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StumbleGaming veteran gets OK to operate downtown casinos
Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 | 1:39 p.m.
The Nevada Gaming Commission has given final approval to casino veteran Anthony F. Santo to operate three casinos in downtown Las Vegas that he said are “losing money every day.”
But Santo said he sees some hopeful signs in running the Plaza Hotel and Casino, the Las Vegas Club Hotel and Casino and the Western Hotel and Casino.
Negotiations are nearly finished for a $20 million loan to refurbish the Plaza, which will include upgrading rooms, new slots, improvements at restaurants and “lots of maintenance.”
Santo told the commission there would be “12 months of hard times” while construction work is under way at the Plaza, to be renamed Union Plaza.
Santo will remain a consultant for Tamares, which is the landlord for the three properties.
Commissioners cautioned Santo that Tamares can’t be involved in calling the shots on the operation of the casinos – and Santo said he understood the separation that needs to be kept.
Gaming revenue has been down 25 straight months in the downtown market – the latest by 11.6 percent in June compared to the same month last year.
The commission also granted a license to Patti Lynn Sarles Hart to be president, chief executive officer and a director in International Game Technology.
Hart told the commission there has been a decline in revenue and some 900 employees have been laid off in the 17 months she has been with the company. She told the state Gaming Control Board earlier this month that profits were down 7 percent in the third quarter of the fiscal year.
The company, she said, is moving from hardware to software in making its gaming equipment.
It operates in 300 jurisdictions, she said. The “strategic” office of IGT will be in Las Vegas but the manufacturing will continue in Reno, where there are about 3,000 employees. She will be based in Las Vegas.
The commission was scheduled to meet in Carson City on Thursday but the session was held in Las Vegas and teleconferenced to Carson City in an effort to save money. Four of the five commissioners are from Las Vegas.
The commission next year will switch two of its meetings usually held in Carson City, in June and December, to Las Vegas to cut costs. Two-thirds of the applications and related business involves Las Vegas-area casinos.
That will mean eight meetings in Las Vegas and four in Carson City. There will not be a switch in locations of the state Gaming Control Board.
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Lets hope he takes his cues from the Nugget..
Good news for Downtown Las Vegas. The Plaza and Las Vegas Club can be successful with lender ownership combined with wise management. Hopefully in due course Tamares will be able to sell the properties to an owner with deep pockets.
In hind sight, downtown should have been left to rot, then totally raised and rebuilt (saving historical signs and marques.) Since Nugget remodeled, Experience went in, Mob Museum in the works, etc....the investment has been made and they are stuck with what they have.
I would suggest a Fremont experience "Pass Card" giving discounts and prizes through-out the downtown area.
Nothing is going to help the Plaza. 20M is a drop in the bucket. If u have been in the Casino it would be wiser to IMPLODE and start again .
Regardless of the last two posts...
GOOD LUCK MR. SANTO!!!
Good luck indeed! The western needs to be bulldozed.
I remember in the 50's when we would go to the train station at the Plaza Hotel site and greet our family members arriving to visit from Los Angeles.
Don't expect any Dale Chihuly creations to be added to the mix at this hotel-casino.
Part of the property opened in 1970 with the rest about 10 years later, so I suspect that, like in the body, the bones are alright, but the guts are in need of a big work-over.
For $20 million, I can imagine that they are looking to update the rooms to the point where it can be considered a 3-star property. It's a 1,000-room hotel, so it would have to be a fairly basic renovation of the rooms, probably a lot like the renovation they did to about half the rooms at the Imperial Palace a few years ago, which was sorely needed.
With a place that old, with all the deferred maintainence, there would have to be $$$ spent on mechanical systems, such as HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc.
As far as upgrades to the restaurants, success in that department will only come with more warm bodies coming through the doors each day, and that will come by increasing traffic in the casino, which is the largest in Downtown. The casino management simply has to improve in order to drive business. Penny-pinching to the point of screwing over the customer will NOT bring the kind of end-results they need to stay in business. They, and others, need to take to heart an old, but true, lesson from Benny Binion: Good Food, Good Whiskey, Good Gamble. That's all it takes.
Agree davidheaton, but shouldn't you add 'Good Women' in that equation? Meaning a few dancers or what have you on the property couldn't hurt.
Good luck Mr. Santo and thank you for remodeling a classic property instead of imploding it.
This should mean good things for the Plaza. It will be nice to get off the elevator and see new carpet on the way in to FireFly!
Santos, the poor old guy has no idea what he is getting into. The owners have been promising for years to put in 20 million, no one has ever seen it go in. Santos should run away while he still has a chance. The owners dont care, just look at the properties, they are crumbling before our eyes. The other problem he will have to deal with is the union. The union will not allow for a decent f & b operation and has encumbered all the downtown properties. The unions are like gangsters harming the operators chance of success. The gaming control group should get involved and throw the unions out.
I try to buy American. Tamares is a foreign outfit, I believe. I stay downtown every 6 months visit to Vegas, but it hasn't been at the dingy Plaza or laughable Vegas Club...I stay at El Cortez or the Golden Nugget. I love downtown though, so Tamares' investment - when and IF it comes down - is great. Long live downtown.
There is one and only one hotel downtown and thats the Golden Nugget. If you are crazy or stupid enough to go into any other hotel downtown you will get what you deserve either food posining or mugging. 20 million to refurbish those properties is a disgrace try 500 million and that is still a low estimate.........
When I stay at El Cortez I "deserve" food poisoning or a mugging? That's rude. I think the place is just great and I never have a problem staying there...except they've now made all the cool "vintage" rooms non-smoking...
Obviously, the Golden Nugget is the class of downtown and, despite some 6:5 BJ, I stay there every few visits when I use comps or can catch a deal.
Downtown beats dealing with all those fanny-packed, whining, spoiled young Californians on the strip and I can have my 3:2 single deck BJ.
I usually block my nose, block my sight, block my ears until I get to Firefly -- the Only reason I walk into that decrepitude of a building. To be there on the casino floor, one really has to spend some energy to just tolerate it, not speaking of being hallucinated into allure of a gambling craving.
GOOD LUCK, Duke!
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1...
Let's see, if you still got it.
@geenab65: Right said, Geena. Goog Luck, Mr. De Santos :)
the wife and i went downtown in '99 and it was not as bad as you guys make out. things change that much since then?
FromBellvilleCanda: "The Plaza and Las Vegas Club can be successful with lender ownership combined with wise management."
Prior posts were correct that Tamares has been promising 20 million for renovations for awhile now. The reason the properties are still open is the "wise management" that have been able to manage medicore revenues and keep people employed. Current management made recommendations to Tamares about renovations for at least the past 4 years. Long before the economy went South. Unfortunately, Tamares wasn't wise enough to follow those recommendations or to even make a decision for that matter.
The Union Plaza cannot be imploded/demolished because it is on the national landmark list because it includes the original train station which was the very first in the state. There's a plaque in the building that states it's on the list.