remove the friction in the transaction. You take people out of line and get them into an entertainment experience.” These days, it’s all about knowing player preferences, says Anil Mansukhani, vice president of loyalty management for MGM Resorts International—which uses IGT Advantage and its Patron Management system across all properties.
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“A lot has changed in how MGM Resorts uses data since M life debuted over 11 years ago. M life was primarily a slot players’ program since it launched, but MGM Rewards expanded earning opportunities to include table games, hotel stays and dining experiences. Through the use of various business intelligence tools, we have a longer-term view of our members and can monitor how their spend with MGM Resorts changes over time.”
“I think one of the biggest differences beof the new data tools in its proprietary CMS tween today’s loyalty programs and those system. built on early player tracking technology is “Caesars Rewards, of course, obviously havthe level of personalization that we are able to ing started as Total Rewards, has the welldeliver,” Mansukhani says. “We have the earned reputation not just for being first, but ability to track and leverage player preferalso still the largest,” says Gavin Whiteley, senences to deliver unique and exclusive experiior vice president, loyalty and Caesars Rewards ences to our VIP members that would not for Caesars Entertainment. “And it takes the have been possible at scale compared to database and the depth of the data and, most legacy systems.” importantly, the talent of the team members to Mansukhani adds that MGM’s loyalty leverage that data. You can have all the data in program, MGM Rewards, has expanded the world, and doesn’t make whit of difference right along with the technology. unless you have the right insights coming out “A lot has changed in how MGM Reof that. sorts uses data since M life debuted over 11 “What makes Caesars Rewards so successful years ago,” he says. “M life was primarily a is the talent of our team members. We have a slot players’ program since it launched, but strong data analytics team.” —Anil Mansukhani, Vice President of Loyalty MGM Rewards expanded earning opportuThe team at Caesars and Harrah’s EnterManagement , MGM Resorts International nities to include table games, hotel stays and tainment before it, of course, was the first to dining experiences. Through the use of varihone its ability to mine and apply data pouring ous business intelligence tools, we have a in from multiple properties, the former Total longer-term view of our members and can Rewards being the first national players club. monitor how their spend with MGM Resorts “The program that became Caesars Rewards changes over time.” early on was intended to cover multiple properAs with Penn, that includes online casino ties,” says Whiteley. “Fast forward to today, and we keep play and sports betting through the BetMGM that promise across over 50 destinations, across mobile program where it’s available. gaming and iGaming and for spending in many more states. “We now have greater visibility into the And yet we continue to offer the same tier status, the same spending patterns of some of our luxury guests who points. The points you earn in one, and the tier status you might not have been high-end gamers, but would visit our properties and earn in one, is the same across the board.” spend thousands of dollars per trip. We also have greater visibility into our members’ BetMGM spend that helps in building a complete view of player Broadening the View value.” While Caesars was the first, these days, most of the corporate operators are Caesars Entertainment, where the groundbreaking Total Rewards nabroadening their views of player worth with one program across multiple tional players club has evolved into Caesars Rewards, also is utilizing many properties. And as the range of data collected from each property widens, the 24
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profile of each player’s worth becomes clear—and decisions on comps, bonus rewards and other perks become more efficient and profitable. “Knowledge of the worth of a player is everything to us,” says Walter Allen, senior director of player development for Choctaw Casinos & Resorts. “And being correct in your decisionmaking at all levels throughout our properties is quite important, not only from a casino point of view of profitability, but also from a point of ensuring that guests are being taken care of in the manner they deserve.” Choctaw Casinos operates 22 gaming operations throughout southeast Oklahoma, with a 23rd planned. The Choctaw Rewards system is universal among all properties. According to Allen, the operator uses the Aristocrat Oasis 360 CMS, along with add-on software from VizExplorer and Axes.ai. Allen says the Choctaw system utilizes the data optimization software to empower the hosts on the floor to make decisions in real time to incentivize loyal players. “We are a firm believer in having individual decisions being made by the individuals who are dealing with the guests,” he says. “So it’s important to educate our associates that are on our front line. We believe in understanding the guardrails and allowing our associates to operate freely within them to take care of guests.” As is the trend in players club systems, the Choctaw system records customer spend at all touchpoints, allowing players to earn and redeem across the property. “Points are the medium for guests to travel within our properties and redeem their earnings,” Allen says. “They can redeem at our food outlets. They can redeem at our gift shops, our spa, our, our pools.” While Choctaw has no online casinos, Allen says they have created an additional touchpoint for loyalty recently with the introduction of Choctaw Slots, a social gaming site where players will soon be able to earn Choctaw Rewards points. A complete view of player worth also is a priority at MGM Resorts. “Our new MGM Rewards program allows us to track a greater percentage of our members’ spend, which provides us with a more holistic view of each member’s value,” says Mansukhani. “This has allowed us to segment our members more appropriately and provide targeted offers for our highest-value MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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members. “Members now earn MGM Rewards Points for their hotel stays and purchases at over 400 food-and-beverage outlets throughout our properties, which provides us with a more holistic view of each member’s worth so that we can reinvest in loyalty and direct marketing offers accordingly.” Whiteley at Caesars says that operator’s database has grown with the addition of online gaming play at Caesars Online and through Caesars Sportsbook, which is available not only in retail locations, but through the Caesars Sportsbook app even in regions where there are no Caesars casino properties. “That’s a new and rapidly evolving set of data that plays into customer worth,” says Whiteley, “because some of that product is in markets where we don’t have properties today, and in a lot of places like New Jersey, they overlap. “So, we see a growing number of customers from our brick-and-mortar properties, Caesars Rewards members, adopting this new product. Similarly, we see customers starting with a product in places like New York, where Caesars doesn’t have casinos, coming into our database by starting to use one of these products. New members, new data.” Mansukhani reports similar results for MGM Rewards thanks to the BetMGM program. “BetMGM is a significant driver of new members for MGM Rewards, and play on BetMGM allows members to earn tier credits towards achieving a higher tier within the MGM Rewards program,” he says. “It also provides BetMGM players with an opportunity to convert their digital play into real-world experiences at 20-plus MGM Resorts properties.”
Real-Time Drilling Much of the third-party software being incorporated into loyalty systems, as well as new features in the traditional CMS toolbox, comes down to the ability to react to play-session developments in real time, while the player is still on the property. Inevitably, those reactions come from the front-line marketers—the hosts. And for the hosts, the tools are all about developing personal relationships with customers. For Penn National’s Weissman, the ability to react in real time with third-party systems like Acres’ Foundation is “a tool that all of our team members who have personal relationships with our customers will actually
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be able to drive. Our hosts today have very strong relationships with our guests. We’ve been working on something internally that will enable our hosts to have really meaningful discussions with our customers in real time when they might be having a great winning experience, or maybe an experience that doesn’t feel so great, or we can identify customers who are new to the business.” That includes the ample number of customers who discovered Penn online during the 2020 shutdown. “There are so many new people that have been walking through our doors because they had to when other things were shut,” says Weissman, “so making sure that we’re creating those one-on-one relationships with customers that we didn’t know before, based upon the activity that’s happening at the machine in a real-time fashion before they ever leave, means thinking about the customer in the middle and making sure that customer is having the most fulfilled entertainment experience. “And if we have an idea that they may potentially leave without a great experience, we might be able to change that, particularly with that one-on-one kind of handshake.” “That’s one of the things we’re most excited about—like I touched on earlier, not having to wait at the mailbox,” adds George. “Recognizing them before they leave the property is such a huge opportunity for us. And you can really turn that experience around by recognizing that they were there today, recognizing the loyalty. And I think all that becomes a tremendous tool for all the operators that are out there.” Says Weissman, “Recognizing those touchpoints along the way, and really trying to make sure that those touchpoints are the most meaningful and the most memorable, is one of the things that the technology is allowing us to do.” “We’ve learned from experiences that a lot of times an intervention by a host,
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just to say hello, to deliver a drink or whatever, is sufficient to cause a renewal on the player’s part,” adds Acres. “Not every reward has to be a chance to win more; there’s personal recognition as well. In these times of low staffing, you’ve got to prioritize, and human beings can’t take in all of this data and choose what to do next. So we can prioritize where that host should spend his or her time next.” For Choctaw, those touchpoints come from a system that combines Aristocrat’s Oasis with tools like VizExplorer’s GreetViz program. “It alerts our team members when VIP players are on the gaming floor and when they card in,” Allen says. “It has the capabilities of some round-robin functions to it, so we can assign what hosts we want to see which guests. If a particular host is not on property, it will roll round-robin so that we can execute touchpoints to our most important guests all day.” “Our hosts do have access to session and trip-level data that allows them to provide comps to our VIP members before they check out from our properties,” says MGM’s Mansukhani. “We are in the process of deploying a new loyalty management system later this year that will enable us to introduce a wide variety of fun and exciting new offers that we believe will drive member engagement and reduce churn.”
Growing Databases For operators, driving member engagement will become more important going forward, as databases grow with new members—many from the online gaming and sports betting businesses. “One of the biggest changes, one that’s been an evolution going into and coming out of the pandemic, was this real growth in the younger demographics
coming into our database,” says Penn National’s George. “Pre-pandemic, that’s what everybody was trying to solve—where does this (younger) customer come from? And through the pandemic we became a viable entertainment option. “For us, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where we have casinos but we also have online casinos, online sports betting and in-person sports betting, you are now blessed with this tremendous amount of information from all their activities—bringing all that together and seeing what behaviors are there, when are they making the determination to play online, when are they coming into a casino, what’s driving them into a casino.” Serving the new customer also means communicating in the way to which they are accustomed, adds Caesars’ Whiteley. “Our customers, just like you and I, use their phones for almost everything,” he says. “We want to be where the player is.” “The traditional loyalty program really did focus very much on ‘you earn free slot play and a free buffet.’ It really has evolved into offerings that meet the customer where they want to be met,” says George at Penn National. “Instead of free slot play and buffet, it could be free online credits. It could be a better food experience. It could be a better hotel offer. Jennifer and her team have lined up great partnerships, so it could be concert tickets, sporting event tickets. (Players clubs have) really evolved to gather what customer preferences are, what their likes are, and then having the incentives that they’re looking for.” “I got into the gaming industry in early 2000s,” notes Choctaw’s Allen. “The difference today is the intelligence of the systems, the ease and efficiency of the systems—and the intelligence that the systems can bring forward to the front line for associates to make great decisions, and to be able to take care of guests, wherever they are on the gaming floor or within the property.”
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Money Pit
What strategies will be effective to achieve success in the sports betting market? By Bill Sokolic
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hen New York state went live with mobile sports betting on January 8, the active sportsbooks licensed in the state enjoyed a burst of activity that broke records. The sportsbooks continued setting a record pace for weeks before slowing down. When the slowdown occurred, the winners in terms of market share were still FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and Caesars. Those four sites brought in a boatload of money. But they probably spent an even larger boatload of money to promote their sportsbooks. Profits? Not yet. For the week ending March 27, FanDuel controlled 40.6 percent of the handle and 68.4 percent of revenue. Translated, that meant $133 million in handle, and $9.5 million in revenue. DraftKings saw its share drop but remained No. 2 with $83 million in handle and almost $1.9 million in revenue. Caesars produced a higher revenue that week but with lower handle. BetRivers handle brought them back to fifth place over PointsBet. WynnBET and Resorts finished seventh and eighth respectively in handle. But their hold percentage beat out everyone ahead of them. WynnBET had a 9.8 percent hold with Resorts at 7.9 percent. FanDuel was third with 7.2 percent. Make no mistake. These places are all in business to turn a profit at some point. The question is whether sportsbooks can continue spending more than they take in until that day comes. And what about the also-rans, those in fifth or sixth or ninth place? When will attrition take hold, the sur28
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vival of the fittest? The sportsbooks still in business when the advertising stops? When the bottom-feeders throw in the towel and go home?
