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2018
25 People to Watch
Building Relationships Jennifer Weissman Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Penn National Gaming n an era when job-hopping is the norm, Jennifer Weissman is sometimes asked how she has logged almost 20 years in the gaming industry. Her answer: It’s always changing, always challenging, and much too interesting to quit—even when the going gets tough. Take her tenure as regional vice president of marketing for Caesars Atlantic City, from 2008 to 2012. In the midst and aftermath of the Great Recession, Weissman and her team continued to generate headlines with events like OUT in AC, a citywide party for the LGBT community; the Food Network Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival; and the star-studded premiere of the famed HBO series Boardwalk Empire. “You start with the customer,” says Weissman, who joined Penn National Gaming as senior vice president and chief marketing officer in 2015. “We did research to find out what they were looking for that we weren’t already offering, or experiences they were having when they weren’t choosing to visit us, then deciding which ones would make sense in a casino. When we knew we could deliver something forwardthinking and on trend, it afforded us an opportunity to talk to (potential) customers and customers that already loved Atlantic City and gambling.” With new technologies, there are more ways than ever to reach customers. Sorting out the options can be a big task. “It’s up to someone in my role to ask, what are you trying to get from that technology? Can you can do it with something you already have? Is it going to be additive or a distraction? There are parameters you can use to score whether or not it’s worthwhile.” Meanwhile, she says, the “core tenets of marketing” remain the same. “It all comes down to reaching the customer and creating the best relationship with them. And the customers will tell you how they want to have a dialogue with you.” A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Weissman studied journalism and public relations at the University of Maryland, and launched her career in gaming at the Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. Among her early mentors was Director of Marketing Kathy Hickman, now marketing vice president at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in California. “She gave me enough leeway to figure out the job and enough mentorship to keep me rowing in the right direction,” says Weissman. In Atlantic City, former Caesars executive Carlos Tolosa was “a very positive role model and huge advocate.” Penn National has been much in the news as the Wyomissing, Pennsylvaniabased firm considers the acquisition of rival Pinnacle Entertainment. Weissman is mum on the issue, and remains focused on Penn National’s current portfolio: 34 casinos, racetracks and off-track wagering facilities across the U.S. She says her job is to “take very complicated issues and boil them down into something simple and actionable. You need the ability to focus on things that matter and limit the noise of things that don’t. To do that, you have to be very analytical and be a bit of a risk taker.” First, last and always, she says, “Build that relationship with the customer.” —Marjorie Preston
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Global Gaming Business JANUARY 2018
The Year of AGS Andrew Burke Senior Vice President of Slot Products, AGS nyone unfamiliar with Las Vegas-based slot manufacturer AGS could get the impression the company is still brand-new. It’s not. Originally American Gaming Systems, the company was founded in 1996 as a supplier to Class II casinos in Oklahoma and elsewhere. But it has been during the past four years that AGS has emerged as one of the top suppliers in the Class III slot market—a process started in 2010 by then-CEO and former Bally Chairman Bob Miodunski, and completely transformed by the 2013 arrival of David Lopez as the new CEO. Through acquisitions and development, Lopez has transformed AGS into a full-service supplier of slots, table games and interactive technology, to a market that is still expanding. After acquisitions including Las Vegas-based Colossal Gaming and Georgia-based Cadillac Jack, and the creation from scratch of a now-thriving table-game business and the new interactive division, AGS bears little resemblance to the small Class II supplier it once was. No one knows this better than Andrew Burke. Burke, who is senior vice president of slot products for AGS, has been along for the company’s entire transformation, having joined the company in 2008. His slot division has led the company into the elite of the Class III market, and that ride is far from finished. Technology from the former Cadillac Jack formed the basis of what is now the company’s core video slot platform, but it is what Burke’s division has done with that platform that is turning heads among operators, first with the workhorse ICON cabinet and, last year, with the breakthrough marquee-style Orion cabinet, with its lighting that connects machines into banks that are themselves works of art. Next year, the form factors continue with the introduction of the Orion Slant, completing the possibilities of the operator-favorite cabinet. “Everything is easy when you have really great products, and our development team has just done a fantastic job with Orion,” Burke says. “To add to the success of that series, we will launch the Orion Slant in 2018. We’ve got a lot of pent-up demand for that product.” Content for the Orion Slant and other cabinets will continue to pour out of the company’s development team, and for next year, that
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