Faces of Gaming: Allie Evangelista – From immigrant hotel housekeeper to a Hard Rock Hotel president

Thursday, March 19, 2026 4:22 PM
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“I always tell people, nobody grows up wanting to be a casino general manager, right?”

Allie Evangelista’s entry into the hospitality and gaming world is as unlikely as it is amazing.

Her unique journey began in Brazil, where she was struck by an urge to travel. Evangalista started out in housekeeping at a hotel in Orlando after a brief stint at Disney on a college program. She progressed through several hotel hospitality jobs and one day was recruited into a slot management position, never having seen a slot machine in her life.

Early in her career, she did it all while overcoming a language barrier speaking limited English and her native Portuguese.

And if you’re wondering how she managed to pull it off, the affable Evangelista will smile and tell you she owes it all to an incredible work ethic, relationships, and her dedication to people.

Allie Evangelista is a four-time casino general manager who was Vice President and General Manager of the Meadows Casino, Washington, PA;  Vice President, and General Manager at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Vally Racecourse, OH; Vice President, and General Manager of Hollywood Casino, Perrysville, MD; and is currently President of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Bristol, Virginia.

A big world
When Allie Evangelista left Brazil, her dream was to see the world.

She said, “That was the dream. I guess not because Brazil is bad, but because the world is so big, and I just wanted more of it.”

Her journey in the United States began as a housekeeping employee in Orlando, and as a college intern for Disney where she began dating her future husband of 26 years, Fabio.

“I sold everything I had, moved to the U.S. with one suitcase and $3,000. I moved in with Fabio’s parents in Orlando, Florida. They made a room out of the office for me and that’s how I ended up here,” Evangelista said.

Tourism
“I was born in Brazil. I’m a daughter of an Italian immigrant family and German immigrant family. When I was 16, before going to college I had the opportunity to learn English in Europe. I went with an exchange program family to learn, and I lived in England for about nine or ten months and went back to Brazil to return to school. I started college in Hospitality and Tourism because I wanted to work at a travel agency.

Housekeeper
After moving to the United States, Evangelista embarked on her career.

‘When I first moved here, I couldn’t work, because you had to wait for your paperwork. I came in as a tourist, so I needed to do everything properly. So, I got married, did my paperwork, and went to work at a hotel in Orlando on International Drive.

“I was a housekeeper at Homewood Suites by Hilton, and I loved it. That was amazing, and my only goal was to work at the front desk. I thought that was glamorous, and eventually I made it there. I started as a housekeeper and I worked my way to an inspector,” Evangelista said.

Housekeeping lessons
I asked Evangelista what lessons she carries from her early days as a hotel housekeeper and what drove her to progress through operations positions at several gaming companies.

“I didn’t take it for granted because I was really happy to have that position, but I didn’t know that it would help me connect with people. Because I think the biggest thing I have going on for me is that I’ve had very humble jobs across my career, and I intend to be inspirational.

“So, if I hire you as my housekeeper today, I want you to be able to see yourself doing whatever it is that you want to do. If housekeeping is your passion, then it’s great. But if you want more, then that’s available to you as well,” Evangelista stated.

Excited about more work
“I learned that I was one of the very few people who wanted more hours, who wanted more rooms to clean, who wanted to come in on my day off. That helped open a lot of doors throughout my career. I didn’t know what overtime was before I came to this country. If I was going to change my life around, I was going to say yes to everything that came my way, whether I liked it or not.

“I was the person who was excited about more work. Let’s put it this way, to this day, I think the lesson is the position you have is important because of the value you put into it. I felt that cleaning a room was very important. I felt that inspecting a room was very important. If you always feel that the job you do has value and if it defines you as a person then you’re going to do it with excellence. I never did a job to get the next job. The next job always came as a result of more output,” she said.

Evangelista moved to Front Office Manager’s position at the Renaissance Worldgate Hotel and Director of Front Office Operations at the Radisson Hotel Orlando. She was working as an Activities Director when she received a call from Ameristar Casinos recruiting her to an Assistant Slot Operations position in Saint Charles, Missouri.

Better than the competition
“In 2006, Ameristar was hiring people outside the gaming industry. They were focused on hiring hospitality folks because they wanted to bring more guest satisfaction and guest experience into the gaming industry. I actually turned down the job because it was too good to be true. ‘Why did these people actually want me to go work for a gaming company?’ I never saw a slot machine in my life. I felt like there was a catch. And my general manager at the time told me, ‘You have to understand, this is life-changing for you. You really need to take the job.’

“The plan was that there was a position created for each property in the effort to build this concept that we’re going to be better than the competition because we’re going to really take care of our regulars. I started as an Assistant Slot Operations Manager without knowing that slots existed. They shipped me to a sister property. I spent some time there learning, then I spent some time learning from team members. But the whole proposition for the job was to be different in the gaming industry because everyone has slot machines and table games. The differentiator is going to be the guest experience,” Evangelista said.

Ameristar and Pinnacle
Evangelista worked for Ameristar for three years and the person who knew nothing about slots acquired the leadership skills and knowledge to become Slot Operations Manager. In 2008, Pinnacle acquired Ameristar and the company decided to merge table games and slots.

“And so I became a Casino Manager for five years at Saint Chales, MO and I actually had to go and learn all about table games at the time. Then I had an opportunity to move to Council Bluffs, Iowa to work as a Director of Gaming,” she said.

During her time in Missouri, she decided to go back to school and earn her MBA from Lindenwood University, and a Master in Human Resources Management degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Evangelista worked her way through positions in gaming operations for Pinnacle in Iowa, where she also acquired the skills and added Human Resources to her title. “The property in Council Bluffs needed help with HR because we lost our director. And I said, ‘I can help our HR manager and can help groom her to become a Director. And our CEO at the time, Anthony Sanfilippo told me mentorship is something we do when we have free time. The truth is nobody has free time. He proceeded to offer me yet another great opportunity and made it official and he gave me the title,” Evangelista recalled.