Customers Come Before Profit This much is known. The name of the game in New York state when mobile betting turned on the faucet was acquisition of customers and more acquisition. Promise whatever was feasible in bonuses, but get people signed to your site and worry about the consequences later. “Ad spending and promotional spending are clearly driving market share at this point,” says Bryan Wyman, senior vice president of operations and data analytics for The Innovation Group. “Some are taking the Amazon approach: lose money while acquiring customers, and once you own the market, reduce spend and become profitable. This approach will be dependent on consumers being brand- (or habit-) loyal, and I think it’s an open question as to whether they will be.” There are strategies that could leave the sportsbooks with only singledigit revenue share, at least in the short term, Wyman says. “I don’t think they view it as a failing that they aren’t competing for the top spot in market share. It’s just a different business model.” Eventually, those at the top will come to realize it’s time to stop spending so much money to bring in a smaller number of people to their sites. In a conference call to discuss earnings, Caesars CEO Thomas Reeg said even a leader like Caesars is feeling the pressure to cut back on ad spend.
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PARX Casino And Racetrack, Bensalem, Pennsylvania
As Seth Young sees it, not all operators are equal. “I’d suggest that we have three tiers of sports betting operators in the U.S. today,” says Young, chief strategy officer of Fifth Street Gaming Digital. “The Tier 1 operators are the ones with strong brands that are either already mainstream or bordering on it, with strong operational teams, a deep bench of competent managers and executives, and a strong media relationship.” The Tier 2 sportsbook operators may be groups that are focused more heavily on casino than sports but have strong enough brand awareness in their core markets to have a tidy business and look at sports betting somewhere between an amenity and a revenue driver. The Tier 3 operators are the ones that are perennially undercapitalized, offer weak—sometimes broken— products, have fractured market access, can’t win strategic deals, treat sportsbook as an amenity, or just simply don’t understand the nuance of the market, Young says. “Some spent more money than others to acquire customers and consolidate market share for the next few years, but we’re still in the earliest days of an emerging market,” Young says. “There are some groups in the U.S. market that will lose money hand over fist until they inevitably have to fold or sell, but there are other groups that have time on their side and can gain and sustain market share as the market matures.”
Successful Spending Sports betting operated as a stand-alone business is a capital-intensive exercise in the U.S. For better or worse, success in the States starts with having enough capital to credibly invest towards growth, but that does not necessarily mean spending irrationally will win in the long term. In this situation, product innovation takes center stage, Young says. Some of the lower Tier 1 groups, and Tier 2 groups, can benefit from taking risk on new product sets that offer them non-traditional, scalable customer acquisition funnels. “They can move faster than their larger competitors who are almost cer-
“We’re conscious of the idea of losing money and burning through money others spend like crazy. We determine the threshold we are willing to risk. It’s an ongoing process.” —Matthew Cullen, Senior Vice President, iGaming and Sports, BetPARX
tainly eyeing the same initiatives,” he says. “There are still opportunities for different operators to lead the market in different ways, and offer a unique selling point for both acquisition and retention, and engagement. There are emerging verticals and certain ancillary products that can offer operators the ability to acquire customers at more efficient rates, and other products that can offer tremendous operational efficiencies.” In short, it starts and ends with product—what revenue streams a new product offers the operator, how those products will fit together to inform cross-selling from product to product, and how it ultimately impacts customer retention. “It’s nuanced, and in this moment more qualitative than quantitative,” Young says. Put another way, it will be difficult—extremely difficult—for smaller sportsbooks to drive the same levels of market share that the big four enjoy. “But I do believe that they can be sustainable businesses. Since they will MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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“There are emerging verticals and certain ancillary products that can offer operators the ability to acquire customers at more efficient rates, and other products that can offer tremendous operational efficiencies.” —Seth Young, Chief Strategy Officer, Fifth Street Gaming Digital
not be able to compete on ad and promotional spend, these smaller operators will instead need to compete using business savvy and grassroots marketing tactics,” says Josh Swissman, founding partner of The Strategy Organization. The big four operators dedicate so much bandwidth and budget to driving customers into the top of their acquisition funnels, that retaining those same customers sometimes becomes an afterthought. “Many times, those new customers attrit just as quickly as they are obtained, typically due to large sign-up or first-time deposit bonuses that are constantly being offered,” Swissman says. Which brings up BetPARX, launched March 15 by Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. The company is not in the New York mix, at least not yet. But never say never. For now, they are satisfied to build their portfolio slow but steady. Parx Casino introduced online sports betting in June 2019 but spent two years preparing for the launch of BetPARX. The operator expects to launch in five more states this year, including Ohio and Indiana. They are also the official partner of the PGA tour. “Using ‘on the ground’ affiliates and ambassadors to drive awareness in sports bars is a great grassroots tactic to help challenger brands break through all of the noise that the big four operators are making in the market,” Swissman says. In Pennsylvania, Parx has multiple retail outlets. One of them brought BetPARX to Chickie’s & Pete’s in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Customers can bet using self-service methods and over the counter, says Matthew Cullen, senior vice president of iGaming and sports for BetPARX. In February, the Malvern location took in $179,000, generating revenue of $58,800. “We are in a unique position; we have a loyal following for Parx casino,” Cullen says. “We also have the ability to compete in different ways. Those ways include a physical presence, not something the others offer.” The company has a marketing budget to get the word out, using TV, radio and digital channels to acquire customers for all its operations. “We’re conscious of the idea of losing money and burning through money others spend like crazy,” he says. “We determine the threshold we are willing to risk. It’s an ongoing process. We’re working on it every day. We focus on the Philadelphia market, which resonates into southern New Jersey.” Parx Casino is also in tribal-owned Gun Lake Casino in Michigan. The company not only runs the online site co-branded as BetPARX, but also a retail outlet which will also be branded as BetPARX, Cullen says. 30
Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
Tiers in Heaven Everything is a bit of a catch-22 when it comes to sports betting, Young says. “Capital is extremely important right now for operators that would like to operate at scale. But the right narrative and metrics are required to continue to enjoy capital support in both the public and private markets.” There’s a tremendous amount of focus on the sizable capital losses that most publicly traded corporate bookmakers are posting, but it seems like many are forgetting that these operators are competing to control a (very) conservatively estimated $50 billion annual revenue opportunity. “The underlying business model has long proven to be profitable. Frankly, I’ve been holding for years that the market will end up being much larger than data suggests today,” Young says. So right now, it’s about those lower Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators continuing to position themselves for flexibility in growth through product, meaning an expanded depth of supporting product for sports-first operators, Young says. Supporting products can be anything from casinos to skill gaming, fantasy sports, casual games, loyalty schemes, content initiatives, or internal tools that allow for robust predictive customer modeling, data science initiatives to deepen the operator’s understanding of its customers and their proclivities, and so many things in between. That said, competition in this realm does require a commitment on promotional spend. “But as operators will eventually move to focus on profitability… there may be opportunities for new groups to outspend incumbents. Every B2C operator will have to spend on advertising and promotion, regardless of the product they may bring to market,” Young says. You can create the best product, but without marketing of some sort, it’s just a ghost town. Different products, though, can offer an operator the opportunity to acquire customers at more efficient rates. For many, right now it’s about survival and continuing to put the right pieces on the chess board. “I do not think every operator we see in the market today will be in the market five years from now,” Young says. “But I do think there’s enough room for a dozen or so operators to gain and sustain meaningful market share that can provide an anchor for future growth and innovation, both in and out of the U.S.” Smaller sportsbooks can exploit a lack of retention effort to dramatically increase the efficiency of their own smaller customer acquisition budgets. “Employing solid database marketing strategies, like land-based casinos have done for decades, will ensure that customers are rewarded for their betting activity and will go a long way towards building loyalty,” Swissman says.
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MAKING MY POINT
The Rest of the Story We think we know the truth about certain events, but maybe not…
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EAT L.A.! . . . BEAT L.A.!! . . . BEAT L.A.!!! What with the Rams now defending champs in football—and what with the Dodgers trying to buy the NL pennant ($215 million payroll?!) and what with HBO throwing the Showtime Lakers in our face every Sunday night—it brings fresh awareness to that old chant. Because this is, of course, the ultimate rallying cry whenever David plays Goliath. And in the case of those La-La-Landers, a smug Goliath with hair plugs, a perpetual tan and a nutritionist for his poodle. God, you just hate those Hollywood posers and you would love nothing more to rub their botoxed faces in the LaBrea Tar Pits. Because that’s what “Beat L.A.” is all about. Right? Wrong. Here’s the true Hollywood story: Back in May1982, the Philadelphia 76ers went on the road and beat their heated and hated rivals, the Boston Celtics, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. As the last minute of the game and the series and the home team’s season ticked away, the 15,000 fans shoehorned into a sweltering Boston Garden—and this is wicked awesome, if you think about it—actually began serenading the vanquishing visitors with the coolest sendoff in the history of sports, a thunderous chant of what to do when they advanced to face Magic, Kareem and the rest of the Lakers in the NBA Finals. BEAT L.A.! . . . BEAT L.A.!! . . . BEAT L.A.!!! Which, for the record, they didn’t do, dropping that series in six games. Now don’t feel bad if you didn’t know that, as misunderstandings are as old as, well, as old as the Bible itself. Consider the tale of the Prodigal Son, where an archaic adjective describes someone that is “wasteful” and not someone that is “returning home.” Your own world, be it business or personal, is not immune to such contextual confusion. Check out these examples and you’ll see that sometimes perception does not equal reality. So the lesson here is to not take everything you hear as gospel (i.e., some facts are less factual than you might think). As John Keats once said: “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know that just isn’t so.”
