Suncoast set for Sept. 1 opening, Lady Luck sale recommended

Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000 | 10:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Michael Gaughan is getting ready to open his fourth resort in Clark County -- the $185 million Suncoast Hotel & Casino -- which hopes to draw 85 percent to 90 percent of its business from local trade in Las Vegas.

The state Gaming Control Board Wednesday recommended approval for the Suncoast, which will have 2,101 slot machines, 48 table games, 203 hotel rooms, five restaurants, a bowling center, bingo, a child care facility and a 16-movie complex. It is scheduled to open Sept. 1.

The board also gave preliminary approval to the sale of the Lady Luck casino in downtown Las Vegas that has been owned by Andrew Tompkins. The property with its 792-room hotel is being purchased for $14.5 million by Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., which has 11 casinos, most of them riverboats in other states. It is also involved in harness racing and a cruise ship line.

The applications will be before the state Gaming Commission Aug. 24 for final approval.

Gaughan's new casino, located in Summerlin adjacent to the Regent Las Vegas hotel-casino, has 300,000 people living within a 5-mile radius. It hopes to draw some players from the clubs in North Las Vegas. It has the shell of another hotel tower ready, which when completed will give the business 450 rooms.

The board's only concern with the Suncoast is the possibility that young people will be milling around the slot machines while buying tickets to the movies. Board member Bobby Siller said there will be a "considerable number of minors" who will be gathering near the slot machines while waiting to buy tickets.

He told General Manager David Ross that state enforcement agents "will be watching closely" that the underaged movie patrons don't start playing the slot machines.

Ross said the Coast casinos have a "good reputation for keeping minors out. Officers will be assigned to keep them out. We're not looking for children" to play the machines.

Board Chairman Steve DuCharme said a trend was started in the early 1990s to draw families to Las Vegas casinos but now there's a "backlash." He said he doesn't want to see kids "traipsing" through the slot machine areas.

Licensed at the Suncoast were Gaughan as chief executive officer and chairman of the board; Harlan Braaten as president and director; John Tiberti as secretary and director; Jerry Herbst as treasurer and director and Ross as vice president and general manager.

Gaughan already runs the Gold Coast, the Barbary Coast and the Orleans.

Isle of Capri Casinos, based in Biloxi, Miss., is making its entry into the Nevada market with the Lady Luck purchase. Bernard Goldstein, who is chief executive officer and chairman of the board, started the first casino boat in the United States in 1991 in Iowa.

He told the board, "We don't know much about Las Vegas. We want to proceed very slowly."

DuCharme said Isle of Capri would find downtown Las Vegas one of its toughest markets. He said it was a "critical time" for the clubs in "Glitter Gulch," which are not enjoying the growth on the Strip. But he said the Lady Luck would account for only one-half of 1 percent of the revenue for Isle of Capri.

DuCharme said the Lady Luck has been "operating in a troubled market but has done better than most."

One item that caught the attention of the board was the policy of the Isle of Capri to discourage problem gamblers. John M. Gallaway, president, chief operating officer and director, said, "We're not in the business of taking money from people with problems."

The company, he said trains its employees "to spot problem gamblers." While they can't kick them out of casinos, they revoke their credit and strike their names from marketing lists.

Board member Dennis Neilander said it was "not prudent" for employees to identify problem gamblers. That should be done by clinical professionals, he said. The Nevada rules say there can be offers to help and signs must be posted with 800 telephone numbers for the addictive player to use if he or she wants to.

But DuCharme said he didn't want to discourage programs, such as the Isle's, to aid problem gamblers.

Gallaway, who 17 years ago was associated with the Tropicana hotel-casino in Las Vegas, said the Isle of Capri was the seventh largest gambling company in the United States with revenues reaching $1 billion a year.

Most of the company's other casinos feature "day trips" to generate their business. Gallaway said Las Vegas is "a different type of a market." He added, "It is not going to be easy."

The company recently acquired the Flamingo Hilton in Kansas City, Mo. It also has gambling operations in Mississippi, Iowa, Louisiana and Colorado.