Faces of Gaming: Adam Wiesberg – A journey from sign salesman to dealer to El Cortez GM

Saturday, December 7, 2024 11:22 AM
  • Commercial Casinos
  • Tom Osiecki — CDC Gaming and Raving Partner

When Adam Wiesberg goes to work every day, he finds himself in charge of a casino that is also a living, breathing gaming national treasure. As General Manager of the El Cortez Hotel and Casino, Wiesberg is responsible for an 83-year-old property competing with modern behemoths.

For Wiesberg, the journey to El Cortez General Manager began at a small, struggling sign company in Oregon.

Vintage Vegas
At 83 years old, The El Cortez Hotel & Casino is the longest continuously running hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Opened in 1941, it was so successful that it attracted the attention of Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum and Moe Sedway, who purchased it in 1945. In 1963, Jackie Gaughan purchased the El Cortez, and it has been run as a family business ever since. It was purchased in 1975 by Kenny Epstein and then bought by IKE Gaming in 2008 with Kenny Epstein as CEO.

The El Cortez is an icon of classic Vegas and plays a huge part in the vintage downtown experience.

Culture within these walls
Adam Wiesberg relates that the mystique of the El Cortez goes well beyond the building.

“Every property has its assets and its strengths. What El Cortez has is our history, our past and our authenticity, and that is something you cannot replicate. You could not build a property and make it El Cortez no matter how much money you invested.

“Over the years, El Cortez has not redeveloped itself with trends like a lot of properties. El Cortez is rooted in its historic past thanks to Jackie Gaughan, and Kenny Epstein, who really focused on the operation and the guest experience.

“It is the building, of course, but it’s really the guts of the building and the people inside the building. And it’s Kenny Epstein, who’s still at the helm of this operation. It’s what keeps the history alive, and that’s why it’s so powerful. It’s not just a place, it’s a culture within these walls,” Wiesberg said.

Authentic
“When you walk into El Cortez, you feel like you’re stepping into a home, because people are going to make eye contact with you. Our employees are passionate about the property. The feeling you get when you walk in here is different than any other place, especially if you sit down and interact with our employees.

“There’s a different energy here that you can feel, but the keyword is authenticity. We want the property to be authentic, and for your experience here to be authentic,” Wiesberg related.

Roundabout way
Wiesberg explains that the casino industry was interesting to him, but his early days in California were focused on real estate.

“My grandfather was a developer in Southern California and my father was a real estate broker and owner. My family also owned a shopping center in Oregon City, Oregon, right outside of Portland. I ended up going to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Right out of college, I started managing a shopping center that my family owned.

“In that shopping center was a small sign company called Digital Sports Graphics that was doing printing for golf tournaments, charity events and local businesses. It was struggling, and it was a tenant of ours.

“My father was a golfer, and he was very interested in this golf sign business. He started investing money, trying to keep it afloat. And it wasn’t going well. He asked me to step in and try to help turn this company around. Coincidentally, I had a trip to Vegas planned.

“I landed in Las Vegas, and from the time I got off the plane, there’s signage everywhere; backlit signs, posters and everything was printed. I quickly realized that if we were going to give this company its best shot, it would be traveling to Las Vegas and trying to sell casinos. It was sort of a roundabout way of getting into the gaming business,” Wiesberg recalled.

Cold calling
Wiesberg was cold calling Las Vegas casinos for his sign company when he was invited to a meeting at the Union Plaza with Jackie Gaughan, Mike Nolan, and Kenny Epstein. “At the time, I was 27 years old. This is like 1999, and I walk into this casino, up the stairs, into this boardroom. I remember being in awe of the entire situation,” Wiesberg said.

“I was doing business in most of the casinos in town, and I was sitting in on the weekly marketing meetings at the Plaza. At the time, Kenny and team and Jackie owned the Plaza, Vegas Club, Gold Spike, El Cortez and the Western and they were operating all of them from the Plaza.

“That was my break in with them. I started working with them in marketing, and I would sit in on their meetings and take orders for signage and printing, and then start to give some input. I had a pretty significant role back then with them as a vendor and a friend,” said Wiesberg.