By Roger Snow
Amen. Except of course, it wasn’t Keats. It was Mark Twain. Case in point. Now let’s have at it. Cake Boss Sacre bleu! Marie Antoinette certainly lived a life full of bad beats: Being married off at 14 years old to King Louis XVI (a notorious nutjob); being falsely accused of having an affair with a high-ranking official of the Catholic Church (never a good look); being the first person in recorded history whose hair suddenly and inexplicably turned white (hence dubbed “Marie Antoinette Syndrome”); being imprisoned and ultimately beheaded in the coup de grace moment of the French Revolution. Plus, she was misquoted. Because there is zero evidence that when she was told the citizens of France were so engulfed in poverty they lacked the most basic sustenance of bread, she shrugged her shoulders and said, well then, “Let them eat cake.” Nope. Never happened. Matter of fact, Marie Antoinette was actually regarded—well, up until the moment an angry mob of Parisians decapitated her and paraded her head around on a pike—as a warm and considerate person that was able to connect with the average Francois and Francoise in her country. Lost In Translation While it’s true that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev occasionally succumbed to his volcanic temper—once in fact taking off his shoe at the General Assembly of the United Nations and pounding it relentlessly and repeatedly on a table to emphasize a point, either that or to dislodge a pebble—modern scholars disagree. Anyway, in 1956, Khrushchev’s colloquial rhetoric pushed the world’s two superpowers to the brink of war when his Russian-to-English interpreter relayed these words to the West: “Whether you like it or not, we are on the right side of history.” “And”… wait for it... “We will bury you.” Now that indeed sounds like a threat, something a Mafia goon would say to a junkie in a Quentin Tarantino movie. As in get the shovel and
the lime and the Caddy with the big trunk. And call the Wolf for cleanup. Except that’s not what he meant. The true message of that message was lost in translation: Khrushchev was saying not that the USSR would use military aggression to kill and bury his ideological opponents; rather, if they didn’t recognize where the future was headed, then meh, it’s their funeral. Big difference. The difference between metaphor and menacing. Say What? You probably know this already, but one of the most popular love songs in the history of modern music—and like literally the most played song ever on radio (20 million times and counting)—has nothing to do with love at all. Unless control, obsession and stalking are forms of love. Which—checks notes—they are decidedly not. Now if you actually listen to the lyrics of “Every Breath You Take,” the song that catapulted the Police to superstardom in 1983, it’s pretty obvious our protagonist is a wee bit of a—hmmm, how to say this?—a lunatic. “Every move you make, every step you take, I’ll be watching you.” “Oh can’t you see, you belong to me.” Yeah, it ain’t exactly cryptic. But you’ve all probably been to a wedding where this was played. Un-ironically. Now this song is 39 years old, so the cat’s pretty much out of the bag by now, but back when it was ruling the Billboard charts, nobody seemed to have any idea how creepy and sinister it was. FYI, EBYT isn’t the only misinterpreted song ever. Speaking of wedding songs, if find yourself doing the “Macarena,” you are line-dancing to a song about a woman that cheats on her boyfriend… oh, it gets worse…. after he’s drafted into the army. Roger Snow is a senior vice president with Light & Wonder. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Light & Wonder or its affiliates. MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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Tying the Knot Why there needs to be complete cooperation between corporate and property when deciding on marketing strategy
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By Julia Carcamo
hen I was the advertising coordinator of the newest Harrah’s property, we worked with an agency of record and a spunky little boutique agency. Together they helped us bring the Harrah’s New Orleans brand to life in our little corner of the world, and we were happy. It was the end of the 20th century, and the business world was asking itself, “What is our brand if not a logo?” With casinos opening across the country at a quickening pace, and a few one-off brands (Showboat, Harveys and Rio), Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman was asking the same question, tasking the corporate marketing leadership to create a brand role and uncover the “thing” that made us unique. Along with that exercise came the realization that property advertising had become so focused on calls to action of food and promotions that the brand was becoming more differentiated from the emotions related to the gaming experience. In fact, many advertising samples had no relationship to the Harrah’s brand. As a result, a number of those ads looked more like a copycat of the competition than Harrah’s. We knew that consistently branded communications were a hallmark of healthy, profitable companies. Strong brands owned (and still hold) a unique position in the consumer’s mind. With each property engaging its own agency and creative resource (such as we were), that consistency became harder and harder to apply. Additionally, with each property paying individual agencies, the costs were increasing. It is no surprise the next part of this story was the day we were told we would no longer be using the local resources with whom we had spent two-plus years developing a relationship and a communications shorthand resulting in the creation of award-winning work. We would now be requesting creative from Las Vegas. How was some group in Las Vegas going to know my customers and my market? It was a question asked across the U.S., and the answer was firm. In-house or agency? The story is the same. When I stepped into the 32
Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
new role of vice president of brand marketing for Isle of Capri Casinos, one of the first things on the list given to me was to secure a new agency for our properties. So, while the properties did get to work directly with the agency, there was a guiding hand in everything produced. The truth is that the company had functioned similarly before my arrival, but my experience, combined with that of my hiring manager, made it feel like it would be different.
The Wild Rose casino in Jefferson, Iowa, has an older customer base than the Wild Rose in Clinton, so how should their marketing strategies align or differ?
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It is a story that has happened similarly at many properties. Whether a property finds itself with newer, more prominent owners or part of a smaller operator’s collection of assets, the change can feel the same to the local property marketing team.
Going Corporate Founded in 2004, privately owned Wild Rose Entertainment operates three casinos in Iowa. The company previously tried a more casual, unofficial approach to consolidating its marketing expertise. However, in late 2019, they made it official, consolidating much of the marketing expertise at the corporate level, and named former property marketing director Aaron Harn as the corporate director of marketing. “We wanted to align the brand and make sure that as we moved forward after investing in the redefinition of our brand, we could create a consistency that could benefit all of our properties,” Harn recalls. While the company worked with a handful of resources, it did not have an agency of record. However, they also had three designers, one at each property, creating three different looks and feels, sometimes for the same program. Additionally, they looked to create support for database marketing and consolidate payroll. The changes signaled a different approach by the leadership of the company. It is no surprise that some embraced the changes as they saw a way to perhaps break the cycle of repeating programs with little to no improvement. Some, however, were hesitant. Covid shutdowns followed closely after the changes, giving them even less opportunity to gain consensus, but something exciting happened as they reopened their doors. Their customer base looked, acted, and required different methods of communication than before. “Covid made everyone realize there needed to be a change,” says Harn. The capability at the corporate level has allowed them more agility to move quickly into newer channels such as SMS and email marketing. “We’ve seen success with these new ways of communicating. It’s been a huge change in our business model.” Penn National Gaming has had a shared corporate services team in place for nearly six years. However, creative services were an evolution of those services, which started as a team facilitating database marketing. In the beginning, the focus was on the digital space, taking some of the work that an agency was doing for them. Penn National Gaming Chief Marketing Officer Jennifer Weissman, who previously worked for Harrah’s/Caesars, recalls that over time the team continued to work on identifying and absorbing what might be termed as production work—those things that are done over and over in much the same way, regardless of perhaps the market or the team. In the marketing communications space, this might be a billboard concept that needs to be resized or a poster converted to a duratrans.
“We continue to build talented marketing and bench strength, which I’m really proud of. And I think that we’ve got an amazingly talented group of marketers here at Penn. Every day, they amaze me with their creativity.” —Jennifer Weisman, Chief Marketing Officer, Penn National Gaming
“Our goal in creating this creative services organization,” says Weissman, “was to ensure that our businesses—that are executing on and developing their own unique strategies—have the appropriate time and bandwidth to focus on the things that move the needle and the things that are more strategic in nature.” The shared services team takes on the work that is not strategic in nature so that the local teams can be as effective as possible. Even though Penn has a corporate creative services organization, they also maintain relationships with various agencies. And depending upon the needs, they may bring in other creative minds to assist. Moreover, to ensure the local market is always a factor, Penn has team members at properties that continue developing and creating great communication programs, particularly when it comes to direct communication that happens through social channels.
Regional Reaction Database marketing support is now functioning in a regional model. They develop and send emails and other communications. “Quite frankly,” explains Weissman, “through Covid, we even learned that the boundaries continue to be moved as far as where everyone is located. I had gone through the Caesars and Harrah’s iterations multiple times, and I do think the way that we have approached it here is very different. Whereas the reasons for developing the original Harrah’s Studio in 2001 were based on the need to build and enhance the Harrah’s brand, MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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We had to find a way to balance the commitment to the brand with the needs of the local markets. For us, it took the form of countless trips to the local markets, focus groups with customers, and workshops with the marketing teams. Together we discovered how the brand came to life in each market and how we could bring that focus to their communications while still leaning into the brand.
there were was a sharp focus on cost savings. It was intended to be a centralization of talent, knowledge and assets.” For Weissman and her Penn team, it is less about a specific structure written on paper and more about evolving to find what works (if perhaps unexpected) and the right people. These roles take much collaboration in addition to knowledge. So, they hire for that. “It’s really important for us to have folks on the team that understand that we’re a 365-day-a-year business that hopefully, sans Covid, never stops,” says Weissman. “We hire for people that get excited about that and that either have lived it because they’ve worked at a property or continue to live it because they’re at one of our properties today. You cannot be inflexible when it comes to how the structure needs to work, how people are aligned, and what they do.” Another hallmark of the shared services approach Penn practices is how they have set up a regional structure. Each region has a leader that works closely with the properties and the corporate organization. Regular meetings and an abundance of communication ensure that information and best practices are shared for everyone’s benefit. “We continue to build talented marketing and bench strength, which I’m really proud of. And I think that we’ve got an amazingly talented group of marketers here at Penn,” says Weissman. “Every day, they amaze me with their creativity.”
Operator Pushback But my personal story does not end at the introduction of the Harrah’s Studio. Barely six months into the transition, I found myself as that corporate resource. And the world looks different from that desk. Yes, we could tell the investment community a story of brand-building and $11 million in savings, but few of the operators saw it as a positive. “My market is different.” “My customers are different.” We had to find a way to balance the commitment to the brand with the needs of the local markets. For us, it took the form of countless trips to the local markets, focus groups with customers, and workshops with the marketing teams. Together we discovered how the brand came to life in each market and how we could bring that focus to their communications while still leaning into the brand. Harn says it is essential for him to be mindful of the differences and dynamics of each property and its respective market. “While they are not drastically different, Emmetsburg is perhaps more agriculturally focused with an ‘older’ customer demo that tends to be more relaxed and casual,” says Harn. “Jefferson is also agriculturally based, but it leans more blue-collar and sophisticated, while Clinton’s location close to the river gives them a different twist, drawing a younger market. The macro brand works, but we have to figure out which parts to expand on at 34
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each property.” Harn says daily calls and regular monthly meetings that (in the future) will move from property to property create a productive input-and-feedback loop. The goal is to allow the properties more opportunity to concentrate on operations and the changes that give them a market advantage. At the same time, the corporate team looks to unify the marketing efforts and leverage best practices. They plan all three property calendars as a team, sharing best practices. “While one marketing director might have an idea that might not fit their property,” Harn explains, “that idea might work in another. These types of regular sharing points allow the properties time to consider and act on what helps them while the corporate team works on supporting them.” Harn’s approach echoes Weissman’s philosophy of sharing best practices. “One business might be having a challenge, and another business may have gone through something similar,” she says. The ongoing communication allows for the flow of helpful information. For Penn, the approach—a combination of deliberate and organic changes over time—results in a more distributed system that maintains a local input. “From a media perspective and the way we think about the different business channels,” says Weissman, “that is directed and managed at a local level. The account management for each individual business is done at a local level. All of our property and product team leaders have relationships directly with the organizations that are purchasing and developing their communication plans. They do it in tandem, and it’s a very, very collaborative process.” Account management for creative has evolved organically over time. While you would not be surprised to know many of the account management team members have come from the property level, you might be surprised to learn they do not all sit in an ivory tower at the corporate office. In many cases, these members of the corporate services team sit at the individual property. This situation is ideal as it keeps the work tied closely to the business and still provides a valuable contribution to the creative team. In some cases, these team members even play dual roles. Now more than ever, marketing departments must be focused on optimizing expenses, team collaboration, and ROI. Consolidation at a corporate or regional level can make sense for large and small operations as it can provide better brand consistency, agility, streamlined workflows, and skills optimization. It can also provide a path for tactical marketers that may not have existed before. However, the key to success is the partnership and communication between the shared service and the local marketing teams. Julia Carcamo is the chief brand strategist at J Carcamo & Associates consultancy. She has held leadership positions at the property and corporate levels at medium to large casino companies. You can contact her at Julia@jcarcamoassociates.com.
