Casino Connection Nevada

Vincent Wickliffe

GM and VP, Eldorado and Jokers Wild casinos.

by Staff

Vincent Wickliffe started in the gaming industry as a dealer in Downtown Las Vegas, and he is now running two casinos for Boyd Gaming Corp. His is the quintessential story about how to advance in the gaming industry: work hard, be flexible concerning hours and where you work and take advantage of any and all opportunities that present themselves.

After starting Downtown, Wickliffe has worked in burgeoning markets, including Kansas City, Missouri and New Orleans, before returning to Las Vegas where he now oversees the Eldorado and Jokers Wild casinos in Henderson.

Wickliffe recently spoke with Casino Connection Publisher Roger Gros and Managing Editor Greg Jones at his office—formerly the office of Bill Boyd—at the Eldorado.

Casino Connection: When you first got started in gaming, about 20 years ago at the Golden Gate in Downtown Las Vegas, at that point were you planning on making gaming a career, were you trying to work your way up or was it just a job at the time?

Wickliffe: At the time I came into the industry, my intention was to make it a career.

What are some of the things that you’ve been able to do that helped you move up from your entry-level position as a dealer at the Golden Gate to where you are today?

I think it’s hard work. I was very flexible. I was able to work long hours, I was able to work any shift, and I also availed myself for the opportunities with expansion within Boyd Gaming. I went to different properties out of state and they gave me an opportunity to move along.

You’ve worked at the Treasure Chest in New Orleans and Sam’s Town in Kansas City. What were you doing at those properties?

At the Treasure Chest, the initial intention was I was going to go there and I was going to be promoted into a pit manager’s position, but I initially went over there to help with the school. I taught blackjack and I taught dice for that particular property. When we came into that area, gaming was not there and it was an opportunity for me to not only see the operation from the beginning, but also get an opportunity to meet the people that would’ve eventually worked under me or with me at Treasure Chest. I was there during the summer months and I taught the dealer school and at the conclusion of dealer school I decided that New Orleans wasn’t the place for me. So I came back to Las Vegas and then shortly thereafter there became another opportunity for Sam’s Town Kansas City. That’s how I went out there.

When I went to Kansas City I was initially a pit manager. And then I moved up from being a pit manager to being an operations manager. Kansas City was a similar size property as Jokers and Eldorado is here in Las Vegas. It was a boat that was moored and was next to a land-based facility. I started out as a pit manager and became an operations manager. I already had an understanding of the table games segment of the business, and then I was exposed to the food and beverage and also the land-based part of the facilities, which were a valet and other operations outside the gaming operations at that property.

What did you learn in these new jurisdictions? Obviously neither one of these jurisdictions had had gaming prior to the late ‘90s. Was it a revelation for you to see what gaming had done to a community or what it brought to a community that might have been down on its luck?

Oh, absolutely. One thing I can say very favorably about the Kansas City experience in Missouri is the people had an outstanding work ethic. I’ve also been told in various stories that other jurisdictions we went into there wasn’t that great of a work ethic but in Kansas City it was. The other thing was you saw people that made very modest amounts of money, and with the gaming and the tip rate and all that sort of thing that comes with it, they were making a great deal of money in that environment.

The other thing it helped me realize, and I appreciate today, is when you come from Las Vegas you have a certain mindset about how gaming goes and how it should operate and professional skepticism, I call it, a basic mistrust of people, they have to prove their trust. In those environments, both in Kansas City and the New Orleans area, in particular when you’re talking about Kansas City, the people were very trusting. Midwest values—you can take a man or woman at their word and they mean what they say.

When we came in there with our professional skepticism, we kind of put ourselves in a bad light with the public, because if somebody says, ‘Hey, I gave you my word,’ and they stand by it, when you question that then they question you and your business, the way you do business. That was an eye-opening experience for many of us that went through the Kansas City experience. And again, it helped me to this day understand that when you’re in Rome, you’re a Roman, and when you’re in Greece, you’re a Grecian, and you can’t mix the two.

Eldorado and Jokers Wild are not too far away from each other, but you’re still drawing customers from somewhat different areas. What’s really your customer base for each of those properties?

Our target market is of course Henderson locals and the greater Las Vegas Valley area. Jokers Wild is unique as it doesn’t have a neighborhood so to speak, and because it doesn’t have a neighborhood most of our business that goes to Jokers Wild drives. So again they’re driving past many casinos to get to our casino, and what we hope to target is value-conscious, value-driven individuals. If you’ve ever been in our restaurants at Jokers Wild and Eldorado, you can see our food prices are circa 1980. Again, that’s our target market is value-conscious, value-driven customers. We share a lot of our common database between both properties, thus our player’s card can be used at both properties.

I'm assuming it’s not going to be very intimidating. Your dealers will be very friendly and help them learn the game.

That is tantamount to our business success, is our employees. Our employees are very friendly. Because of our proximity, you’re closer to the customers because it’s a smaller property so you get to know them a lot easier. A lot of our employees have friendly relationships with our customers. They know them, they know their birthdays, they know a little bit about their families. Our employees are our biggest assets at both properties.

Boulder Highway is seeing a good amount of attention right now. Boyd Gaming made some additions at Sam’s Town and Cannery Casino Resorts is getting ready to open up Eastside Cannery this summer. With all that investment in the area do you think that’s going to help your two properties? Do you think it will increase interest in the product?

I'd like to be optimistic and think that the addition of the Eastside Cannery is going to help grow the pie, so to speak. What’s truly going to help impact our properties more than the Eastside Cannery is going to be the building of the SuperTarget right there off Lake Mead.

Anything that’s going to bring people to the area who might not have had a reason to come into the area is going to help us out. People who are going to the Eastside Cannery are going there because they want to gamble and they’re gamblers and they do that already. Truly what’s going to help invigorate both Jokers Wild and Eldorado is bringing people that come into the community for different reasons and then they discover our properties; they find that they’re small, intimate and friendly.

Boyd has been noted for advancing its people, they’ve been very noted for promoting people like Bill Boyd, Keith Smith and Bob Boughner, everyone has come up from the inside. Is that why you’ve stuck with them for so long—they’ve treated you well and it is a family atmosphere?

I couldn’t handpick a better person to work for than Bill Boyd. He’s a man of his word; integrity is one of the cornerstones of our whole company and there’s a lot of other places I could’ve worked, but I stayed here because of the way I’ve been treated, the respect that just permeates from Bill straight through to everyone else.

Bob Boughner was at this very property. There’s a long list of people that started at the Eldorado going back to the early days when it was Boyd… and the treatment that I’ve received has been nothing but the best.

Boyd Gaming is now a huge national company with properties all over the country. At a normal company the Eldorado would be an afterthought, but it isn’t. What kind of attention do you get from Bill Boyd?

He calls me regularly, he checks on me, he sees how everything’s going. He’s been a strong supporter of me. Recently because of his endorsement and sponsorship of me I’m on the board of directors for the Southern Nevada Boys and Girls Club and again I’m very proud to be a part of that because of the lineage that’s connected to that. His father founded it here in Nevada and Bill’s been a strong supporter of it. The Boys and Girls Club is a great organization and I’m just proud that he saw fit to sponsor me as being part of it.