American Casino and Entertainment Properties exploded into the Laughlin market with the $170 million purchase of Harrah’s Flamingo Laughlin resort and subsequent $40 million refurbishment that accompanied the rebranding of the property as the Aquarius Casino Resort. The purchase comes at a time when there is, once again, excitement in Laughlin over a handful of new owner-operators who are willing and able to pour capital into their properties. People like John Lind, senior vice president and general manager at Aquarius, say it’s about time.

Lind has been in the gaming industry since the late ‘70s. Early work as a CPA in Reno saw him auditing some of the state’s largest casinos, and through those audits he met the “movers and shakers” of the industry at the time. After leaving the CPA firm he served as controller of the MGM Grand Reno and the Peppermill Group in Reno. He then moved on to open a riverboat casino in Davenport, Iowa, in 1995. Immediately after that he settled in Laughlin for 11 years and counting.

Lind is now working for ACEP, running the Aquarius, which, after the recent makeover resembles a brand new property more than anything. He recently took the time to speak with Casino Connection Managing Editor Greg Jones at his office in Laughlin.

Casino Connection: What are the different challenges you face operating in Laughlin versus the people operating in Las Vegas?

Lind: If you take a look at a market that has the ability to reinvent itself, and then re-reinvent itself in a matter of anywhere between seven and 10 years, it certainly is Las Vegas. They have the capital, and they recognized in the early- to mid- ‘90s, when they went after families, that they weren’t really hitting the market they were after, which is the adult market. When you get into gaming, it’s adult fun, Las Vegas had to step back and recognize that this is adult entertainment. They were able to reinvent themselves.

The challenge Laughlin has had has been that with everything that has been going on with the growth in Las Vegas, a lot of the companies that are based there that have properties in Laughlin, took a look around right about the time that tribal gaming was announced in southern California and Arizona, and they made the determination that they wanted to spend their capital in Las Vegas rather than Laughlin. So a lot of the Laughlin properties became capital starved. That has certainly caused some challenges for us because even before some of the tribal casinos started operating, those of us who were in the Laughlin market at the time could recognize that we weren’t getting capital and it was getting more difficult to operate in the market. As a result, most of the operators were in a position where the only way they could compete was by reducing prices.

The biggest difference is, more than anything else, capital in Las Vegas has allowed operators to change, while the lack of capital in Laughlin has forced us to compete more in price than anything else.

ACEP has spent $40 million to refurbish and rebrand this property as the Aquarius. How did you select that name, that image, that brand, and what does it mean?

It was a name that basically came out of inspiration, but it was backed up by research. This property is right on the river walk, the Colorado River is right on our back step, and the name Aquarius means water. When testing the name, we found that people thought not only about that connection to water, but that the name also connotes a kind of fun and lucky winning attitude. So we just kept coming back to that name.

What were the changes you made to the property to accompany that new brand?

Our goal is to be the best property in Laughlin, and in order to do that we had to take a property that had been a little capital starved and reinvest in it. Our decision was to start right at the curb outside. We put a beautiful new marquee sign right out front in the form of a wave. And then we have beautiful bull-nose sign above the porte cochere that carry the colors and movement of the sign and then, when you come through the doors you realize that really a lot has been done, because the lobby has been completely refurbished. What we did is we went through and we expanded it so when you walk in there is a feeling that you have arrived. It’s really the only grand hotel lobby in all of Laughlin.

We put in a high-limit area with some very good product. We have 1,000 new slot machines that are all tied in to ticket in/ticket out. We have a new center bar and a beautiful VIP lounge which has a great view of the river.

When we took over in mid-May 2006, we wanted to get the engine going, so we focused on the casino floor and entertainment. This year, we’re beginning to renovate our 1,900 rooms.

How have your customers and team members responded to the change?

It’s funny, for those of us who have been through changes like this in the past, we’ve encountered some people who are opposed to change; people who just dig in their feet and fight change. But this group here has really embraced it. We did everything that we said we would do as the new owner. We met with team members and told them the timelines for the changes we would be making, we met those timelines and I think for the most part it’s been a very positive experience for all of the team members.

And our guests just love it.

Tell us about your entertainment venues.

We have three distinct entertainment venues here, the largest being our outdoor amphitheater where we seat 3,300 people. That’s where we have ZZ Top, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and groups like that. Internally we have the Aquarius Pavilion that will seat almost 2,000 people for concerts and of course, the cabaret which seats about 300 people indoors and accommodates an additional 100 on the patio. Entertainment is really huge for this property. This property was known for many years for bringing in the best entertainment and we are going to continue in that tradition.

There have been some new entries into the Laughlin market recently. Landry’s Restaurants now owns the Golden Nugget. MGM Mirage sold its Colorado Belle and Edgewater casinos to a company controlled by Anthony Marnell III, Columbia Sussex has acquired the Ramada Express and River Palms casinos, and of course, ACEP with this property. What do you feel about the current state of the market place and where do you see it heading?

For those of us who have been in this market for a number of years as I have, it was pretty easy to recognize that as a market we weren’t going in the right direction and we’ve mentioned capital a number of times.

But you have to go back to why people who have a tribal casino in their back yard would come to Laughlin in the first place, and I think it’s this critical mass of casinos. You take a look at how big the southern California or Phoenix markets are to us, people still come over here even though they can go to a tribal casino. It’s the critical mass. They can park and walk up and down the river walk and enjoy Laughlin. As we became capital starved as a market, we started seeing visitation go down, and then we had to lower our prices then we got a different kind of client, I call it the Laughlin spiral. Well, that Laughlin spiral has already reversed itself in a huge way.

Every single one of the buyers has deep pockets and is willing to spend. Those of us who have been here for a while are applauding this, saying finally, we’re going to get a number of groups in here that are willing to reinvest, and take the market way up above the heyday of Laughlin, the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I don’t think people can even envision right now what’s going to happen to Laughlin. The people who are coming in here and investing in properties right now are doing so because they want to be here. These are properties that will not take back seat to sister-properties and that’s the best news for this market.

By Greg Jones

Greg Jones is managing editor of Casino Connection Nevada, as well as associate editor of Global Gaming Business magazine.

Please login to post your comments.