Deal Me In
Author: John Anderson
April 2009
Features
Hit the jackpot with casino meetings
Sponsored by Stratosphere
No matter how many site inspections you do, how carefully the contracts are drawn up, how often the details are gone over with the hotel sales director, all the assurances from the caterer, featured speaker, entertainment and audiovisual provider, planning an event can still sometimes seem like a crapshoot. There are just too many variables that go into putting a successful meeting together. And despite all the work that goes into keeping everything on track, some results still depend on chance.
Roll the dice and “snake eyes”: a sudden snowstorm delays a quarter of your attendees, your keynote speaker comes down with laryngitis and the Teamsters working the local convention center have all walked off the job. Roll a seven and your fill-in speaker is a huge hit, the hotel surprised you with free guest room upgrades for all your VIP attendees and the weather is a perfect sunny-and-72-degrees the entire week. There are elements of risk inherent in all meetings.
But what if you choose a venue that embraces the elements of chance, and plan your next meeting where a roll of the dice and the spin of a wheel are cheered? Casinos throughout Nevada—where gaming is legal—and at Indian casinos in a number of western states, have meeting and conference rooms every bit as spacious and welcoming as their gaming facilities. And with large revenues from gaming, it’s common for casino hotels to constantly reinvest in their property—to attract business, and to keep up with competitors in a constant cycle of building or renovating on an ever-grander scale. This means that for planners, the cards will always be stacked in your favor, and who knows—your meeting just might hit the jackpot.
Nevada
Fly over the Sierra Nevada mountain range from California to Nevada and the landscape changes from snowy white to desert brown in the blink of an eye. Fly over at night and you see, shining out of the blackness like a beacon, the lights of one of the state’s main cities—Las Vegas or Reno. You’re in the desert, and while gold and silver mining led to a rush of people in the state’s infancy (the late 1800s), a different kind of prospecting (after gambling was officially legalized in 1931) led to a population explosion that has continued to the present day—Nevada has had the fastest percentage growth of any state from 1940–2003.
Gaming built the state, defines what Nevada is all about and is the engine of its economy. And while gaming will always be a factor in whatever happens here, it’s not the only industry in the state. In fact, it’s the businesses that have grown up around it—namely the hospitality industry—that have made Nevada the major meetings destination that it is today.
Las Vegas
The jewel in the gaming world’s crown is Las Vegas—big, loud, audacious and so over the top that there aren’t enough superlatives to describe it. It’s also a city that continually pushes the boundaries, with new properties coming online at breakneck speed, and each of them topping everything that came before it. And while the pace has slackened lately, there’s no denying the importance of Las Vegas as a major destination for meetings—all those huge casino hotels have equally large meeting venues.
“It’s very well known that Las Vegas can do large trade shows better than anyone in the country,” says Michael Goldsmith, CMP, director of convention sales at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “We have something like 140,000 guest rooms, 9 million sq. ft. of meeting and convention space, and 22,000 trade shows, conventions and meetings in Las Vegas each year.”
Most of the major casino hotels are located on Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as The Strip. In fact, some of the largest casino hotels and resorts in the world are located along this four-mile stretch—18 of the world’s top 25 to be exact (by guest room count), with more than 67,000 total guest rooms.
But because of its well-earned reputation as sin city, with plenty of opportunity for lavish spending, President Obama himself called out the city in a speech in early February, saying to CEOs receiving TARP funds, “You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas…on the taxpayer’s dime.” And while it was a legitimate point within the context of the speech, some fear it will scare off meetings business because of the perception that holding a meeting in Las Vegas is an irresponsible extravagance.
“The idea of Las Vegas being Sin City and an adult playground, I think a lot of that is just perception,” says Yale Rowe, vice president and general manager for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which is in the midst of a $750-million expansion that will add 875 guest rooms and 75,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. “If you’ve talked to meeting planners, they don’t feel that perception is reality. Vegas is a great place to hold meetings. I think those distractions are there; it’s what the city has been built on. But we don’t see that as a hindrance for second-time meeting planners.”
Rowe says that when Hard Rock opened in 1995, it started to change the model for the way hotel casinos do business, where gaming isn’t the main focus. “Gaming was an important revenue stream, but it wasn’t the only one,” he says. “We didn’t have to give away the hotel. We had people that never stopped by the casino that still spent a couple thousand bucks with us.”
Goldsmith says that other than a handful of high-profile cancellations (such as Wells Fargo, which cancelled a four-day event in Las Vegas), the majority of his meetings customers continue to express support for the city. “We speak to dozens of customers every day, and they talk about the advantages of doing business in Las Vegas,” he says. “There’s a tremendous value and so many options.”
Even so, with all the nonstop entertainment and gaming, outsiders might easily assume serious businesses could never have serious meetings in a city filled with so many distractions. “Unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation, so we have to work to get the message out,” Goldsmith says. “Every city uses its fun activities to help promote its destination. We do the same, but we just have more fun activities than anywhere else.
