Vol. 3, No. 7, July 2007
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A Gaming Education
Indiana casino exec goes back to his Midwest roots
The Midwest native attended Southwest Missouri State with thoughts of drafting, engineering and industrial arts. Yet his dreams centered on the desert.
“Las Vegas was always part of our family,” Nachreiner says. “My dad had known some folks in the business. I had taken some trips to Vegas as a young boy, going to places like the Dunes and the Sahara, seeing shows with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. It became an infatuation.
“When I was still in school, my father asked ‘What are your plans, college boy?’ I told him I wanted to go to Vegas. And I never looked back from there. I have no regrets.”
Certainly not. Nearly three decades into a gaming career, he enjoys a lofty perch. Nachreiner serves as director of table games for the French Lick Casino resort in Indiana, a rising destination. He was lured there after earning a coveted companywide Harrah’s Chairman’s Award from a pool of 60,000 employees, at Caesars in Elizabeth, Indiana.
Nachreiner still benefits from the decision to sample Las Vegas 27 years ago. It produced his modern outlook for treating customers with respect. He would come to savor old-time Vegas and experience the heart of a classic ‘80s era. The Missouri native worked at the Sahara, Golden Nugget, the Fremont, Flamingo, Imperial Palace and the Horseshoe. He became a supervisor at the Flamingo and continued his executive run at the Peppermill in Reno before returning to the Midwest.
Nachreiner experienced the romanticized version of Las Vegas gambling. Nothing rivals his early dealing days amid the market’s wild wild west psychology.
“One day at Horseshoe a girl comes out of the bathroom and does not have a stitch of clothing on her,” Nachreiner recalls. “She ends up jumping across 26 blackjack tables. She would go from one table to the next and just keep on going. She went all the way to the end of the runway. Nobody touched her. In fact, everybody cheered for her. She must have run for about 15 or 18 seconds. It looked like she was doing the 50-yard dash! She hit her last table, went out through the entrance and was never heard from again. You’d never see anything like that now.”
Nachreiner absorbed substantial insight from Steve Wynn and Benny Binion, among others. They pre-dated the corporate psychology of calculated profit margins.
“Benny was the smartest operator I ever saw,” Nachreiner says. “The amount of things he was into regarding gaming was amazing. He always knew who the customers were and whether they had 20 cents or $20 million, they were a big deal.”
“People said Benny had no marketing plan, but he had a $1.99 steak and eggs meal,” Nachreiner adds. “There were slot machines on the way to the restaurant. You started at the nickel machines and kept going until you hit the $5 ones right next to the restaurant. By the time you got that $1.99 meal, you often paid $200. And maybe $200 more on the way back. How’s that for marketing?
“Benny said that if you gave your customers enough to eat and enough to drink, you did not have to worry about them. Sometimes his hotel would be full, so he’d get his players a room at the Nugget across the street and they’d come over and play at his place.”
Nachreiner enjoyed the market’s informality. Dealers kept tips. Customers were friends. It was “anything goes,” but the gaming system worked. Nachreiner learned how operators attracted customers in what became a transitional market.
“They were changing the town into a family atmosphere with water parks and everything, but that’s not what old Vegas was created for,” Nachreiner says. “It was a gambling town, it was about revenue. It was about the old-time gamblers who shot craps in the street all their life having a place to play. Those people were diminishing in the years I was there and it was our challenge to replenish that type of customer.
“It was a great time to be in Las Vegas. When you consider all those people I spent time with, I would not trade it for anything.”
The experience serves him to this day. French Lick is becoming known beyond being Larry Bird’s hometown. Gaming anchors a $382 million expansion and restoration. French Lick enjoys 84,000 square feet of gaming space. One of the restored hotels, West Baden, is presumed to sport the largest dome in the world.
For Nachreiner, this move was simply the latest offer he could not refuse. He was never afraid to move around. This is his 22nd different employer and each major move propelled him forward.
“College boy” has prospered.
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