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EMERGING LEADERS
Outside the Comfort Zone Russell Mifsud Director and Head of Gaming, KPMG Malta tepping outside of one’s comfort zone almost always results in growth. The professionals that advance the most in their careers are often masters at pushing their personal comfort zones. These people welcome situations that are novel, high-stakes, or challenging, recognizing that these situations will lead to growth. Within minutes of meeting Russell Mifsud, it is abundantly clear that he embodies this type of growth mindset. Mifsud, a director and the head of gaming at KPMG Malta, credits his career progression thus far to his ability and desire to grow from discomfort. In fact, his move to KPMG roughly eight years ago from an affiliate role within the industry was driven by his desire to shift from a position that he was comfortable in. “After having done the affiliate role for about three and half years I was quite comfortable,” explains Mifsud. “I wasn’t getting butterflies.” After taking some time off to reflect and re-energize, a fortuitous introduction to KPMG by a friend sent Mifsud down an unexpected career path. “My immediate reaction was, ‘KPMG, isn’t that an accountancy firm?’” jokes Mifsud. After having conversations with two key partners and realizing that he could leverage both his professional experience within gaming and his formal education as an economist (Mifsud received a bachelor of science degree in economics and management with honors from the University of London), Mifsud started feeling the butterflies. “I recognized it was a unique opportunity to be a part of a big organization and have the power of a strong brand but, at the same time, it’s almost like running your own business,” says Mifsud. This dynamic setup at KPMG and the everchanging nature of the industry has kept Mifsud on his toes, and allows him to continue to grow from discomfort. When asked about mentors, Mifsud notes that while he didn’t meet him until roughly four years ago, Richard Schuetz has had an outsized impact
The Pursuit of Success
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Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
Gretchen Holzhauser “You can’t be afraid to throw yourself into the deep end.”
on how Mifsud thinks about his career and the industry moving forward. “The fact that he comes from the operational side of the industry, having held a number of senior-level positions while also having the regulatory appreciation and experience, provides an avenue of insight that I have never quite experienced,” Mifsud explains. “He’s a regular source of information and point of reference for me.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mifsud challenges young professionals he interacts with to embrace discomfort and accept new challenges. “You can’t be afraid to throw yourself into the deep end,” he says. For younger professionals working in larger organizations, like KPMG, Mifsud adds, “you’ve got a lot of smart people working there. You’ve got to find your niche, because that will allow you to set yourself apart from the rest of the organization and become that go-to specialist.” Rather fittingly, Mifsud is most looking forward to learning more over the next 12 to 18 months. “You learn one thing, you realize you don’t know a lot more,” says Mifsud. “The buzz of the ‘aha’ moment and being able to predict what could happen next is what makes it fun.” — Michael Vanaskie is director of operations planning for The Innovation Group.
Vice President of Human Resources, Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort t’s not every day that you meet someone who trains thoroughbred race horses for a living. Both of Gretchen Holzhauser’s parents, however, did just that, and between what she learned from watching them work and what her father taught her about reading race forms and betting, her path to a future career in gaming was easily set. In her 15 years of holding both property-related and corporate positions in the casino gaming industry, Holzhauser has made a point to not only set ambitious goals but to pursue them relentlessly. Having now achieved the title of vice president of human resources at Mississippi’s Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort, it is clear that her tenacity has paid off. In this role, Holzhauser has been responsible for partnering with all levels of the organization to drive employee engagement and reduce turnover. She has built information systems from scratch and aided in protecting the property from the havoc of Covid-19 and the labor shortages that have too often come with it for other companies. Holzhauser also designs, develops and recommends human resources policies, programs and practices to ensure effective management of the Scarlet Pearl property and its 900-plus employees. One of the most prominent characteristics that has led to Holzhauser’s career successes has been her flexibility. Her open-mindedness even afforded her the opportunity to relocate, which in turn opened doors of growth during her professional journey. Another development that greatly impacted her career was being named a “Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence Leader”
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The Medicine of Slots David Stone Director of Sales, Canada, Incredible Technologies
upon joining Scarlet Pearl. This offered her a unique opportunity to learn about and make improvements upon all aspects of the gaming industry very quickly. Holzhauser has benefited from working for and with several impactful gaming industry executives as well, citing her long-term mentor, Donna Hight (former corporate vice president, operational excellence at Caesars Entertainment), and Scarlet Pearl CEO Luann Pappas as two of her greatest influences. And in addition to her professional sources of inspiration, her family and especially her father played a substantial part in molding her, as well. Holzhauser reaps many benefits from working at Scarlet Pearl, naming in particular the fact that it is a smaller property. “We are a family-owned single property, which gives us the unique opportunity to encourage, identify and cultivate young professionals,” she says. “Being a smaller property, it’s part of our culture to always try to promote from within.” She foresees a bright future with Scarlet Pearl, eager to pave her own way there developing as a strategic human resources leader who supports its people and its culture. As for where she stands now, Holzhauser is humbled to be one of the elite “40 Under 40” Emerging Leaders of Gaming honorees, perceiving this award as a highlight of her career. “When I look at the combined list of winners between previous years and the current class,” she reflects, “it is an honor to be recognized as one of these amazing industry leaders.” Holzhauser is thankful for her operations background and the broadened perspective it offers in making and enforcing policies and procedures. To young professionals aspiring to be Emerging Leaders themselves, she advises patience and the setting of achievable goals. “I made very aggressive goals early on in my career, and sometimes I would get disappointed and discouraged when I did not meet them by a certain deadline,” she says. With true achievement requiring both significant time and effort, she emphasizes importance in not getting discouraged by delays in things like achieving promotions or meeting self-set timelines. To all executives navigating the corporate ladder, Holzhauser advises, “Consider all opportunities, as you never know where that door may lead you.” — Marie Casias is the manager of marketing and administration for The Innovation Group.
n John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy,” he sings, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” That rings true for Dave Stone. He majored in English and biology at Loyola University of Chicago and planned for a career in the commercial side of pharmaceuticals or medical devices. But Incredible Technologies offered him an entry-level position. “I never looked back,” says the Des Moines, Iowa native. “Around the time I joined the company, we began looking into ways to diversify our business. Gaming was identified as a natural path.” At the time, Stone worked on the amusement side. “I had a shot of moving into gaming when the company was ready to begin placing machines in the field.” The move came when Illinois passed the VGT bill. Video gaming terminals. Slot machines to customers. “Jim Esposito and I led our sales effort,” Stone says. But the two left the VGT project to open portions of the Midwest market for IT’s entrance into Class III casino machines. “I was hooked on gaming by that time,” he admits. But Stone left IT to pursue an MBA at Loyola with a concentration in information systems and a graduate certificate in data analytics. “I knew that I wanted to stay in gaming but wanted to learn the operations side of the business,” Stone says. “That’s when I was introduced to Illinois Gaming Systems and became their director of sales and account management. I loved that work and the company.” But Dan Schrementi, then vice president of sales and marketing at IT—and now president of gaming—asked Stone to return to work on the company’s expansion into Canada. “The opportunity to work with what I consider to be one of the best teams in the industry again was too good to let pass,” he says. As director of sales for Canada at IT, Stone manages commercial activities in the international land-based markets in Canada and Europe. “I’m the primary salesperson for these two markets, and I also coordinate internal processes and support for our Canadian and European partners.” Because these markets are new to the company, Stone also assists Senior Vice President of
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Gaming Daymon Ruttenberg, with business development efforts. The impact from Covid-19 on Stone’s job is still being measured. He found it more of a mental trial. But the organization itself suffered. Revenue fell off and uncertainty proliferated. “The mental trial came because, as I like to say, I was born to work. When the daily commercial activities dried up, I was left with more bandwidth. During that time, I started working more closely with our senior leadership on analyzing and writing proposals for potential business development efforts and strategies,” he says. By and large, Stone does not have a mentor. He’s worked to build what he calls his “personal board of directors.” It’s a group of people from wide-ranging industries that are reliable, trustworthy, and knowledgeable about business. But if Stone had one mentor, he would select his late grandfather, John M. Downey, executive vice president of Meredith Corporation for 30-plus years. “He instilled the importance of education coupled with a strong work ethic, which has been the foundation of any success I’ve had,” says Stone, who relaxes by working with his hands to build vintage Toyota Land Cruisers. “I find working with my hands to be very cathartic.” In his ideal world, Stone will be with Incredible Technologies for years to come, continuing to help develop and grow the organization. He has five rules for those interested in a similar career. • Choose an organization that reflects your values. • Do not be afraid to fail. • Always bet on yourself. • Constantly keep your eye on the outcome you desire. • Build a diverse and trustworthy personal board of directors. —Bill Sokolic
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Labor Pains The Covid-19 pandemic put millions of people out of work. Two years after the shutdowns, workers in some professions still are not rushing back to the job. What’s an employer to do? By Marjorie Preston
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n the classic 1936 silent film Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin plays a factory worker whose sole purpose on the job is to tighten bolts on a moving conveyor belt. In an iconic scene, Chaplin is sucked into a series of giant rotating gears, literally becoming a human cog in an impersonal machine. It’s a metaphor for the type of worker dissatisfaction behind the “Great Resignation.” The post-pandemic labor crisis has had a widespread and lingering impact on several business categories, including gaming, hospitality and retail.
Existential Crisis Donald Hoover, of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, prefers to call it the “Great Shock.” With Covid-19 and the resulting shutdowns of business and travel around the world, people who had always felt secure in their lives and livelihoods were “shocked into rethinking their priorities in life and what they were doing,” says Hoover. “It was devastating to employers, too. They lost talent they had developed and trained for years, and in some cases, decades. Now we go from massive layoffs to trying to hire back.” But workers aren’t rushing to return. According to Pew Research, reasons for the phenomenon include low pay (63 percent), no opportunity for advancement (63 percent) and feeling disrespected at work (57 percent). Other reasons are lack of flexibility and lack of benefits like health insurance. The crisis also presented special challenges for parents; according to 38
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the New York Times, in 2021 4.5 million women left the workforce because they lost their childcare. Interestingly, many workers are unwilling to return due to what they perceived as poor treatment by their companies during the pandemic—a passfail test that earned some CEOs a big fat “F.” Last fall, though there were 5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. than before the pandemic, job openings remained at near-record highs. “Nothing in our lifetime has been this extreme,” says Steve Heise, former human resources executive at Foxwoods Resort Casino, the Maryland Live! Casino and the Walt Disney Co. “All the HR journals are saying people got used to working from home and liked it. They liked taking care of their pets and kids and not commuting every day. What they want are flexible schedules—not something the casino industry has been open to.” In February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the top three most-quit job categories for the month were “accommodations and food services” (6 percent of total employment), hospitality (5.6 percent) and retail (4.9 percent)—all face-to-face occupations that can’t be phoned in or fully automated. Is there a way to bring back these front-line workers?
Missing in Action “The hospitality industry is a very hard industry,” says Bob Ambrose, former Atlantic City casino executive and creator of hospitality management curricula at a number of U.S. universities. “It’s a lot of pressure, it’s long days, it’s a
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Recruit & Retain “You can’t run a casino, a restaurant or a hotel without these people—they’re the core, and you’ve got to find ways to bring them back.”
