Vol. 4, No.9, September 2008
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Cashing in on Vegas
Jeff Dahl | Founder, Jay Daniel | Dahl’s experience led to formation of consulting company
Now it’s time to be a guru. Dahl recently opened Jay Daniel, a management consulting company based in Texas and Louisiana. The company looks to help clients develop casinos, complete projects or improve the performance of their financial holdings.
Dahl’s partner, Daniel Davila, is a former Wall Street gaming analyst. Together, Dahl and Davila ran the Torguson Group, a development company based in Mississippi, until beginning their new partnership last month.
Dahl brings more than 30 years experience to the business, much of it in Las Vegas.
“I went to Southern California as a teenager, and when I ran out of money, it was time to come back to Vegas,” he laughed. “Then it was time to get serious.”
He did. Dahl attended UNLV, obtained a business administration degree and gained his casino legs by auditing gaming properties.
“It was mostly doing their annual audit required by the gaming commission,” he said. “At first it was what someone else might consider mundane—setting up internal controls, evaluating internal controls, looking at and evaluating financial systems. Yet for a young guy getting exposure to senior management and seeing the industry through their eyes, it was a great place to learn the nuts and bolts of the business.”
Nuts and bolts did not have to be dull, however. He drew some interesting assignments because some Las Vegas properties thought outside the box. Or inside the glass.
“There was some excitement too,” Dahl said. “Bob Stupak had this deal where a customer could get his picture taken with $1 million, which was in plexiglass. My job was to verify there really was $1 million in the plexiglass case. Seeing all that money was pretty exciting.”
Stupak was a wild entrepreneur who later won a widely publicized $1 million Super Bowl bet. It was the freewheeling philosophy of people like Stupak that helped Dahl intersect gaming’s worldwide boom. He became the bean-counting equivalent of an international host.
“We did a lot of the work for the Dunes, which had international customers,” Dahl said. “One of my roles as auditor was to go to Mexico, verify when the peso was de-valued, examine reports, etc. It was always fun and interesting to do the international travel.”
Dahl’s customers were linked more to currencies than comps. The fluctuating markets affected how many dollars international players could expect when they came here. It was important for properties to know the rates of exchange, both for their protection and a source of enticement. A casino could provide a better deal than what a player could obtain back home, or even wrap it into a trip package.
The Wynn-ing Hand
Dahl left his position as an auditor and joined Steve Wynn for the inside view. Five years at the Golden Nugget and Mirage produced a wealth of education. They also provided the springboard for his role of operator.
“It was a fascinating, interesting point of my career,” he said. “Steve Wynn was always one of the greats. He looked out for the right product, invested in the right product, spent the right time putting the system in place, and he’d make sure that every last detail was right. I began assuming some administrative functions. That meant flying to Taipei, spending a week in Hong Kong, meeting with auditors over there and making sure the collections were going to the bank.
“Mirage created business that nobody had ever seen before. The volumes being created and the complexity attached to them were tremendous.”
Wynn had launched a Las Vegas renaissance. Mirage re-defined the Strip, launching an expansion boom that later brought New York-New York, Excalibur and Luxor, for starters. Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran helped baptize the property from a special-events standpoint with their third fight.
Slowly, subtly, Dahl made the crossover from bean counter to casino executive. The financial background proved invaluable when he sought to predict the return of a company’s investment.
“Before a fight, we would have estimates of what we could generate, and then afterward, we would have the privilege of evaluating the results and seeing how we did,” Dahl said. “This allowed the marketing guys to make better decisions going forward. As I moved on to making financial decisions, it helped to know that I understood the process. I understood what went into generating that piece of paper and what flowed up into that piece of paper. I was grateful, after reaching a position like a company president, that I knew how the numbers were generated. It was a substantial building block for me.”
Dahl’s ties with Wynn never weakened. He made a significant career move to Mississippi. A stint as the regional CFO at the Grand Casino in Gulfport followed. Then he became president of the Treasure Bay casino in Biloxi, and ran Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Ultimately, Wynn asked him to be president of the Beau Rivage, and it became Dahl's proudest achievement.
“When I went there, it had gotten some negative press; in fact, the whole Mirage company had been hammered a little bit,” Dahl said. “The company had been a slow opening at Beau Rivage; there were statements made that it would not match up with what Mr. Wynn had envisioned and that it was not a great market. The feeling was that the employees would not be good enough, they would not measure up to the great building they had been given.
“Within 18 months, we were doing well financially and gotten all sorts of rewards. Condé Nast (the world’s premier travel magazine) made us one of the top five places to visit in the country. The great thing is we did it with 95 percent of the same people. It was the same people, the same job, but a completely different attitude. It was positive. We believed that we could deliver first class service and we did. That turnaround really occurred. I would like to think I played a good part in that.”
As the president, he would be right.
Dahl has enjoyed an interesting journey. At one point, more than 5,500 employees reported to him. Now, as a 30-year gaming veteran, he offers some insights into success.
Lessons Learned
• Understanding the financial world is more important than ever. Entrepreneurs and employees need to know where information flows through and how people make decisions.
• Become more open-minded as a career progresses. “As we get older, we may have to realize that some stuff we had opinions of early on, might be a little off base now,” Dahl said. “If you evaluate how decisions are being made and you may not like something, don’t be afraid to change it.”
• Listen and learn. Understanding the ups and downs of others will enable you to emulate success, but not repeat failure.
• Don’t forget the intangibles. One night in freezing Minnesota weather prompted Dahl to decline a job offer there and head to Mississippi.
• Customer service comes from the heart. “You can’t fake enthusiasm,” Dahl said.
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