Evangelista spent nine years with Pinnacle, transferring to the Meadows near Pittsburgh, PA as Vice President of Casino Operations in 2016 and was promoted to Vice President and General Manager in 2017.

Pinnace acquired the Meadows and a few months later the general manager left the company. “The CEO made me General Manager and It was one of those unexpected career turns. I think you’re just in the right place at the right time, and if people believe in you, they give you the opportunity,” Evangelista stated.

People skills
I asked her what she thinks it is about her personality that helped move her through the ranks.

“I think what has helped me along the way is my ability to connect with people. I’m now getting to the point where I’ve been doing this for 20 years and the truth is, I was always the person learning.

“I take pride in knowing my team member names and getting to know a little bit about them, and it’s something I instilled early on. I think that I didn’t realize how important it was. But those I was working for did and they realized there was something special there, and they gave me opportunities when maybe I wasn’t ready for them, because I had this relationship with people and I enjoyed that portion of the business.

After several months as General Manager at the Meadows, Penn National acquired Pinnacle and Evangelista was asked to move to General Manager to Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Racecourse in Ohio.

“I was in Ohio for the two years during Covid, and Penn National acquired the property in Perryville, Maryland. They asked me if I would be interested in going there and onboarding that property into the culture of the company. I moved to Maryland in 2021 and I was there for a few months when a recruiter reached out to me about the opportunity with Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Bristol, Virginia, where I am now,” she said.

Changing lives
Evangelista continued her American trajectory when Hard Rock International announced her appointment as President of Virginia’s first operating casino, the soon-to-open Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Bristol.

Under her guidance, the casino initially opened in a temporary space and transitioned to its permanent resort location in November 2024. The 620,000-square-foot destination offers nearly 1,500 slot machines, more than 50 table games, a sportsbook, a hotel with over 300 rooms, multiple dining venues, and a 2,000-seat entertainment venue.

“I was recruited to apply for this job. I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about, but the attraction to the job was two things, the brand Hard Rock being a brand that I admire. The second thing is the opportunity to open a property from scratch, again, doing something for the first time, not having the experience, the knowledge, and the fact that the company was willing to give me that opportunity was really something I couldn’t pass up.

“I came here knowing that I was going to have to build a team from scratch, all of the executives, all of the team members. We started in a 40-year-old mall that had been shut down for a while. So, I walked in, and I was like, ‘Do we have offices?’ No. So I got a changing room in the men’s section of the department store, put a chair on top of a table, put my laptop there, and that became my office for a little bit.

“The reason why I like this project so much is we are in an area where the people of Virginia voted yes to the casino. They knew that this was going to be an economic boost for the area. So, when your community says ‘yes, we want you here,’ it’s a big plus. The second thing is, after being in all the small towns in the Midwest, I knew it was going to be good for the community, and I wanted to be a part of it.

“I knew that the casinos bring long-lasting, good-paying jobs to the area, an area that has been impacted by the fact that coal mines are not what they used to be. There was really a need to be here. I got to connect with hundreds of people applying for jobs, just like me back when, understanding that this could become their life someday.

“Now we have team members that have been with me since day one, and they are coming up on their fourth-year anniversary. Over the years, I’ve seen how this job has changed their lives, whether it is because they were able to buy a home or change their car, or even, I’ve been told, to be able to go to the county fair. Ninety plus percent of my employees are from this area, and they want to see the area do better. So that has been very rewarding and kind of the driver to do what we’re doing,” Evangelista declared.

The message is always the same
With a continuing rise through the gaming industry and her immigrant experience, I asked Evangelista what she thought helped her through the challenges.

“We do a new-hire orientation every other week. I go into those groups because it’s their first day, and I want them to hear from me, and I want to meet them. And the message is always the same: if I could move as an adult to this country and not speak the language as my main language, the accent I have, not having a social security number – I had to work to get that to be able to actually get work – and I can build this career I have today, with this financially stable life I created for myself; why can’t you, right?

“The beauty of this country is you can be and do anything you want. It really is up to you. And I am generally passionate about what this country offers people, immigrants or not; the opportunity is the same for everyone. As a matter of fact, I think it’s easier if you were born here, but it takes discipline. It takes patience. It’s not overnight.

“I tell people showing up to work with the right attitude may sound trivial.  But one of the biggest challenges companies in hospitality face today is people actually reporting to work on time and wanting to do the work they got hired to do. And how simple is that?” she stated.

Focusing on people
Allie Evangelista credits her remarkable success to her overriding focus on people.

“It’s always one answer: people. I am focused on people. The spreadsheets are important; the projects are important. But the secret to the success of my career is people. I focus on who I hire. It has to be the right person.

“I focus on building relationships with them. They are the ones that make me successful, the people I’m surrounded with. But they are also the ones that keep me up at night. So, it’s both. It’s always people. On a personal level, it’s my husband. Without him, I would not have achieved everything that we have built together. He believed in me when I first moved here, and he believes in me in the same way today,” Evangelista remarked.

Summing it up
Evangelista sums up her remarkable progression from immigrant to General Manager at four gaming properties.

“That’s my message every time. I think great things come when you put in the time and the effort. It’s not by accident. You have to build a life on purpose, just be patient, be disciplined. It doesn’t get better because you make more money or you have a title. It’s just who you are. You get up and you do what you have to do, and eventually the outcome will be the life that you deserve and a life that you built,” Evangelista said.

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