“The fortunate thing about Las Vegas is because we have so many options—restaurants, shopping, shows—that are all available in the evening hours, people who are [attending] meetings spend more time in the meetings and aren’t running out to do things, because the city doesn’t shut down at 5,” he says. “A planner doesn’t have to plan the whole process. In fact, we recommend that planners don’t over-schedule, so people can go to a show or a restaurant they’ve read about.”
Goldsmith cites several advantages to holding a meeting in Las Vegas, the first of which is the high level of service from its 200,000 hospitality workers, with some of the best in the industry coming from all over the country for the opportunity to work there. Next, there’s the quantity and quality of facilities available. And, finally, the value available, especially in such a buyer’s market, that makes a meeting in Vegas more affordable than ever.
One planner, and her organization, convinced of the value of Las Vegas as an ideal destination is Vanessa Velasquez, supplier services manager with the Automatic Transmission Rebuilders Association in Oxnard, Calif. Velasquez plans close to 30 meetings a year throughout the U.S. and Canada, but their annual convention, which brings in 1,500 attendees, is almost always held in Las Vegas. “The attendees really like to go to Vegas because they use it as a vacation,” spending time before or after the event, she says. “They really like the nightlife and hotels.” Subsequently, the association’s attendance at the Las Vegas show is always higher than when it’s held at other destinations.
Of course, Las Vegas has a bounty of meetings venues, starting with the mammoth Las Vegas Convention Center and its 3.2 million sq. ft. of space. Adjacent to the center is the legendary Riviera Hotel Casino Las Vegas, offering 2,258 guest rooms and 160,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, including its 10,500-square-foot Top of the Riv ballroom. Another meeting room aerie, the 2,444-room Stratosphere Casino and Hotel has 8,100 sq. ft. of meeting space perched on its 103rd and 104th floors. MGM Mirage’s 76-acre CityCenter is on track to open at the end of 2009, to be anchored by the casino resort Aria, with 4,004 guest rooms and 300,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. And just outside of the city is Primm Valley Casino Resorts, with a 21,000-square-foot conference center.
Reno/Tahoe
The “biggest little city in the world” (as its motto goes), Reno sits near Lake Tahoe and the California border in northern Nevada. The one-time capital of gaming in the country (before the rise of Las Vegas in the 1950s), Reno doesn’t have quite the glitz and glam of its neighbor to the south. Instead, the city worked to build its meeting business, emphasizing its affordability factor.
“We might be a gaming town, but gaming is second,” says Philip D’Amico, vice president of convention sales at Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. “Convention business is number one for us. We’re a gaming town, but the primary focus of our hotels is convention business.” D’Amico adds that they get a lot of association business, as well as some corporate incentive and government groups, while most come primarily from the Midwest and West Coast. “It’s a value destination, so groups are looking to have a great location with fun activities and lots of stuff to do,” D’Amico says.
Still, there is the gaming dimension that some planners might see as a distraction. “I guess you could say that about any major destination,” D’Amico says. “How would you combat going to Disney or New York? How do you keep them from not going down Fifth Avenue, how do you keep people from not going to the French Quarter in New Orleans? Every major destination has its distractions; it’s up to the planner to make sure [the meeting] is interesting enough for everyone.”
Just a 40-minute drive from downtown Reno is yet another “distraction” for the destination: Lake Tahoe and its many activities—skiing and snowboarding in winter, hiking, biking and boating in summer—that add an outdoor, nongaming dimension to the area that Las Vegas lacks. So while there are a number of casino hotels along the Nevada shores of Lake Tahoe, they also function as ski lodges, with easy access to many of Tahoe’s best slopes. Downtown Reno will also be unveiling a new $40-million minor league baseball stadium in April, complete with attached dining, retail and nightlife venues.
With 20,000 hotel rooms in the city, a 50,000-square-foot convention center and the 7,000-seat Reno Events Center, Reno is well equipped to handle groups of most any size. One of the city’s flagship properties is the Peppermill Hotel Casino, with 1,635 guest rooms and 102,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, which added a $300-million, 600-suite tower in 2007. The 975-room Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa, with 50,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, last year completed a 14,261-square-foot ballroom and a sky bridge connecting the property to the convention center.
Laughlin
Located at the southernmost tip of Nevada, along the banks of the Colorado River (with Bullhead City, Ariz. on the other side), Laughlin is the quiet gaming destination—relative to its sister cities elsewhere in the state. With the riverboats Celebration and Fiesta Queen docked along the riverbanks (and available for events), boating and water sports at nearby Lake Mohave, and city lights not visible from space, Laughlin is perfect for groups who like a taste of the gaming and entertainment options that Nevada offers, but without being overwhelmed.
Served by the Laughlin Visitors Bureau, there are nine casino hotels in the city, with a total of 125,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and 10,000 guest rooms—a perfect size for smaller and mid-size groups, and gives truth to the town’s motto: “It’s like you own the place.” One property that stands out is The Aquarius Casino Resort, with 1,907 guest rooms and 30,000 sq. ft. of meeting space.
