January 14, 2025 • 43 mins
On episode four of the third season of the Between Bites podcast, Nina Compton and Larry Miller sit down with Samir Mowad, General Manager of Caesars New Orleans.
Samir shares his journey from growing up in New Orleans to overseeing the transformation of Harrah’s into Caesars. He reflects on his childhood memories of the French Quarter and Saints and LSU games, highlighting his deep personal connection to the city.
Samir takes us behind the scenes of the massive Caesars renovation, discussing the challenges of rebranding, managing guest experiences during construction, and adapting to the post-pandemic hospitality landscape. He also dives into the impact of legalized sports betting, the Caesars Superdome partnership, and the excitement surrounding the casino’s new luxury hotel with its stunning views of Canal Street and the Mississippi River.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Big, big, big way, and welcome to another edition of
Between Bites with Nina Compton and Larry Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
We are joined today by one of the more fascinating
members of our community, Samir mo Ed, general manager of
Caesar's New Orleans and all that that entails. Welcome Samir,
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Larry. Uh great to be here, A big fan of
what y'all have been doing on this platform, and UH
surprised and excited.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Invited we've been We've been collecting questions in our mind
for answers we wanted specifically from you for the last
four years that we've known you personally.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You were.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Throughout your reign of the blocks and blocks that you
look over. You were nice enough a couple of years
ago to or before the pandemic actually to invite us
to be part of the renovation of Eras into Caesar's
the and put our concept, Nina's Creole Cottage in the
food hall. So we've known you since then. It's been
(01:19):
a lot of fun, and we just wanted to get
to know you talk about growing up in New Orleans
and what the city means to you, and and where
we're at now and what you're looking forward to in.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
The future sounds great. It's it's been awesome, you know.
As y'all know, I joined Caesars years ago and then
was away for a while and got to come home
about four years ago. With Just to make sure I'm
giving credit where credits due, Dan Reel and Ryan McCabe
were the original guys that had the vision to speak
(01:52):
with y'all and bring y'all in. Certainly as a local
who my family was still here. I'd come home all
the time, had had been in and knew Compare specifically,
and was a fan coming down here with the family
on holidays and things like that. So it's just another
example whereas I got to come home and get even
more intimately involved with with folks like you all, with
(02:16):
the Saints and the Caesar Superdome, just all these ties
where for a local kid growing up, and we were
just saying it, I don't take myself too seriously. It's
kind of amazing some of the things that I've gotten
to do.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
So tell us about your childhood growing up in yours.
What is that your fondest memory for our listeners?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Wow? So for me, so when I was I was
born here and then my dad, which my dad had
emigrated here from Syria and then went through a lot
of education, and when I was one, we moved to
Chicago so he could go to medical school. And then
when we moved back when he was done with in
his residency, when I was almost six, and so, so
(03:05):
what I really remember is is I have vague memories
of coming home and staying with my grandparents for literally
weeks to the point of his young young kid, You're like,
am I ever going back to see my family? When
I was here for you know, a month during the summer.
But it was about walking with my grandfather down to
(03:26):
you know, originally they had a small neighborhood grocery store
in Gentilly and then they ended up moving a metai
and uh and then even that walking a door knacs
with him. He liked to walk everywhere, and uh, that's
what it was about. It was about family, it was
about food. It was I can remember being brought down
to the French Quarter on on holidays and you know,
(03:49):
would go walk Bourbon Street and you're trying to back
then there were a lot of different kind of businesses
on the street.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I was going to say that lifeless, no doubt, you're a.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Ten year old boy trying trying to peek into Big
Daddy's on Bourbon Street. So those are the kind of
memories I have. I can remember coming down it. It
wasn't the Roosevelt at the time, what was the whatever
the what is now the Roosevelt. They still had the
lights when I was a kid, and so we would
(04:21):
go down there and see that. It was all of
those things. Even celebration in the Oaks, while now is
on a whole other scale that existed when I was
a kid, in a much more scaled down version, but
it was super exciting. Yeah, there was no walking tour
back then. You simply got in the car and drove through.
