Cannery Casino Resorts continues to surprise industry observers. The company opens properties in unfortunate times—it has now opened three casinos in less-than-stellar economic environments—and, at least with its North Las Vegas casino, confounded many with the location.

And yet the company continues to enjoy success. After opening Eastside Cannery on Boulder Highway last summer, company co-founders and principals Bill Wortman and Bill Paulos focused on the Meadows racino in Pennsylvania, as well as finalizing a deal to be acquired by James Packer’s Crown Ltd.

The Pennsylvania property enjoyed a successful opening last month, but the deal with Packer fell through. Wortman recently spoke with Global Gaming Business Editor Frank Legato about the Crown deal, the Meadows racino and the future of Cannery Casino Resorts.

Casino Connection: What does the opening of the permanent casino at the Meadows mean for Cannery Casino Resorts?

Wortman: This is a tremendous event for us. We’re very, very proud of this product. At the end of the day, this is as big as anything we’ve done under the Cannery brand. We’re extremely proud of it. It’s our flagship, if you will.

You’ve followed the Cannery M.O. of bringing in a quality project at relatively low cost, have you not?

What we try to do is get value for what we build. The fact is we built this at a very moderate price, but when you look around, everyone that comes in here shakes their head and says, ‘How did you build this property for that price?’ Anyone who knows anything about the construction business says that.

It was the same with Eastside Cannery. How in the world, when you look at all the other projects being built and the numbers, most shake their heads. We believe we get real value.

Are you concerned about opening another new property in this economy?

The truth is, we’ve opened two products in this economy now, and we’re not concerned at all. Eastside is doing fine, and we expect this to do extremely well in this marketplace. No, we’re not concerned, and we know things are going to get better from a general economic standpoint. We don’t know when, but we know that’s going to happen, because we’re America. We know that’s going to happen. And we have a top-flight product ready when it does.

What do you feel is the strongest feature of this new Meadows property?

I think this is the best racino facility in America. This is a spectacular facility. It presents to our customers something they have not seen before. The comments we got on opening day with our test session were extraordinary. I think what we’ve done is we’ve over-delivered, and in so doing, we have positioned ourselves well into the future.

As I said, I think this facility is just terrific, and it gives so many different entertainment options; it puts us into the dominant position in this entire marketplace.

This is a really good gaming market in Western Pennsylvania, isn’t it?

It’s a great gaming market in this area. It certainly is.

Let’s talk a bit about the Crown Ltd. situation, which began as an acquisition and ended with a substantial equity investment in Cannery Casino Resorts. Are your employees satisfied, and are you satisfied, with how the Crown deal ended up?

Yes, we are. The general comment from our employees is that they’re glad “the Bills” are still going to be here, and continue on with CCR. From our perspective, we’re very, very pleased with the way it’s happened. This is something we have put our life and soul into. And it’s always hard to let that go. You always have mixed feelings about those kinds of things. Now, we know our direction and we’re very pleased with that.

Do you anticipate Crown eventually exercising their option to acquire Cannery Casino Resorts?

That’s hard to say. I don’t know whether they will or will not. I do know that from our perspective, we are going to look at opportunities over the next couple of years, and continue to grow our brand.

By Frank Legato

Frank Legato is editor of Casino Connection and also senior editor of Global Gaming Business magazine. He has been writing on gaming topics since 1984, when he launched and served as editor of Casino Gaming magazine. Legato, a nationally recognized expert on slot machines, has served as editor and reporter for a variety of gaming publications, including Public Gaming, IGWB, Casino Journal, Casino Player, Strictly Slots and Atlantic City Insider. He has an B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in communications from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. He is the author of the recently published book on gaming, How To Win Millions Playing Slot Machines... Or Lose Trying.