The experts weigh in with tips for employers looking to hire:
—Bob Ambrose, casino consultant and hospitality management instructor
willing to commute long distances. “Hiring is hyperlocal now,” says Fairleigh Dickinson’s Donald Hoover. “Be on a first-name basis with the people at your local department of labor. They’re the experts.”
lot of time on your feet. But you can’t run a casino, a restaurant or a hotel without these people—they’re the core, and you’ve got to find ways to bring them back.” As lures, employers are offering perks unheard-of before the pandemic, says Ambrose: “signing bonuses, increased salaries for seasonal workers, more guaranteed base salaries for tipped employees, more flexibility in scheduling, and shorter time for the initiation of health care benefits.” But the number of unfilled jobs proves you can’t just buy back a willing workforce. “I’m seeing it across the board: entry-level positions are high turnover just by nature, but now it extends to professionals and management as well,” says Jasmine Takeshita, director of talent acquisition for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which operates the Yaamava’ Casino Resort near San Diego. “A lot of companies out there are trying to buy talent as an immediate Band-Aid.” While competitive pay is part of any employment package, these days the keys to a fully staffed and dedicated workforce may be more about the intangibles: culture, career opportunities and appreciation. “If a team member knows they have a purpose, that they’re receiving a great, comprehensive benefit package, that they enjoy what they do, that there’s possible progression in the future, then that’s an investment that they’re willing to make,” says Takeshita. “We’re not looking for that BandAid. We’re looking for long-term development for our team members.”
Prepare to hire more boomers. In 2021, there were 36 million people 55 years of age and over in the workforce—a significant number compared to every other age group. Be aware that baby boomers will be more interested in flexible scheduling.
Keep it local. Higher gas prices have made some candidates less
Get super-social, recognizing that job fairs and postings aren’t enough to create a candidate pool. Amplify your social channels, not only to advertise job openings but to get testimonials from team members about why working for your organization is so great. Court more willing workers through innovative entry programs. One website, Unanet, recommends offering an internship-like program called a “returnship,” designed to help people return to work after an extended hiatus. Companies that offer such programs can “diversify their workforces, tap an experienced but overlooked segment of the talent pool, and enhance the positive perception of their brands.”
Establish a leave-of-absence program. An article in Harvard Business Review suggested employers offer a “pandemic leave of absence,” paid or unpaid, with benefits and seniority intact to retain valuable employees, especially women. According to HBR, “They’ll value your support and loyalty and be less likely to seek employment elsewhere when they are ready to return.”
Give employees more say in their work life, says San Manuel’s Jasmine Takeshita. “There’s a fine line in making sure that employees are doing their jobs and being productive, yet allowing them to have flexibility and creativity and truly develop themselves in a career. When you’re able to share ideas and be more collaborative, that’s fantastic.”
Retain, Don’t Reclaim In an airport recently, Hoover stood with other travelers in long lines for food and other services. Employees behind the counters were “out there delivering the promise, working these lines that just never got shorter,” he recalls. “My first thought was, ‘How is that employee handling all the stress? Why is that person still in their job?’ My second thought was, ‘That employer is so lucky.’” Now is the time for employers to show their gratitude, in word and attitude as well as in the biweekly paycheck. “You’ve got to take care of them,” says Hoover. “You have to be proactive and ask employees, ‘How can I make it better for you? I don’t want to lose you.’ You’ve got to be that honest.” The worker deficit “isn’t a light switch, where you’re going to turn it back on and get back to normal. So the best hiring strategy right now is to retain your employees.” That is apparently what happened at the Emerald Island Casino in Henderson, Nevada, which closed in March 2020 due to Covid-19. Of 175 em-
ployees, 140 were furloughed, leaving 35 to manage internal operations. Seventy-eight days later, when the casino reopened, all but two employees returned to work. Of the two no-shows, one had retired, and the other was needed at home to care for family. Perhaps surprisingly, CEO Tim Brooks says money is not the No. 1 requirement for his employees. “They focus on career advancement and the opportunity to be part of a team, and the money follows. We give them an opportunity to grow in their careers... It’s the environment you create—it’s hard to explain, beyond treating people like you want to be treated.” That’s not just corporate cheerleading—among the success stories at Emerald Island are a dishwasher who is now an assistant general manager, a security guard who became a shift manager, and waiters who have risen to become restaurant managers. MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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While it’s not a cure-all, to develop an engaged workforce that sticks around, it’s important to recognize them, view them as colleagues, not underlings, acknowledge their contribution, and value their input .
“You have to be proactive and ask employees, ‘How can I make it better for you? I don’t want to lose you.’ You’ve got to be that honest.”
“In our business, our team is our work within our enterprise,” says No. 1 asset,” says Brooks. “You can Takeshita. “If anything, we’ve learned never grow if you cut back on service, from the pandemic that there is no onewhich we rely on our team to provide. size-fits-all approach” to hiring, “it’s be—Donald Hoover, Director, Fairleigh Dickinson University Companies that have experienced the come layered.” International School of Hospitality Great Resignation have to step back In addition, she says, “Yamaava’ and and Tourism Management and re-examine what their core values San Manuel choose to look at a more hoare—re-examine their business on a listic benefit offering. So not only do we regular basis, find out what their team have that competitive pay, but we’ll instineeds, and listen to them.” tute non-traditional benefits like pet inFor example, while overall compensation is still very important to nearly surance or tuition reimbursement. Things like that show candidates and half of younger employees, it’s not as important as opportunities to learn employees that we care about what they care about.” and advance, the quality of the relationship with their bosses and rewarding The California tribe, while handing out welcome bonuses, did not work. overlook existing employees, who got thank-you bonuses for their continHeise recalls an incident from his career in which a resort maintenance ued loyalty. “We’re balancing it out and making sure every team member worker approached him, almost abashedly, to suggest that the owners install knows that they’re an important part of our enterprise,” says Takeshita. an outdoor terrace. That employee prefaced the conversation by saying, “And we try to say thank you every day.” “I’m just a housekeeper.” Heise was quick to correct her, saying, “You’re a According to Gallup research published in March 2020, just one in very important part of guest services, and your voice is very important.” three employees worldwide said they trusted the leadership of their organiWhile it’s not a cure-all, to develop an engaged workforce that sticks zations. And just 13 percent of U.S. employees strongly agreed that their around, it’s important to recognize them, view them as colleagues, not uncompany’s leaders communicated effectively. In retrospect, those employderlings, acknowledge their contribution, and value their input. ers should be astounded by the Great Resignation, a mass psychological shift that made more people more willing to say, “Take this job and shove it.” Much has been made of disruptions in supply chains due to the pandemic. “It’s been a wake-up call for a lot of industries,” says Ambrose. “CorThe same is true of the talent supply, and people now may need to be porations have to rethink everything. Now is the time to create a better wooed to enter a new relationship. Takeshita says the San Manuel Band reworkplace. It will benefit the workers and in the long term, it will benefit lies on “recruitment marketing, being able to really tell our story, establish the employers as well.” ourself as employer of choice, build a talent community so that we’re recognized as a great place to work, not only for active job-seekers, but passive candidates in the future. In 2021, Professor Anthony Klotz of Texas A&M University first coined “We also looked into a new recruiting philosophy, in essence ‘recruiting the term “Great Resignation.” Klotz recently said rank-and-file workers to include.’ That blows up the traditional recruiting model, which says, let’s will continue quitting their jobs at above-average rates through 2024 or look at the job and find the best candidate. Instead, our philosophy says, even 2025. In many ways, that’s tipped the balance of power in the worklet’s look at the candidate and find the best job.” place, and put employees in the driver’s seat. Don’t expect them to scoot In some cases, the recruitment team helps potential candidates dig over any time soon, especially now, with Covid still a threat. down, identify their own strengths, and recognize how their existing skills “There could be another wave, like there’s been in China,” says Heise. can be transferred to careers in hospitality and gaming. “Then you’re back with the Plexiglas and the masks and the screenings “We’re providing that coaching so they can see how their talents could and the apprehension”—and employees heading for the nearest exit.
The Talent Supply Chain
A Pivotal Moment
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Keep on Giving High-profile gifts have long been a part of the casino promotional landscape, and the practice is growing in unexpected ways By Dave Bontempo
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ecords were not only made to be broken, but to be feted. Gaming industry executives laud the American Gaming Association report noting that commercial gaming revenue, which includes brick-and-mortar casinos, iGaming and online sports betting, hit an all-time record of nearly $53 billion in 2021. That was more than 21 percent higher than the previous annual record in 2019. The 2021 revenues were nearly 77 percent higher than the Covid-impacted 2020. This warrants a high-five, a champagne pop, a victory dance affirming the milestone. The industry is back, and that prompts a subsequent step, providing something that resonates with customers far more than numbers. That’s the foundation of the all-important gifting industry. It exceeds marketing initiatives by producing a visually pleasing tribute that sits in one’s home, around one’s neck or on a wrist. Gifts are a symbol of loyalty, a sense of belonging to one property, or of sitting in first class on an airplane. They are a vehicle to disperse recognition, the launch pad of repeat business. And they are part of a competitive industry sector. Companies need updated methods to deploy the personal touch to customers. They wish to quickly acknowledge a recent casino stay and, just as importantly, prevent a negative experience in a long line. Perks often mean more to gamblers than free play or reward points they activate themselves. Gifts say the two most important words passing between casinos and customers: Thank you.
A New Look for Gifting New Jersey-based Rymax has been a longtime operator in this niche. Rymax has thrived as an extension of a casino’s marketing team. The company considers its job making a personal connection with every player on behalf of the casino, underscoring the player’s sense of value. The company also helps clients differentiate themselves from competition by serving as a player engagement manager and rewards provider. Postpandemic optimism has overshadowed inflation, fueling the industry’s economic engine. “The player rewards industry has never been stronger,” says Paul Gordon, senior vice president of sales for Rymax. “The importance and resilience of this industry cannot be overstated. Despite the pandemic, high 42
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“The player rewards industry has never been stronger. The importance and resilience of this industry cannot be overstated. Despite the pandemic, high unemployment rates, and now record high gas prices and inflation, consumers are still going to casinos. It is remarkable to see the growth in revenue and the opening of new properties during these times.” —Paul Gordon, Senior Vice President of Sales, Rymax
unemployment rates, and now record high gas prices and inflation, consumers are still going to casinos. It is remarkable to see the growth in revenue and the opening of new properties during these times. “Giving players a choice in what is selected makes a rewards program engaging and successful, but the rewards are just the beginning,” he adds. “The need to offer a comprehensive player loyalty program with a personalized approach is critical. This includes everything from reward options to customer service, and from order updates to quick delivery.” The rewards have a new approach, reflecting recent turbulent times. “In 2021, there was an enormous shift towards health and wellness for consumers,” Gordon says. “This was reflected in casino reward redemptions. Brands that redeemed well included skin care brands like Ahava, Kiehl’s and L’Occitane, personal care or massage products like nest Home Fragrances and Therabody’s Theragun, and fitness brands like Echelon and Gaiam. “And, since a record number of people adopted pets in 2020-21, petcentric brands such as Gen7Pets, Cuddle Clones and Enchanted Home Pet were also highly desirable. Luxury brands made a comeback in 2021, and are anticipated to remain strong throughout 2022.” Another new twist involves employees. Gordan indicates that the Great Resignation, and the employee challenges throughout the business world, have created an even greater need for employee recognition programs. The cost to recruit and train an employee is significant, and companies need to recruit, retain and reward employees to have a strong organization, he asserts. This challenge is even greater today because the hospitality segment has taken a huge employee hit, and the need to fill positions is greater than ever. Although online gaming has provided instant gaming access, it does not deliver the personal touch of an individual host or loyalty program at a brick-and-mortar facility, Gordon says. “While online gaming has had incredible success in the states where it was launched, they still lag behind the player loyalty programs that casinos deliver,” he says. “The tribal gaming industry, for instance, needs to increase the loyalty initiative and differentiate between the solitary gaming experience that online delivers and the communal experience that a casino provides. Create themed rewards events by brand and category. Tie promotions into the entertainment at the property and the seasonality of events. Create more group rewards events to tap into the communal advantage. Players are part of the casino family. “Almost all our clients have an online rewards site that we created that is a ‘view only’ site,” says Gordon. “What that means is that the player can
look at the products, play up to get the comp dollars or points and then go to the casino to place the order. The casino is getting the return trips and maybe an increased traffic cycle while delivering a loyalty program in their hands and top of mind.” Gordon says Rymax measures the effect of its programs with a deep dive analyzing redemptions by category, brand, price point and seasonality. The company has an eclectic portfolio of clients that include financial companies, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturing companies, telecommunication companies and more. “We can provide insight into what is motivating people by geographic and psychographic factors,” he says. “And we are direct with the top manufacturers, so we are privy to product roadmaps that ensure that we are always delivering the latest products.”
