Lead Feature: Agua Caliente
Vegas itself. Do you see that happening for you? We see that and it’s interesting. We certainly understand why they’re doing it because they’re trying to compete for folks that are driving up or flying up from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. They want to give them another option. We certainly believe that it’s important for there to be an awareness of Agua Caliente in those areas. But when they’re advertising
in Las Vegas they’re really focused on the L.A. market. Fortunately for us, we really are set apart from our competition. We offer something quite different. We provide that ultimate guest experience. We’re the only Forbes Four-Star triple winner in the country now. So we have many customers that will opt to drive past our competition and visit us, and we love that. We embrace that and work to expand our marketing in those areas, to build on that and continue to build that customer loyalty. You’ve said you hope to offer sports betting. What is your preferred timeline for that? My preferred timeline would be next week. [laughs] But that’s not the way things work here. We’re hoping that there’s an initiative on the ballot this November and we’re hoping that that’s successful. If it is, as soon as the Legislature here in California can set the guidelines and the regulations for us, we’ll be ready to go. 16
So you have all the infrastructure in place? We’re prepared and we have a wonderful venue for it. The big news is that the infrastructure is much easier to do nowadays. As fast as they can let us do it, we’ll be ready to go. Looking beyond sports betting, what do the Agua Caliente Casinos hope to offer in the future? Ultimately what we want to do is not just provide great customer service but provide the ultimate guest experience, so that we think about going out to dinner and pick a restaurant, we want to be that when they think about their entertainment option because we’re not just a casino. We have entertainment, we have food, we have a resort, so we want that to be what people think of, first and foremost. For us to do that we have to provide them with a phenomenal guest experience every time that they come here.
As a transplanted New Yorker, how are you enjoying the California lifestyle? I refuse to fly back east during the winter months, I can tell you that. [laughs] I’m loving it. The people are great. The weather is phenomenal. Now I see why people come here and do not want to return home.
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