And so it's just all those kinds of things. And
(04:44):
you know, another one, my dad was a huge even
though he was born overseas, he was a huge football fan,
and so we would go to He had LSU and
Saints tickets, and if I came home on a Friday
from Christian Brothers or Jesuit and I knocked out all
my homework, I'd get to go to one or both
games with him. And uh so it's it's all those
(05:07):
kinds of things that really, uh you know, speak to me,
and in some way, even though I was chasing my career,
I always yearned or or believed that my wife and
I who she's also from this area from uh. We've
been married since before I started with the casino twenty
years now, and so, uh so we always kind of
(05:27):
thought we might make it back home.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
That's neat.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And how did you guys meet?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's an even better story. We were both bartending at
the Bourbon Street Blues Company on Bourbon Street and I
think it's now American Bandstand or something like that, but uh,
it was called BBC, and uh I was bartending, I
think originally when I started, she was a shotgirl and uh,
(05:53):
and we met and I was there kind of I
was kind of between I used to I used to
bartend and then manage all these sort of more locals
nightclubs in the city. The Metro is a place a
lot of people know. But they were both the places
I was working were renovating one summer, and so I
just wanted to stay busy, and because everybody would renovate
(06:14):
when it was slow during the summer, right, And so
through a friend, I got a job bartending there and
she's working there and I asked her out when we
were when I worked there, and she said, no, I
don't date co workers and that, and I said, what
are you talking about? This is Bourbon Street. Everybody's sleeping
with everybody. But but she she rebuffed me. But then
(06:38):
once my place is opened back up, I ended up
moving on and we stayed in touch, and she came
and saw me one night at a place where I
was working. As I recall, maybe her her sister or
her friend wasn't twenty one, and so I helped hustle
them in right, and that it's all history from there.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, I love that. It's great, A very surprising story
I would never expect.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah. Well, so two years ago, we're down. We're in
the French Quarter, just walking around with the kids for
French Quarterfest. And it's not very often you can roll
up on whatever it is now what was BBC and
have your two kids stand in the doorway and take
a picture. This is where mom and dad is. God,
(07:26):
how do you like that?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You owe this bar to your exist no doubt, no
doubt coming back to New Orleans to take over the
casino property. As Harris, did you know the renovations were coming?
I'm guessing that ahead of time.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, so there's no question that I knew that we
had because it was all part of us extending our
lease with the state. Originally in ninety nine, the company
had signed a I believe, a twenty five year lease,
and so it was going to expire, and we proactively
went to the date and said, hey, look like we'll
spend the money now, and that way we know if
(08:05):
we extend our lease, we'll be fully invested. And you
know twenty nineteen, I mean in seventeen eighteen and nineteen,
New Orleans was setting records, busiest year, busiest year, busiest year,
and it all made sense, and so we wanted to
be ahead of it, knowing that you know, you put
a license up like this forbid and you're going against
the Venetians and the Winds and the MGMs of the world,
(08:28):
and money gets stupid and suddenly you don't have a
license in the Orleans, right, So that was kind of
so I knew it was coming. What I didn't know
when I moved back home was that because of sports
betting getting legalized in the country and subsequently in Louisiana
(08:49):
and New Orleans, I had no idea that the Supernome
was going to become the Caesar Supernome. And in fact,
the first time I read that that was leaked through
a local journalist and that's the first time I heard that.
And usually I kind of pride myself on, you know,
twenty years in the business and with the company, I
usually hear stuff, and I did not hear that one,
(09:11):
and super excited.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, there was a huge grab and fun for the
city and we don't have the same name stadium as
Atlanta anymore, which was another gift.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
That Caesars gave me no doubt, looked and.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Have Mercedes Spence the h when you looked at the
scope of that project and you realize there's going to
be a ton of rebranding. You're taking what was Harris
for a long time and turning it into Caesars.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
What was the challenge mentally there, either with the existing
staff or with your the guests who were regulars at
the casino.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I mean, I think it was more guests related. I
think our staff over the years has just become used
to the challenges that you face when you're operating in
the city of New Orleans. Thing. I'll give you a
great example I was home briefly once in twenty fifteen
for eleven months as the assistant general manager, and that
was when the sinkhole opened up on Canal Street and
(10:11):
so I get a call, you know, I think it
was during the day, but they're like, yeah, the street collapse,
and I'm like, what do you mean the street collapse?
And not only did it collapse where it collapsed A
lot of people don't know this, but we have two
really big basement levels below our building, probably one of
the only basements in Moorlands, I'm sure, and so where
(10:33):
it collapsed was on the very backside of this basement
and you could see straight up to the street. And
so I just used that as one example where you know,
the street was closed for months and you're rewriting traffic
and these are the kind of challenges you learn to overcome.