The Player Boutique This is an excellent time for the gifting industry, according to Rob Bone, senior vice president of global systems for Light & Wonder. He considers the market poised to keep growing with conveniences for property operators and customers introduced by Player Boutique, a signature product in this realm. “Player Boutique is the latest innovative loyalty marketing and gift fulfilment program available at the gaming machine, kiosk, or via an online microsite accessible by tablet, phone or PC,” he asserts. “This solution offers the world of Amazon and Best Buy products that can be shipped to valuable players in lightning-quick time via Amazon Prime. Player Boutique is the future of integrated casino gifting.” Player Boutique eliminates inventory risk, waiting in line, item storage and cleanup, loss of time on device, event redemption staffing, unboxing of products and setup, and issuing rain checks to unhappy guests, he adds. “The entire experience for the property administrators is seamless,” Bone says. “A web-based portal allows admins to work with an account manager from Light & Wonder, and our Amazon business partners to enter promotional information and build catalogs. “The system is thoughtfully designed to even allow the operator to enter a marketing collateral deadline date so that product catalogs can be created and checked with time to submit images for direct mail and email.” Bone touts advantages in people being able to ship larger items to the address they indicate rather than carry bulky items to their cars. The company has substantial volume in OLED TVs, vacuums, bikes, and pool chairs. The convenience of having these items ship to the home of the player is unparalleled, not to mention the speed (average delivery
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“Player Boutique is the latest innovative loyalty marketing and gift fulfilment program available at the gaming machine, kiosk, or via an online microsite accessible by tablet, phone or PC. The entire experience for the property administrators is seamless.” —Rob Bone, Senior Vice President of Global Systems, Light & Wonder
time is 1.73 days, according to Bone). “Of course, you will always have the purses, electronics (our Best Buy integration makes this a great option for operators) that players have a great response to, and we have the Amazon range of inventory,” he indicates. “This year we are introducing a new Tribal Vendor solution for our clients. This allows our clients to integrate their local tribal vendor into the platform, allowing them to act as a third party to participate as a Player Boutique product supplier.” Last winter, the company debuted its first iteration of Player Boutique LIVE, an on-site gift solution which allows clients to create an on-site holiday ballroom-style event. Player Boutique LIVE merges the world of having gifts display onsite for players to touch and feel, while maintaining the convenience of shipping the actual items to the home or the address they indicate. “Employee Boutique allows human resources teams at any property to leverage our microsite solution to award employees for employment anniversaries, birthdays and other milestone events,” Bone says. “This year we are excited to work on an Uber integration, which will drive business to the casino and safely home. “Many of our clients also have a concert or live entertainment venue, and to this end we are working on a ticketing integration, to allow the redemption and yielding of event tickets at the gaming machine, kiosk, or microsite.” Bill Bachman, L&W’s director of consulting and gifting services, believes the sector has provided an adventure. “I have a sign in my office from Walt Disney that has always given me inspiration,” he says. “It reads, ‘It is kind of fun to do the impossible.’ I looked at this sign every day for the three years we worked on developing this solution. Player Boutique makes the impossible possible.”
InfiGifts, Infinite Possibilities Az Husain, the CEO of Casino Science, believes a new age has emerged in the gifting industries. For the operator, they include storage, major shipping costs, and the need for staffing and returns. For the player, challenges include long lines, limited inventory, rain checks when items run out, and 44
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limited tiering, resulting in highlevel players receiving the same benefits of lower-tiered gamblers. “During the pandemic, many of these challenges were amplified as operators struggled to deliver gifting events safely without long lines and crowded gift pickup venues,” he says. “Casinos also dealt with staffing shortages that exacerbated the challenges required in delivering staffheavy gift events.” Casino Science developed InfiGifts to address challenges associated with traditional gift giving. InfiGifts is an app-based continuity gifting and promotion solution that allows players to select and claim gift rewards directly from their smartphones, Husain says. InfiGifts does the following: • Eliminates gift logistics, storage, and staffing requirements • Eliminates lines and stock-outs • Allows for better product selection • Creates tiered gift rewards • Reduces overall gifting costs “Players download InfiGifts onto their smartphone from the App Store or the Google Play Store,” Husain explains. “Players add their participating casino by scanning the casino QR code. The app loads the available gifting promotions for the casino. The player enters the player card number and confirms the delivery address. The gift is then delivered directly to the player’s home. The entire gift claiming process is complete in less than a minute and the player can return to gaming.” The app features geofencing technology that requires the player to claim the gift at the property. The incremental trip visit is still captured, and the gift is delivered directly to the player’s home address. InfiGifts handles all of the tracking and customer support for claimed gifts through the app. Players can see the gifts they have claimed and the current shipping/delivery status. They can also chat with a support analyst to help them address shipping problems. Benefits for the player experience:
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Network Payoff • There are no lines for players to stand in–claiming a gift takes less than 60 seconds and then players return to gambling • The player can select from a wide variety of gifts, including different colors and sizes • Higher-value players can receive higher-value gifts, engendering better loyalty with guests • Gifts never run out of stock Casino Science is working with TransAct to enable InfiGift QR codes to be available on printed vouchers via the TransAct Epicentral system. Casino Science is also working with Acres Manufacturing to provide triggered events for play and earn promotions that are delivered from the Foundation player development system, with a printed QR code produced from a TransAct printed voucher. Further integration with TransAct’s Epicentral product will enable casino marketing teams to provide gifts to targeted patrons in a quick and flexible way while they play. The technology also can be integrated into existing app experiences to enable a completely touchless gifting experience in the casino’s own app.
Everi selected Payouts Network—a provider of innovative rewards technology that gives businesses and service providers more speed, flexibility and control—to power new enhanced, in-the-moment loyalty rewards to their casino operator customers. Leveraging the Payouts Networks PayNow Platform, Everi will enable its casino customers to surprise casino patrons with new and unexpected rewards, such as tickets to shows and sporting events, excursions, and an exciting range of “off-property” experiences. The expanded offers will enable new opportunities for casino patron engagement, increasing the value and importance of loyalty programs. With the Payouts Network “Instant Payouts” solution, Everi’s casino customers will be able to send payments and rewards to their patrons almost instantaneously, without physical interaction and without requiring recipients to share sensitive bank account details. Throughout the industry, suppliers have matched old and new trends to cultivate customer satisfaction. The age-old trend is that gifts make customers feel appreciated. The new trend is the seamless delivery process. Together, this helps operators navigate the consumer world beyond dollars and cents.
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NEW GAME REVIEW by Frank Legato
Big Fish Grand Aristocrat Gaming
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Manufacturer: Aristocrat Gaming Platform: Neptune Double Format: Five-reel “Catch & Win” slot Denomination: .01 through 20.00 (SSP); .01, .02, .05 (MSP) Max Bet: 1,000 Top Award: Progressive; reset at $5,000 (SSP) or $20,000 (MSP) Hit Frequency: Approximately 40% Theoretical Hold: 5.95%-12.12%
his latest game on Aristocrat’s imposing Neptune Double cabinet features a unique primary game mechanic called “Catch & Win.” The normal four-by-five reel array has no pay lines or ways-to-win format. Instead, a floating “Win Box” roams around the screen during the spin. All the wins are in the form of various colorful fish swimming through the underwater display on the screen. Each fish displays a credit award. The player wins the amounts in the Win Box when the reels stop spinning. Sometimes the box is large and several fish land inside, awarding an accumulated prize. Other times, it will cover one fish or miss the fish altogether. Randomly, a “Big Win” feature will cause the Win Box to cover the entire reel array. It’s a simple-to-understand, cash-on-reels style of game mechanic. After each win, the player is offered a chance to double the award via a 50/50 flip of a coin. There are four jackpot levels—static jackpots of $20 (Minor) and $50 (Major); single-site progressives (SSP) resetting at resetting at $1,000 (Super) and $5,000 (Grand); or alternatively, a multi-site progressive (MSP) Grand resetting at $20,000. All but the top two progressives can be won in the primary game, if fish bearing the jackpot amounts wind up in the Win Box. The top two progres-
Gong Xi Fa Cai Grand IGT
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his new Asian-themed game on IGT’s large-format Peak65 cabinet features both primary-game and secondary bonus features. The base game is a five-reel, 50-line slot with many of the same features as the popular Gong Xi Fa Cai Ultra. In the primary game, a major symbol on the first reel can appear with a multiplier up to 5X, boosting any win involving that symbol. Randomly, the symbol also will trigger the main Jackpot Bonus. In the Jackpot Bonus, the screen displays 16 red envelopes. Players pick until three symbols match to win one of five progressive jackpots—resetting at $15, $40, $200 and $1,500, or a top wide-area progressive prize resetting at $500,000. Alternatively, the envelopes can reveal a red dragon coin symbol that boosts the value of all but the top jackpot. 46
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sives are available through a wheel bonus, triggered by scattered wheel symbols. The bonus wheel slices include various numbers of free games up to 20, the two top jackpots, and a “Big Win” spin with the universal Win Box.
Manufacturer: IGT Platform: Peak65 Format: Five-reel, 50-line video slot Denomination: .01, .02, .05 Max Bet: 375 Top Award: Progressive; $500,000 reset Hit Frequency: Approximately 50% Theoretical Hold: 11%-13%
One of the most exciting bonuses in Gong Xi Fa Cai Grand is the free games, which allows players to pick from coins to reveal a free-game reel configuration—classic (three rows by five reels), or expanded arrays in super (four by five) giant (five by five), or mega free games (six by five)—with all minor symbols removed for bigger wins.
