Feature: Full House
Playing a full house
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Or, how CEO Dan Lee’s company survived the pandemic and plans to thrive. By David McKee
lthough it is based in Las Vegas, Full House Resorts is anything but a Sin City-centric company. Instead, it has made its name serving some of gaming’s niche markets. Its five-casino (soon to be six) reach encompasses: the Silver Slipper in Biloxi, Mississippi; Rising Star in Rising Sun on the southernmost fringe of Indiana; Bronco Billy’s in Cripple Creek, Colorado; Stockman’s Casino in Fallon, Nevada; and Grand Lodge Casino on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Full House is a boutique operation. None of its casinos has more than 1,000 slots and Bronco Billy’s only has 24 hotel rooms—a situation in Cripple Creek that is soon to change with the construction of Full House’s five-star Chamonix resort. Masterminding the company is CEO Dan Lee, who just celebrated his seven-year anniversary in that role. He made his name in the industry as Steve Wynn’s right-hand man at Mirage Resorts, someone who is able to suss out a deal when it is not immediately obvious. A Cornell University alumnus, Lee cut his 6
teeth as a securities analyst on Wall Street at Drexel Burnham Lambert and CS First Boston. He also spent seven years as CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment, during which time it crafted such industry-leading properties as L’Auberge du Lac and L’Auberge Baton Rouge. We spoke with him from Full House headquarters in Summerlin, Nevada. What kind of brand identity do you strive for at Full House Resorts? We operate five different casinos in five different places and they each have a brand that’s important to that neighborhood but we don’t operate under a uniform brand. For example, we have a casino in Mississippi and we have a casino in southern Indiana. It is rare that a customer from one ends up at the other? Where there’s pros and cons, on the pro side most of our customers live a short drive from us. So if they live in Cincinnati, they’re a half an hour drive from our www.casinolifemagazine.com