After a few years, Wiesberg broke away from the sign company and was semi-retired in real estate. In 2014, Jackie Gaughan passed away and Wiesberg decided to attend the funeral. He rekindled his friendship with Kenny Epstein, Mike Noland, and Joe Woody and decided to ask for a position. He went to dinner with the group and was offered a job starting that Monday,

Starting on the front lines
“I thought I’m going to be a marketing director, or marketing manager, or some sort of position like that. But I show up and the casino manager hands me a stack of chips and a deck of cards. He showed me how to strip shuffle a deck of cards, and how to cut checks to pay people. He sets me up at a blackjack table where I practiced dealing out of a shoe for a little while and sends me home to practice on an ironing board.

“After a couple of days at home practicing, my wife was like, ‘You’re going to go be a dealer?’ They told me ‘You really want to start on the front lines.’

“It is the starting point for everyone, and it’s one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. Because that frontline experience handling money and dealing with customers is something you can’t learn at the most prestigious university. Starting at the bottom as a dealer benefits me to this day,” Wiesberg stated.

“You’re wasting him in the pit”
“An interesting little part of this story is I was a shift manager working on a dice table one night, and Jeffrey Compton of CDC Gaming walks by. I had known him because he was a consultant at El Cortez for many years, and he was a consultant back in the Plaza days.

“He sees me at this dice table, and says, ‘Why are you in the pit? Why aren’t you in marketing here?’

“Jeffrey talked to Kenny and said, ‘Look you got this guy down here. You’re wasting him in the pit’. So, they promoted me to Marketing Director, which was a pretty short run because once I got into marketing, I started looking at all areas of the casino where there was so much low hanging fruit.

“I’m not one to stay in my lane, you know? If there is something that needs to be fixed, it doesn’t matter where it is I’m going to try to fix it myself. I was quickly promoted from Marketing Director to Assistant General Manager and then General Manager pretty quickly as well,” Wiesberg related.

National Registry of Historic Places
Updating an authentic vintage property on the National Registry of Historic Places in Las Vegas requires a special touch. Wiesberg relates that Kenny Epstein and the owners are dedicated to keeping the El Cortez Hotel & Casino’s old Vegas vibe while improving the property with $50 million in recent updates.

Starting with updating the rooms in the 200-room tower a few years ago, Wiesberg said the next move was to redo the original 47 rooms in the building at Sixth and Fremont with a Havana, Cuba theme.

“The mob owned El Cortez in 1945 for about a year as they trained their crew to open the Flamingo. They also were involved in a lot of casinos in Havana, Cuba, so it’s sort of an homage to them,” Wiesberg explained.

“We are currently in the middle of the most exciting remodel expansion, which is 10,000 square feet of new space taking over a decommissioned kitchen and a small event space. That is going to add 10,000 square feet, approximately 200 new slot machines, and a very nice high limit slot area with about 50 games. We are adding in a new Chinese restaurant called Hot Noods, a show bar with a giant video screen and a stage for live entertainment, and a roulette bar where the ceiling of the bar is like a giant roulette wheel.

“We’ve also opened some windows out to Fremont Street and created a whole new entryway from Fremont Street where all the traffic is. It’s a huge upgrade to the property, and that’s going to be done January 2025 approximately,” Wiesberg stated.

Every decision
I asked Wiesberg what it was like working for one of the few remaining family-owned casinos in Las Vegas. His answer boils down to working for Kenny Epstein.

“Here is an 83-year-old man who is the same age as El Cortez, coincidentally, and he is still as sharp as a tack. He broke in at Caesar’s Palace in 1965. He worked with Jackie Gaughan as his right-hand man and partner for many years. He owned and has been a partner in different properties in the Coast organization, you know, Barbary Coast, and yet he’s still involved in every decision here. I talk to Kenny many times a day. I cannot even explain or put into words how grateful I am to work for him. It is like nothing else in the world,” Wiesberg declared.

Location, location
“We have a great advantage here at El Cortez. We are a very successful property, but I have to give credit to Las Vegas and Fremont Street. Last I checked, the Fremont Street Experience had over 20 million visitors a year, and we’re a block away from that. The goal of El Cortez is to get as many of those 20 million people to cross Las Vegas Boulevard and walk the one block to El Cortez,” Wiesberg stated.

Aging younger
El Cortez has seen a shift in demographics recently away from Baby Boomers and locals and towards a younger audience and tourists. I asked Wiesberg how they accomplished the shift. One of the unique aspects of El Cortez is their section of coin operated slots.