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Lucky Stars
Ainsworth Game Technology
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his series represents Ainsworth’s first linked progressive offering on the new A-STAR Curve cabinet. The two inaugural titles are Blazin’ Hot Lucky Stars and Emperor’s Lucky Stars. The games target players with “perceived persistence” and a symbol collection feature. The key attraction element is a fire that burns hotter with each Star collected. A single Star can trigger the feature, or a player can automatically enter the feature with three scattered Stars. Collecting 15 or more Star symbols activates a wheel bonus. The player spins the bonus wheel for credit awards up to 37,500 or one of two progressive jackpots, a Major resetting at $500 or the Grand resetting at $2,500. Bonus features include a free-game round that offers 15 free spins, with the Star collection feature active. Free games are triggered with three or more Star symbols, or Random Free
Manufacturer: Ainsworth Game Technology Platform: A-STAR Curve Format: Five-reel, 50-line video slot Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10, .20, .25, .50, 1.00 Max Bet: 500 Top Award: Progressive; $2,500 reset Hit Frequency: Approximately 40% Theoretical Hold: 4%-15%
Games can be triggered with less than three of the symbols. There also is a random “Full Reel Sizzle” feature that awards a multiplier of up to 20X on a win.
Money Party Link: Sizzling Hot, Roaring Forties Novomatic Americas
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ovomatic is Manufacturer: Novomatic Americas launching two Platform: Panthera 1.43 Curve, V.I.P. Lounge new titles in its Curve 1.43, Novostar V.I.P. Royal 2.65 popular Money Party Link Format: Five-reel, five-line or 50-line video slot series, to join existing games Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10 Juicy Juicy and Fruity Fruity. Max Bet: 500 The new titles are Money Top Award: Progressive; $15,000 reset Party Sizzling Hot and Hit Frequency: Approximately 10% (Sizzling Money Party Roaring Forties. Hot), Approximately 15% (Roaring Forties) Sizzling Hot is a fiveTheoretical Hold: 5%-12% reel, five line slot; Roaring Forties is a five-reel, 50-line game. Both are classic fruitand-7 reel games with the common Money Party Feature, which can lead to one of four progressive jackpots. The top two progressive jackpots are line wins that can be landed anytime, but the two lower prizes are available only through the Money Party feature, a “Lock ends when either no re-spins remain or all positions are full, awarding the top ‘N’ Win” bonus triggered by six or more scattered coin symbols. progressive Grand Jackpot, which resets at $15,000. A full screen also awards When the coin symbols land, all coins are held in position for three initial a 2X multiplier for all coin values, except for the Major and Grand jackpots. respins. Re-spins are reset to three as long as additional coins appear. The feature
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GOODS&SERVICES
L&W COMPLETES LOTTERY DIVESTITURE
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cientific Games Corp., now doing business as Light & Wonder, Inc., announced the completion of its divestiture of the lottery business on which Scientific Games was founded in the 1970s. L&W completed the sale of its lottery business to Brookfield Business Partners LP, which will continue to use the Scientific Games brand for the well-known lottery supplier. The sale, for $5.8 billion in gross cash proceeds and approximately $5 billion of net after-tax cash proceeds, fulfills the former Scientific Games’ stated objective of divesting all but its core omnichannel games business. Last year, the company announced the sale of its sports betting division, OpenBet, to Endeavor Group Holdings for $1.2 billion. That transaction will close soon. “The lottery business sale closing is a significant step towards streamlining our portfolio and strengthening our balance sheet as we execute on our strategy to transform our business with a singular focus on building great games and franchises to entertain our players wherever and whenever they want to play,” said L&W CEO Barry Cottle. “The convergence of land-based and digital continues to gain momentum, and we are strongly positioned to be a leader in the industry. With the completion of the lottery business sale and the upcoming sale of our sports betting business, we are moving rapidly as we execute on our vision to be a leading cross-platform global game provider and unlock the full potential of Light & Wonder. This also positions the lottery business for success as a stand-alone company completely focused on innovating for its global lottery customers.”
BRAGG’S ORYX GAMING LIVE IN BAHAMAS
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ryx Gaming, the iGaming content supplier owned by Bragg Gaming Group, announced that its exclusive online gaming content is now live in the Bahamas with the country’s largest operator, Island Luck. Customers of the Bahamian operator now 50
Global Gaming Business MAY 2022
have access to the full portfolio of Oryx’s exclusive content developed by its in-house studios as well as from premium partners. The launch follows the company’s recent receipt of its certification and approval to offer its products and services to operators in the Caribbean nation. Established in 2009, Island Luck is licensed by the Gaming Board for the Bahamas and is the largest gaming company in the country, offering online sports betting, casino and lottery throughout the islands. The Bahamas player base has a similar demographic to the United States and Canada, markets which Bragg expects to target more widely later in the year following its recently announced license in Ontario, and with further license applications under way in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
ACRES LAUNCHES PRECISION BONUSING FOR FOUNDATION CMS
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cres Manufacturing Company recently announced the launch of Precision Bonusing, a bonusing platform compatible with any slot machine connected to the Acres Foundation casino management system. Foundation’s market-leading technology uniquely allows casino operators to make any slot machine immediately cashless and bonusing-compatible. Precision Bonusing is a suite of bonus applications that utilize the Foundation system to connect to any slot machine. Each bonus application is highly configurable, allowing casino operators to adjust the bonus pay table, trigger events and even change the theme and appearance of the playerfacing bonus sequence. Bonusing gives players a chance to win cash and prizes beyond the pay table offered by the slot machine. The concept was pioneered by Acres Gaming in the 1990s, but has not meaningfully evolved since the company’s sale in 2004. As a result, casinos today still rely on the limits of 25year-old systems hardware that permeates land-based casinos. With the introduction of
Foundation and Precision Bonusing, casinos can now deliver the types of real-time, data-driven, personalized experiences that tech companies have used to fuel their rapid growth.
CALIFORNIA CASINO DEPLOYS QCI SLOT PLATFORM
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alifornia’s Cache Creek Casino Resort and Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI) jointly announced that the QCI Slot Platform has been deployed by the property. The platform has been installed, the team has been trained, and they are actively using the tool to optimize use of data from the slot floor to aid its marketing team.
“We are honored that Cache Creek Casino Resort has deployed the QCI Slots tool to assist with managing and optimizing their gaming floor,” said Dr. Ralph Thomas, CEO of QCI. “Our growing partnership exemplifies the importance of the QCI collaborative philosophy in regard to continued enhancement of our products. With over 50 casino resorts in North America and over 3,000 sites worldwide using our tools, we are confident our highly configurable product will meet the dynamic needs of Cache Creek Casino Resort.”
GARY PLATT INSTALLS STACK CHAIRS AT ARIZONA CHARLIE’S
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ary Platt Manufacturing has completed orders for its Kopa Stackable Bingo Chairs at the bingo parlors of two Arizona Charlie’s locations in Las Vegas. It marks the first time the company has brought its bingo chairs to Las Vegas. Gary Platt installed 250 chairs at each property. Gary Platt’s Kopa stack chair is a breakthrough in stack chair design. While traditional
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stack chairs are notoriously uncomfortable, Gary Platt’s new Kopa stack chair incorporates the ergonomics of its legendary casino seating into a stack chair with base legs that are light, durable, and easily stacked. “We recently refreshed our award-winning bingo rooms, and the new chairs take comfort to the next level,” said Arizona Charlie’s Vice President and General Manager Jeremy Jenson. “Bingo is now better than ever at Arizona Charlie’s.”
G2E ASIA RELOCATES TO SINGAPORE
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he oft-delayed G2E Asia has finally settled on new dates—and a new home, at least for this year.
round sound system and innovative game titles, the games offer a unique gaming experience. “Zitro has always been a guarantee of success in Argentina, and we are delighted to welcome these exciting new games to Casino de Pinamar,” said Leonardo Cattaneo, director of the casino. “Since their addition, Link King, Link Me and 88 Link have become a ‘must play’ favorite at our gaming property, as they have been across the globe since their first release. “We are looking forward to expanding our partnership with Zitro with more great games in the near future.”
SIGHTLINE PICKS JP MORGAN FOR PAYMENT PROCESSING Marina Bay Sands
The show, produced by Reed Exhibitions and the American Gaming Association, will be held August 24-26 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Previously scheduled for a week later at its longtime home, the Venetian in Macau, travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese government made it impossible for the organizers to hold the show. For this year, the title of the show will be “G2E Asia Special Edition: Singapore.” It will be the first time the show has been held since May 2019, prior to the pandemic. Unlike Macau, Singapore has dropped almost all restrictions for vaccinated visitors and only requires a negative Covid PCR test to enter the nation. In Macau, visitors are currently required to quarantine for 14 days, followed by another seven days of “self-health management.” Organizers could not be assured those stipulations would be removed by the late August dates.
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ightline Payments announced it has selected JP Morgan Payments as the primary merchant acquirer and payments processor for Sightline’s Play+
ecosystem, which enables consumers to spend their funds with more than 80 partners in over 40 states across the sports betting, lottery, racing, and online and brick-and-mortar casino markets. Sightline plans to work with JP Morgan Payments as it develops products and services that solve payments challenges for casino operators and consumers. Routing Play+ transactions through JP Morgan Payments will benefit both merchants and Play+ account holders, providing consumers with faster cash-outs. Sightline’s Play+ solution has enabled consumers to interact with gaming operators since 2012. Today, Play+ has more than 1.5 million account holders nationally, providing them with a wide variety of funding options and the industry’s fastest access to their funds. In 2021, Sightline’s Play+ transformed the cash-based gaming industry by launching cashless gaming offerings at casinos in Nevada, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Visitors to these casinos can use their Play+ accounts to fund their activities on and off the casino floor without ever having to get cash.
BUENOS AIRES CASINO ADDS ZITRO GAMES
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asino de Pinamar in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has added three of Zitro’s most acclaimed progressive multi-game units: Link Me, Link King and the awarded 88 Link with Wild Duels and Lucky Charms game packs. The games are presented on the Fusion and Allure cabinets and include all the features that have proven to be a sure bet on casino floors. Thanks to their impressive HD graphics, sur-
MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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FRANKLY SPEAKING by Frank Legato
Big Money, Big Luck
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ould you drink cleaning fluid for $8 million? A jury awarded $8 million last month to a man who was served a chemical cleaning compound instead of beer at a Henderson bar and casino. The incident at the heart of this particular lawsuit occurred in December 2018, when a 38-year-old special education teacher was given a sample of Honey Blonde Ale at a casino/brew pub, and something just didn’t seem right. In fact, he became violently ill. It turns out the Honey Blonde Ale contained a good dose of chemicals used to clean bar taps—potassium hydroxide and nonylphenol polyethylene glycol ether, to be exact. Yikes. According to news reports, the casino offered to settle for $300,000. Good thing he didn’t take it, because the jury handed him $3 million for the damage already done plus $5 million for future damages. Which brings me back to my initial question. Hey, for $8 million, I’ll drink cleaning fluid right now. Call it Honey Blonde Potassium Hydroxide. Serve it up. Neat, with a water back. Meanwhile, back in Atlantic City, Boardwalk visitors are getting pictures taken with Batman. OK, he’s not the real Batman. (Is there even a real Batman? Since Adam West died, I mean.) This Batman is actually a dishwasher at one of the casinos, but he’s gotten himself a spot-on, cinema-worthy Batman costume, and he evidently roams around inviting tourists to snap pictures with him. In an interview with the local newspaper, “AC Batman,” as he’s known, said he doesn’t actually fight crime, but he “would get involved and assist if someone needs help.” Yes, a dish-washing superhero. All he needs is proper archvillains to battle. The Busboy Joker. Bathroom Attendant Penguin. Mr. Freeze, Housekeeping Attendant. AC Batman still needs is a sidekick, though. Where’s AC Robin? “Holy Brillo Pad, Batman!” In any event, I’ll be looking for AC Batman the next time I’m on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. It will be fun. Normally, the only people who approach me on the Boardwalk either want me to give them money, or want to give me a ride on a rolling chair, and then give them a lot of money. Maybe AC Batman can get a rolling chair. I bet he’d make big profits. (Hey, I’m always thinking.)
