Recently, I played 18 holes of golf with Curtis Jacks, the GM of both
the Colorado Belle and the Edgewater casinos.
What is commonly known by us about the future of these two casionos
is accurate. In other words, nobody knows what might happen after
June 1st (the new expected turnover date to Marnell). Mr. Jacks was
very clear in stating that it would be a serious security violation
for "anything" to be said prior to the new closing date. I believe
the final license approval date from the Nevada Gaming Commission was
schedule for last week. I have not seen anything concerning the
license. Your cash dollars should be secure since they are a legal
contract. The value of, use of, or existence of any comps is
uncertain after June 1st. Again, best to keep these at a miminal
value.
Marnell came from the construction business. They built many casinos
in the Las Vegas area including the Colorado Belle and most recently
The Wynn in Las Vegas. They have some limited casino pwnership
experience and approved licenses so Gaming approval should be a
simple formality.
Curtis mentioned that he does not even know if he will have a job
coming June 1st. He said if he office key does not open his door
after that date it might be a good hint! Again, if he knows
anything, he certainly cannot talk about it. He has management
experiences from many Nevada casinos and has been fired (let go)
numerous times in the past and does not seem too concerned. In his
words, "that goes with the casino management business". He
specifically talked about once having a weekend meeting with Steve
Wynn. Without any warning, and after what seemed to be a good
meeting, he was fired the next week. Again, this type of action did
not seem to surprise him.
It was interesting hearing him talking about his various casino
management jobs. Some of which includes the Gold Strike, Hascienda
and the Dunes (about 8 casinos altogether). He frankly mentioned
that he knew he worked for the "mob" while at the Dunes! Now there
is no hint of the mob in the Nevada casino business. However, he
laughed when I hinted the maybe things are going full circle since
the new owners are from the "construction" business.
We talked about the synergy of both the Edgewater and Colorado
Belle. I express a little disappointment that it was not easier to
take advantage of both casinos. For example, if you had a white
dining card, you should be able to use at all restraurants in both
casinos. If I receive suites at the Belle, why shouldn't I receive
comparable rooms at the Edgewater without needing to establish rated
play at both casinos. Curtis agree with my questions/suggestions and
said if he had the management choice there would be a closer
relationship in order to be more even competitive in the Laughlin
market. However, he did make a couple of good points that made it
easier for me to understand the current relationship. The MGM/Mirage
had a differnet philosophy about giving some things away. He would
like to give the rooms away rather than have them go empty. However,
this is more like Harrah's philosophy than the MGM/Mirage management
philosophy. Also, and this made the most sense, they wanted to keep
the two casions business seperate in order to facilitate selling only
one casino or both casinos to two different parties.
Over all, I found Curtis Jacks to be a charming and interesting
person. He is also a very good golfer! He lives in Henderson, not
the Bullhead area, so I expect he is ready for anything after June
1st. After spending over 4 hours with him and getting to know him
much better, I centainly hope he remains in his job and that maybe he
will be allowed to make a better use of the new common ownsership of
these two casinos in the future.
Obviously there are some promotions that needed to be scheduled far
in advance. Other than these, things might be completely diffent in
the future. However, it is still the casion business and they will
still need to be competitive in the Laughlin market. Lets hope Mr
Curtis Jacks is part of that future!
Thanks,
Bob