“We are a living museum, in a sense. And our locals, who have been coming forever, are playing the coin machines. We have a whole section of coin poker machines with great pay tables from the 80s and 90s that we maintain at an extreme cost to the company, because that room is full all day, every day.

“I think younger people like the fact that we are not a big corporation. They like the fact that we’re family owned by a man who’s on the floor six days a week. I mean, you are pretty likely to see Kenny on the floor talking to people if you come here for any amount of time. People like that.

“People now, more than ever, are interested in experiences, more than items, right? It seems like the younger generation, especially, want a great experience. I would say our reputation speaks for itself,” Wiesberg said.

Entertainment District
“We are spoiled, because not only are we on Fremont Street, a block from the Fremont Street Experience, we are in the heart of the Fremont East entertainment district, which has the hottest nightclubs and eateries and hangouts for young people in Las Vegas.

“The younger, local millennials in Las Vegas hang out at Fremont East at these clubs, right outside our door. They come to our bars, they park in our parking structures, and they park on our surface lots. They come into our bars and pregame and then they come back in after the clubs and drink and gamble and hang out. We are very fortunate to have them,” Wiesberg said.

Influencing the Influencers
El Cortez has the reputation as one of the earliest casinos to allow influencers to stream live from their casino. Wiesberg said that that reputation did not come easily.

“In 2017, we allowed our first live stream from a blackjack table if you can imagine that. It seems pretty normal now, but when I first approved the filming in 2017, I was getting calls from operator friends. They were like, ‘This girl is live streaming from your table. You need to run out there and stop her.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m right here. I’m at the table. It’s all going to be fine. Don’t worry about it.’

“I owe much of my success to Kenny Epstein because he taught me everything I know about gaming and hospitality. When I brought that idea upstairs, we were already working with some filming. I started getting responses that were pretty good. When I went upstairs and mentioned it, I thought he was going to say, ‘Absolutely not.’ And he said,’ Let’s give it a shot.’

“We checked with the legality of it, and any sort of risk, and I’m extremely hands-on. I’m right there the entire time. I was, of course, a nervous wreck the first time. Is the dealer going to make a mistake? Is there going to be a missed payment? Is someone going to say something inappropriate?

“We were definitely the first. Social media is funny because it is an actual magnifying glass into everything that is happening, good and bad. You have to be really comfortable with people seeing your imperfections. It is great when it works perfectly, but a lot of people are still reluctant to embrace it because it is not all just the good winning celebrations that are coming out of those videos. You have to be willing to show the whole picture,” Wiesberg commented.

Core group
“We have our core, maybe five or six really big influencers we work with. When it comes to slot filming, that is pretty easy. We do have guidelines for how to film slots if you want to come capture your slot play. We are fairly open to that, as long as you’re just capturing the face of your game and you’re not capturing anyone else in the background.

“And of course, no disparaging comments, nothing political and nothing offensive. We set those guidelines. When it comes to table games, that is still very limited, and its only certain people that we have approved and that we’re very close with,” Wiesberg said.

Work ethic
I asked Wiesberg what he thought makes him successful in the casino industry.

“It’s my work ethic and my passion about this property. I have this tremendous drive, and it is so much more than a job. It is my ability to impact the culture of El Cortez.

“Because of how much El Cortez means to Americana, Las Vegas, and gaming history; it gives me a great sense of pride and drive. I am extremely hands on as a manager. I love to be on the floor.

“I have to give all the credit in the world to Kenny Epstein, because he taught me everything I know. He taught me how to have pride in the property and how to put the guests first. The guest experience and the reputation of the property comes first over everything else,” Wiesberg said.

Authentic culture
Wiesberg will tell you the success of El Cortez Hotel and Casino is its amazing old school Vegas vibe, a fantastic location and a dedication to guest experience and authenticity.

The mystique of the El Cortez depends on the guidance of Adam Wiesberg and Kenny Epstein. Both realize that El Cortez is not only a building, but an experience based on commitment to a culture.

Entries in the Faces of Gaming series:

Tom Osiecki is a casino consultant who writes an occasional column for CDC Gaming called Faces of Gaming, about interesting and engaging people in the gaming industry.

Tom Osiecki is a marketing and management consultant for Raving Consulting and can be reached for consulting engagements at 775-329-7864.

If you know of a fascinating personality in the gaming industry you would like to see profiled, please send Tom Osiecki an email at tosiecki@cdcgaming.com