Indian Gaming
It’s a rags-to-riches story that begins with the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians near Indio, Calif. In 1980, the tribe opened a bingo parlor and poker hall on its reservation, and won several subsequent court cases brought by the state of California, which challenged the jackpot amounts that exceeded state regulations. As a result of this and other such cases in the U.S., the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the federal government in 1988 that superseded state law, allowing Native American tribes to operate gaming facilities on their reservations.
The Indian gaming industry has since mushroomed in its short life. As an example, the Cabazon tribe are now the proprietors of the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, with 250 guest rooms and 100,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. But there is more to Indian casinos than just gaming. Many tribes offer cultural activities and attractions that allow guests to learn about the tribe and its history. The Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Rancho Mirage, Calif., has the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in nearby Palm Springs that offers an exhibition, classes and lectures, while hosting the annual Southern California Indian Storytelling Festival and the Festival of Native Film & Culture. Visitors can also hike through sacred tribal lands at Indian Canyon and Tahquitz Canyon just outside the city.
California
Though the reservations are small, California has more gaming tribes than any other state, with more than 50 tribes currently operating some sort of gaming facility. Most are clustered in Southern California, north and east of San Diego, and in a wider swath of area north and east of San Francisco. And while Indian casinos are relatively new to the scene, they’ve come a long way in a short period of time, though the perception can often be otherwise.
“Some people think Native American casinos are just a Holiday Inn attached to a bingo parlor,” says Al Dauber, director of hotel sales at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif. The hotel has the third-largest casino in the country at 200,000 sq. ft., larger than any in Las Vegas, as well as 517 guest rooms and 55,000 sq. ft. of total meeting and event space. And while the casino gets lots of gaming visitors on day trips, the property is large enough, and with different entrances for meetings and gaming, that the two can remain separate.
“We have a casino, so we can’t change that, but it can be downplayed if that’s not important to the group,” Dauber says. “They can golf, go to the spa and attend meetings, and never see the casino if they choose to do that. At some resorts that’s not possible to do. Here, it’s kind of a separate component.” And the resort keeps expanding and improving. Spa Pechanga was re-opened in November of last year after a major expansion.The Journey at Pechanga championship-level golf course opened last year, and was rated as the 4th “best new course you can play” by Golf Magazine.
The Southwest
Arizona has some of the largest reservations in the country, both in tribal population and land area, though relatively few casinos, with 18 tribes operating 22 casinos, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming. One is the Ak-Chin Indian Community, which has the Harrah’s Ak-Chin casino 35 miles south of Phoenix, with 4,784 sq. ft. of meeting space and 144 guest rooms. Talking Stick Resort & Casino near Scottsdale, is operated by the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community and has 497 guest rooms and 100,000 sq. ft. of indoor/outdoor function space.
Likewise, New Mexico has more than 20 casinos, the largest of which are located near Albuquerque, such as Isleta Casino & Resort, with 200 guest rooms and 30,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, and Sandia Resort & Casino, which has 228 guest rooms and 35,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. Santa Fe also has the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino, offering 390 guest rooms and 66,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, as well as the Cities of Gold Casino Hotel, with 124 guest rooms and a 6,600-square-foot conference center.
The Northwest
Similar to California, Washington has a bevy of smaller reservations within easy reach of the main population areas of Seattle and Tacoma, with 21 tribes operating casinos, according to the Washington Indian Gaming Association. Possibly the most notable property in the state is the Tulalip Resort Casino, located 30 minutes north of Seattle and just opened in August 2008. The full-service resort offers 370 guest rooms and 30,000 sq. ft. of meeting space; the Canoes Cabaret venue for lives shows and special events; complimentary shuttle service to area attractions; and the full service T Spa.
Oregon has nine casinos spread throughout the state, which actually provide meetings venues for otherwise remote or underserved areas. One of the more compelling properties is the ocean-side Chinook Winds Casino Resort Hotel in Lincoln City, directly west of Salem, with 227 rooms and 7,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. Another is the Mill Resort & Casino in Coos Bay, southwest of Eugene on the coast, which has 112 rooms and 14,000 sq. ft. of meeting space.
RESOURCES
Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa
Aquarius Casino Resort
Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa
Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino
Chinook Winds Casino Resort Hotel
Cities of Gold Casino Hotel
Desert Diamond Casino
Fantasy Springs Resort Casino
Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino
Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino
Isleta Casino & Resort
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Las Vegas Convention Center
Laughlin Visitors Bureau
MGM Mirage CityCenter
Mill Resort & Casino
Pechanga Resort & Casino
Peppermill Hotel Casino
Primm Valley Casino Resorts
Radisson Fort McDowell Resort & Casino
Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority
Riviera Hotel and Casino
Sandia Resort & Casino
Stratosphere Casino and Hotel
Talking Stick Resort & Casino
Tulalip Resort Casino