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Moving on, as we all know, success in a casino depends a great deal on that mystical concept known as luck. I play games with low house edges like video poker and craps, but still, considering the 30-odd years I’ve been going to casinos, I’d say luck has been present, maybe, half the time. I’ve lost as much as I’ve won. Real luck, it seems, visits the novice gambler more than the experienced gaming strategist. Just look at the “winner” pictures in the back of the gambling magazines. The lady pictured behind that oversized check invariably says she doesn’t play slots, but decided to put a few bucks in, and after three spins, hit the 50 million-to-one progressive. While I’m laboring to win $20 in a three-hour video poker session, my wife will sample a new penny slot, and she’ll come back in a few minutes waving a $1,000 cash-out ticket. Luck visits my lovely bride often. We were even walking around a Las Vegas casino once when she insisted throwing a fiver down on the Big 6 wheel. I begged her not to do it, informing her that the odds of winning at Big 6 were about the same as the odds that Wayne Newton was going to appear in a casino uniform to spin the wheel while singing “Danke Schoen” to her. Naturally, the wheel landed on the 45-to-1 spot. A lucky $225 that defied all reason and convinced my wife to never listen to my advice on gambling. (Or anything else, for that matter.) “Danke shoen, Darling, danke shoen...” And then there’s the story of the grandmother who broke a world’s record for the longest craps roll. It was only the second time she ever played craps when she stepped up to the table at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City. She was passed the dice, started rolling, kept making the point, and kept rolling for four hours and 18 minutes before she sevened out. She had the dice for 154 rolls in all, and walked away with tens of thousands in winnings. Luck like that never seems to visit me. I want to keep rolling for hours. I want a big check after three spins of the reels. It’s enough to make a guy drink cleaning fluid. Oh well, I’ll see you on the Boardwalk. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
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PEOPLE NAGACORP NAMES THREE CEOs, ALL SONS OF FOUNDER
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n April 5, Hong Kong-listed casino operator NagaCorp Ltd. appointed three new chief executives, all sons of founder Chen Lip Keong, who now holds the title of Chen Lip Keong senior chief executive. According to the Cambodia Daily, the elder Chen is “accelerating the family succession plan” with the “redesignation” of senior management. Chen Yiy Fon, an executive director, is now CEO of operations. Chen Cherchi, managing director of finance, is now CEO of finance and treasury. And Chen Yiy Hwuan has become CEO of hotels. In other appointments, Anthony Cheung King Man, director of capital investment and corporate finance, has become NagaCorp’s chief financial officer, and Sean Czoon was redesignated from group CFO to CFO of the founder’s office. Tim McNally will stay on as group chairman. Philip Lee Wai Tuck will remain as executive deputy chairman, and Mike Ngai Wai Yip stays as chief operating officer. Chen Yepern, managing director in the “CEO cabinet” and a fourth son of the founder, will continue to lead the environmental, social and governance activities of the group.
AGA ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS, NEW HIRES
ence of State Legislatures, joins the AGA as senior director, government relations, leading state advocacy and regulatory engagement • Christopher Browne joins from the Washington Nationals as director, media relations to manage AGA’s media efforts and drive industry narrative • Annabelle Goese, formerly of Resources for the Future, will be senior manager, member services, supporting AGA member and partner relations
TROMBETTA TO LEAD FLORIDA GAMING CONTROL COMMISSION
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he Florida Gaming Control Commission, which held its first formal meeting on March 31, has named Louis Trombetta, Louis Trombetta director of the Division of PariMutuel Wagering at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), as its new executive director. The commission was created last May during a special legislative session, following the passage of a new gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. In a separate bill, the commission was established to regulate gambling activities in the state. Prior to his role at DBPR, Trombetta was counsel for the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. Commission Chairwoman Julie Brown said his experience in gaming and legal issues will help the new agency get off the ground and aid the transition of much of the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering’s 109 staffers to the new commission.
SEMOLA PROMOTED TO CEO OF GUN LAKE CASINO
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he American Gaming Association announced the promotion of four senior-level team members (l. to r. above): • Alex Costello to Vice President, Government Relations • David Forman to Vice President, Research • Gabrielle Voorhees to Vice President, Finance and Operations • Brandon Leggiero to Senior Director, Member and Partner Relations The AGA also added key hires in government relations, communications and member services: • Tres York, formerly of the National Confer-
ast month, the Gun Lake Tribal Gaming Authority Board announced the promotion of Sal Semola to CEO. Since being hired as president and chief operating officer of Sal Semola Gun Lake Casino (GLC) in 2017, Semola has helped the property grow into a premier gaming and entertainment destination in western Michigan. Semola guided GLC through the Phase 4 expansion, which opened in September, featuring a $100 million development with three new restaurants: Shkodé Chophouse, CBK and 131 Sportsbar & Lounge. Gun Lake Casino is set to break ground on a nearly $300 million hotel and resort that will transform the property into the ultimate stay-and-play location.
A 45-year veteran of the gaming industry, Semola has ensured Gun Lake Casino’s commitment to its employees. In May 2021, GLC raised its minimum starting wage to $14 per hour and has increased benefits readily available to staff, especially throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
KAMBI APPOINTS WACHTMEISTER CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER
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eading global sportsbook provider Kambi has strengthened its commercial team with the appointment of Cecilia Wachtmeister as chief commercial officer. Wachtmeister previously Cecilia held the role of executive vice Wachtmeister president of business and group functions at Kambi, a position she assumed in 2019 upon joining the Kambi executive management team. Wachtmeister also served on the Kambi board from 2017 to 2019. Before joining Kambi, Wachtmeister enjoyed a distinguished 25-year career at telecommunications giant Ericsson AB, where she held a number of senior management roles across functions including business development, sales and strategy. In her latest role at Kambi, Wachtmeister will lead a team that includes the newly promoted Sarah Robertson, Jamie McKittrick and Veena Dhesi, respectively the senior vice president of sales, senior vice president of commercial operations and senior vice president of partner success.
GGB
May 2022 Index of Advertisers
Acres Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 AGEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 AGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Aristocrat Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7, 56 Axes.ai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Casino Player Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Everi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Fantini Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Global Gaming Business-iGP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Global Gaming Business-Casino Style . . . . . . . . . .49 Global Gaming Business Podcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 IGT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14-15 IGT Global Solutions Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 J Carcamo & Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Reed Expo (RX) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Rymax Marketing Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Vegas Kings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
MAY 2022 www.ggbmagazine.com
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CASINO COMMUNICATIONS
Q
&A
Richard St. Jean Chief Operating Officer, Morongo Casino Resort & Spa
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ichard St. Jean is a veteran leader in the gaming industry, working for Caesars, Station Casinos, Penn National Gaming and now as the chief operating officer of the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa. He joined Morongo two years ago just prior to the pandemic and as the casino resort was being renovated. He spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros via Zoom from his offices in Morongo, joined by Simon Farmer, the property’s executive director of marketing. A full video and audio podcast is available at GGBMagazine.com.
GGB: Why don’t we go back to the time when you joined the property—you arrived about halfway through the renovation process, is that right? Richard St. Jean: Yes, I got here in Q4 of 2019.
So, I’d say it was about 50 percent to 60 percent completed. The renovation of the existing casino space was materially under way, but we still had a long way to go. Did you have any influence in the design and the operations of the process at that time?
In the main casino, I think the program was pretty much baked in. But as we get into the expanded area—65,000 square feet—we had lots of opportunities to really improve the connectivity, sightline, circulation. But as far as the box itself, that remained pretty much the same. So, you got there right before Covid hit. That must have been a little disappointing for you.
I came out of retirement going on two years to take this job. And I told my wife, “I do not want to open a property. I’ve done enough of those.” I knew I was coming into the renovation and expansion, and I enjoy those projects. But then Covid hit and shut us down. We probably worked harder when we were down trying to formulate the plan for reopening. We opened with about five days’ notice, and we were also first to market 54
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at the significant casinos in the L.A. area. So it was like New Year’s every single day, post-opening. We opened with 1,700 team members; we could have had 2,400 or 2,500. But it was all hands on deck; we made it happen. But it certainly wasn’t without a lot of pain. But even with the shutdown, we were thrilled with our overall performance for 2020. We were relatively flat, even after being closed for two and a half months, compared to 2019. The team really pulled it off. As I tell them: They moved mountains and pulled off miracles. So, it was a pretty strong way to end the year. Explain how the resort has changed, with the renovations, and new food and beverage outlets, and the larger casino.
We renovated the hotel rooms, the suites, the casinos, the cabanas. So, really the entire property has a new feel and then, in conjunction with that, we started to deploy technology—beautiful TVs, electronic keys and all the other items you take for granted in a modern hotel. Tell us what happened with the buffet.
I think this is probably one of our favorite stories about the renovations. Our buffet was very dated, and then obviously with the onset of Covid, a lot of these questions about buffets came back. And we had already been in concept discussions with a number of people, on what this could look like going forward. And we looked at numerous iterations, and what it could be, what it should be. We started taking inspirations from places like Faneuil Hall in Boston, Eataly in Chicago, the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and the list goes on. So we partnered with Fabio Viviani to create the Marketplace. It transports you from Cabazon, California to literally any state or city around the country. But then our customers told us, quite succinctly, that they wanted a quality product at a reasonable price, that was fairly quick. And I think the Marketplace hits all those points.
In April, Morongo opened a new poker room and a bingo room, at the tribe’s original casino, now called Casino Morongo. Tell us what those are going to bring to your property.
When that property was opened, as we began construction on the renovation, originally it was with a pure intent of supply and demand for construction disruption. And the place did better than we expected, and we kept it open, particularly with the demand that we had post-opening from Covid. There had been consideration years ago about putting bingo and poker back there—it frees up space in the main casino where we had a temporary poker room set up. So, we jumped in with both feet, and we came up with a design of the right size program, and it’s really created a full-service property. The original casino looks like a brand-new facility. So, we are really, really excited about the potential that has. And I think, too, that our tribal members and elders, they love to play there. They grew up there, to a degree. Morongo has always had some great leadership, and with the recent retirement of the former chairman, Robert Martin, and his successor, Charles Martin. And the tribe was involved in the birth of Indian gaming as a participant in the Cabazon decision that legalized tribal gaming across the country. What does that mean for the tribe?
It’s so humbling, because they’re doing it for all the right reasons. This has been passed on to this current generation, and they really want to perpetuate it, diversify it, so we’re ready for what comes next. The people you see getting involved on tribal council, the members, they definitely have this common core value of how we perpetuate this. For the tribal members, the elders, and even some people on our council to this day that were very instrumental, they take tremendous pride in pulling that off.
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