A message from the San Manuel Gaming & Hospitality Authority is displayed on a marquee sign at the Palms Monday, Dec. 20, 2021.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021 | 2 a.m.
As the Palms prepares to reopen next year, its new owners are scrambling to hire more than 1,000 employees and hoping to bring back hundreds of former workers.
“First and foremost, we need to hire a team and we want to welcome back as many former Palms employees as we can,” said Cynthia Kiser Murphey, general manager for the resort operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.
Kiser Murphey told Nevada gaming regulators last week she hoped up to 600 former employees return to the resort, which has been closed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. The resort plans to reopen in the spring, though no date has been announced.
“We’re calling all former Palms employees; we want you back,” Kiser Murphey said.
The Palms is currently recruiting for nearly 30 positions, from casino and hotel management to food and beverage, security and supervisory listings, according to a jobs website, palmscareers.com, that went live Friday. More jobs are expected to be added, according to a San Manuel spokeswoman.
Before it closed, nearly 1,200 people worked at the Palms.
“We’re going to use a variety of community agencies to recruit,” Kiser Murphey said. “People can apply electronically, but we’ll be hosting different job fairs in the communities too. We want to attract top quality people.”
The resort, west of the Strip on Flamingo Road, was sold to the tribe earlier this year in a $650 million deal with Red Rock Resorts, parent company of Station Casinos. The sale cleared its final regulatory hurdle with the Nevada Gaming Commission on Friday.
The revamped property will have over 700 rooms and feature about two dozen restaurants, along with a William Hill sportsbook.
The Palms will be the first Native American-owned resort in Las Vegas.
Hard Rock Entertainment, owned by the Seminole Indian Tribe in Florida, announced last week plans to purchase the Mirage from MGM Resorts International.
Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, which is owned by the Mohegan tribe based in Connecticut, operates the Mohegan Sun Casino at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
San Manuel also operates the Yaamava’ Resort and Casino east of Los Angeles. The tribe employs nearly 6,000 people in California’s San Bernardino County.
Technically, the owner of the Palms is now SMGHA Nevada LLC, a subsidiary of the San Manuel Gaming and Hospitality Authority.
“We’re grateful for this opportunity to share our long-standing tradition of hospitality with Las Vegas and execute our vision for this iconic resort,” SMGHA Chairwoman Latisha Casas said. “This has been quite the journey. It’s an overwhelming feeling of excitement.”
Along with hiring employees, the tribe will also need to tend to other details that come with opening a property.
Those include a checklist that includes ordering sheets and blankets for hotel rooms, and making sure the casino has dice, cards and working gaming machines, Kiser Murphey said.
“There’s going to be a lot of ordering,” she said. “We have 23 restaurants that we need to finalize menus for, so we’re going to be working through Christmas. There’s a lot to be done.”