So the biggest one was with the guests, because the
(10:54):
business was committed to staying open and operating the whole time,
and folks came in and while you know, now they're
raving about it, and luckily it's been so well received
now that we're you know, ninety five percent finished right
now and wrapping up a bunch of stuff. We heard
lots of complaints and frustrations, and so that was keeping
(11:16):
the guests engaged. And then you're coming out of COVID
one minute it's dead, the next minute, the government's flowing
the money into the entire economy, and we're having a
record year because we're making money without spending money, which
is always the best way, right, but very rare in life.
And then kind of dip back down when crime and
(11:38):
other challenges in the city became a problem. And so
it's really just been yet. It was navigating those ups
and downs, particularly with the guests. And for us, it's
a complicated equation because about half of our guests come
from what I'll call locals like sixty miles and in
and the other come from our national guest us that
(12:00):
are as far away from as international and so yeah,
we were slowly refiguring all that out and now we
have the power of the Caesars brand. But that was
the that was the pain point. So what is your.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Most I'm sorry, what is Because people win a lot
of money, Yes, what has been the biggest amount?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I need to know? And so home address, Well, I'm
not getting executive protection, I'm not getting out my home address. Right,
The biggest amount of money I've ever seen somebody win
is six million dollars. Gracious, the biggest amount of money
I've ever seen anybody lose is ten million dollars. What yes, Now,
(12:48):
the most painful loss I've ever experienced as a business
is we had a guy come in one it was
New Year's Eve. This is maybe twenty fifteen, and U
and look, we're I know it's the casino, but we
operate like most businesses, right. We get a salary, but
then based on the profitability of the business versus the
(13:10):
company's expectations, you earn a bonus. And twenty fifteen, the
end of twenty fifteen, we were having a pretty good
year and we were we were up to plan maybe
like a million bucks or something like that. And a
guy came in on New Year's Eve and beat us
for two and so you know, you go from getting
(13:30):
a pretty big check to getting that much of it. Yeah, yeah,
and you can't get it back, right, Like, I'm more
than happy to lose that money on January first, and
I got three hundred and sixty four days to make
it back, But losing it on New Year's Eve is
super painful.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I can imagine.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Do you gamble just casually like it's funny, Like, I mean,
I think the most money I've ever won is maybe
twelve hundred bucks. The most money I've ever lost this
is probably five hundred.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And it felt like the balance of the house. Note
was that five hundred dollars?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh, I mean that's what, right, Like we're feeling the
best gamblers don't sweat the money, right, And I care
about my money, and so I am not the I
am not a gambler at all. And it actually amazes me,
like like if I'm passionate about any gaming, it's I
love poker. I've always loved poker. But even that, you
get in the biggest hands and you play best when
(14:28):
you're only thinking about the cards and not thinking about
the money. And if somebody puts me all in and
I'm up eight hundred bucks, even though I might be
sure I have the best hand, I'd rather go home
with my eight hundred bucks. And that's not a you know,
I'll call myself this. That's a loser's mentality. So I
just do it for fun.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, because I hate to lose.
If I break even I'm out. If I make a
little extra, that's great.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Well, and then when I go to Vegas, I if
I go with my wife then which she doesn't enjoy
it at all, and so she then expects whatever I'm
willing to wager in cash that she can invest at
the Caesar's Forum shops. And so yeah, that's another deterrent
that keeps me in check, right.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Right, right, So what does it take to be a
seven star?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I mean, ultimately it takes you have to earn a
certain number of Tier credits with us.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And again seven stars at the highest level.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
For the Yes, so we have a loyalty program with
multiple tiers. Gold is entry level, Platinum, Diamond, and then
seven stars is the highest. And so depending on the
game that you play, you're trying to earn one hundred
and fifty thousand Tier credits on a slot machine, a
tier credits five dollars. You don't need to win or
(15:48):
lose any certain amount of money. It's simply that you
put that in play, and so that's how it works.
And then from there you get rewarded, and you get
rewarded from being able to get preferred access or perks,
hotel rooms, locally Vegas, any of our properties, and if
(16:10):
you're a big enough player, not for a seven star,
not for like making that hurdle doesn't get you a
private right, private jets, or for things with people like
half million dollars a million dollar lines of credit right
and who have a history of playing up to those lines.
The one thing I can't emphasize enough is just we
(16:30):
just want you to play. That's what we want. We
believe if you play over time, we're not worried about luck.
