Resorts World Las Vegas COO and CFO Carlos Castro said compliance is the property’s top priority, while telling Nevada gaming regulators that its casino business “is in a recovery mode.”
Resorts World last month named Jennifer Roberts as its chief compliance officer. In March, it was hit with a $10.5 million fine by the Nevada Gaming Commission for allowing people with ties to illegal bookmaking to gamble at the Strip property.
“Creating a culture of compliance across the campus starts with every one of our team members, reinvigorating our trading programs and our message on see something say something, and providing an ethics hotline to report activity anonymously and efficiently to get to Jennifer’s team for review and investigation,” Castro said.
Castro said Resorts World “has taken a hit over the last three quarters” and that they’re “looking to rebuild that business,” focusing primarily on slots, which he added has dropped dramatically. A new senior vice president of slot operations starts June 1, Castro said.
“We do see recovery coming in 12 to 18 months as that business ramps up and we become more diligent in our marketing and sales efforts. We’re comfortable and confident that business will return.”
In terms of non-gaming, hotel occupancy, average daily rate, and segmentation are “very strong and our convention business is doing fantastic,” Castro said. The property has about 200,000 square feet of convention space and meeting catering is profitable.
Castro said food and beverage “is doing well,” but there’s a lot of opportunity to grow. That’s one of the reasons they made a leadership change and a new senior vice president of food and beverage, Josef Wagner. He previously worked for MGM Resorts at Bellagio.
In addition, Castro said, “We are having a complete overhaul of our retail operations,” bringing in new executives to help turn around leases and their own retail outlets.
“We’ve also tasked the team to look for cost efficiencies,” Castro said. “The team has done an excellent job of going after areas of inefficient opportunities.”
Castro said they’ve made “strategic adjustments” to the cost structure as a result of the drop in revenue. The goal is that positions that were let go to do that will be brought back.
“We’ve reinvested into those positions that will be driving revenue generation,” Castro said. “It’s just a shift in the business model for the time being as we ramp up and return to stability.”
Castro said they increased the wages of security to be more competitive with the marketplace to ensure staff and customer safety and reduce turnover.
Board Chair Kirk Hendrick was happy to hear that compliance is a top priority for the company. He said bringing back employees is important as well.
“Compliance shouldn’t be a burden, but an understanding that it makes this industry possible and so profitable,” Hendrick said. “We like when companies make that part of their culture.”
Board member George Assad said he’s confident that Resorts World has assembled a “really good team” and a new team and that it’s “moving in the right direction. I have no worries that you’ll bounce back. It’s going to take a little time. You have the right management team marketing strategy in place. It’s a fabulous property and you’ve got Fontainebleau across the street. There may also be some future endeavors at the north end of the Strip as well.”
Assad saw Roberts in the audience and told her not to worry about overruling marketing staff when it comes to catering to players.
Board members Chandeni Sendall said she appreciates the honesty from Resorts World executives about their decline and mentioned that the property has the support of its parent company, Genting Berhad.