Luck takes care of itself. But if you're you know,
we we have people, for example, with super Bowl coming,
if you're a million dollar player, you're probably going to
be able to get Super Bowl tickets. But we've had
players who are maybe one hundred thousand dollars players and
(16:53):
they're like, hey, I'm going to wire in a million
bucks and I'm like, listen, that's great, but you've never
one or loss more than one hundred grand in your life,
so you're gonna need to do that. Improve it to
me before Super Bowl, which is super soon now if
you want to get four tickets right right. So, but
it's amazing. As a kid who grew up, I knew
(17:16):
nothing about the casino business when I started with Harris
twenty years ago, and what I did know was mostly
the falsehoods or maybe the history that is in the movies, right,
And so it's just so much different. It's a business.
Even as a guy who grew up in the hospitality business,
(17:38):
you know, I was. I told you nightclubs like it's
about handshakes and knowing who the right people are and
trying to let them in. But I mean, at this point,
I am up to my ears and analytics, and luckily
I have a lot of smart people that work for me,
and I've been able to at least be smart enough
to keep up right. A little little shout out to
my Jesuit education make everybody loves that, right, But but
(18:03):
it's it's incredible. The I mean, we have a data
scientist that works for us in Las Vegas, and we
have entire analytics departments that do nothing but make sure
our business is profitable and efficient and as good as
it can be. Now there's still the fun of it,
because I tell you all that, you know, the goals
(18:24):
to make the guests feel like they're having a good
time and not managing their experience with tier credits and rewards,
and it's a it's a balance, is that.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
They're a soundtrack that you can play that affects the
action on the floor or is it just good?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, it's more just about energy and music. And that's
something that's It's funny my team here, they they I
wear them out about the music because as haven't been
a nightclub guy, I understand how energy drives business us.
It drives spending, it drives experience. And lately as we've
(19:05):
opened Caesar's New Orleans and had the grand opening and
all that, we've had all these corporate partners in, we've
had all the company's regional presidents and gms from around
the company, and they've all been coming in and saying,
the music here is so good on your casino floor.
And my team's like, hey, boss, did you hear what
they said? Because you're always you know, and it's just
(19:26):
one of those things that it's just one of the
many levers that you're trying to manage all the time. Yeah,
temperature matters, though, like you don't want it. You don't
want it to be too you want it to be
cooler as opposed to warm, But you don't want it
to be too cold, which.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
What else There are windows in the food.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Hall, yep, and that's new. And look, that's the new
updated thinking of uh, you know, with phones and things
like that. Now the idea that there's this perfect mouse
trap and you're gonna sit there and play versus get
up and go do something. I mean, you can sit
there on your phone and do whatever you want. And
so we've just tried to open the building up. And
(20:04):
and that's also part of modernizing the hospitality experience, which
is the same thing that's where you all come in
for For twenty years, we we survived with mcallisters and
Fudruckers in Starbucks and uh yeah, and and a buffet
and and so of course COVID changed some of that.
I mean, I would tell you COVID was also an
(20:25):
excuse to get rid of the buffet because buffets are
loss leaders. And as the businesses have gotten smarter, Uh,
it's no longer enough to just manage the food waste
and minimize the loss. You want to you want to
make those businesses profit centers. And uh, as you build them,
they just become stronger and stronger, and they become attractions.
(20:46):
And uh, you know, let Nina's Creole Cottage is a
great example of that. Where we opened up, we wanted
to get our partnership going. You opened up literally next
to a construction wall. I think I think we all
had some about where is this going. It's you know,
it's not as busy as we hoped. And then as
you open everything up and you start to see people
(21:09):
reacting to the local concepts like Emeralds, like you all,
it's it's just been great. And then even the external
concepts like no booth have all been very well received.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
How do you figure out where to eat lunch or
dinner every day?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Well, you know what my goal is to bring lunch
or dinner home because otherwise I'm already, you know, as
a guy who grew up here, I'm already trying to
keep my pounds under control. And if I ate in
our food outlets every day, and and let's be honest too, right,
like our guests don't come to the casino looking to
stay on their diet. So your your salad is that
(21:45):
that they have at Nina's Creole Cottage is the one
saving grace?
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah, exactly, It's the side in that food hall.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
One hundred percent. And and look, it's still like it's
a great it's great to have it, but it's definitely
not the best seller.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
The Wings and the Gumbo and the Red all these
things are much.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
More popular with the you touched on the underground subterranean
realm that you over overlord the what when did the
pass of the what do you call that? A walkway
a hallway from Fulton Alley right beside Harris's Hotel underneath
Poyder Street up into the casino? How did that come about?
(22:29):
And how were you able to keep that going on?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So somehow that so the way it came about was,
you know, originally before it was the Casino, it was
the old convention center for New Orleans, it was called
the river Gate. And there was a plan decades ago
to where the river Gate was going to get connected.
There was literally going to be an underground highway that
(22:55):
would connect you to the interstates. You wouldn't have to
go through the French cour Order or the CBD to
get great access to the interstate. And that's kind of
what opened up the thinking of all of that. And
then quickly they realized, while you can do some of
that where we are, which is at the highest point
(23:15):
in the city, right up against the bend in the river.
You can't do that all the way down. And even that,
that's what preparation that had been done, work that had
been done decades previous, that's what led to that sinkhole.
And so that was the idea behind the tunnel. I
would tell you the tunnel is still a fight. We
(23:37):
deal with leagues. I mean we don't. We definitely love
it in the sense of is the city has gone
through its ups and downs with safety and things like that.
The fact that folks cannot go out on the street
at night and can get underneath and as you all know,
we have a security officer down there at all times,
(23:58):
and so that's the positive of it. I just say it, though, Look,
we just did all this work on Poyder Street and
then all of a sudden there's a leak back, and
who caused the leak and who's going to fix the leak?
And you know that's that's that's always interesting.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
So are you excited about the hotel with the addition of.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
That super excited? I mean, the the hotel is beautiful,
and I would tell you that I've you talked about
when I'm coming back, and am I going to do
this project? I mean, I've clearly never done a project,
nor will I probably ever do another project of this
size and scope and dollar amount. But every time I
have done some kind of smaller project at other properties,
(24:41):
they always give you renderings or a picture of what
it's going to look like. And and in the history
of my career and tell this project, I don't think
the actual product ever looked nearly as good as the picture.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Right, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
And when we open the sports book, which was the
very first thing that we renovated and redid and opened
in the casino, it's the first time where it looked
exactly like the pitch. And as we've gone section by section,
anytime we had renderings, it looked like the renderings and
the hotel rooms are the same. And then you combine
(25:17):
that with the views and the Florida ceiling glass, and
if you're fortunate enough to get one of the rooms
on the corners, particularly on the canal street side, I
mean to your right, you're looking out over the bend
in the river and and seeing all the all the
traffic on the river, and to your left you literally
have a straight shot right down Canal Street and uh,
(25:40):
I'm excited to This isn't really going to happen, But
in my dream, I commandeer one of those rooms from
Marty Broth and watch the parade. Right, Yeah, but there's
gonna be someone who's worth much more than me who's
in that room. So let's just get that dream out
of my head. Right, I'll go, I'll go check out
the you during the day. Is there's a check in
(26:02):
check out, right.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I need to inspect this room before before you arrive.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
But yeah, and then as we bring the top floor,
which is still getting finished up online, which is really
where we have some sweet product that is unrivaled and
what we had even in the Harris Hotel, it's it's
going to be great because it's going to allow us
to bring in a better quality of guests. When you
combine the Caesar's brand, which Haras was a great brand
(26:27):
twenty five years ago, but doesn't resonate with our international guests,
and we have lots of them, lots of high net
worth international guests. And so when you bring that brand
to the city and you combine it with a hotel
room that is on par with the with product at
Caesar's palace probably as nice as anything at Caesar's, other
than we'll never have anything like those, like their villas.
(26:50):
Their villas are like entire homes basically. But but yeah,
we're excited at what it's going to allow us to
do and to to invite people in.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
How do you get along with other casinos? Now, obviously
you're the big dog for many, many hundreds of miles
around yep. So it's different than if you were just
on the strip with everybody right next to you. But
for example, when we were in Miami, even our best friends,
we didn't really talk about business with or we weren't,
(27:20):
you know, we were always pushing against them. You come
to New Orleans and the biggest names in town were
the nicest ones, most welcoming to us. We all get along.
They're no competitors in our town. How's it work in
the casino business.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I mean it's a small industry, and so of course
you're friendly with folks. There's a competitive aspect to it
as well. It's easy for me to feel not as
competitive when I say me for the New Orleans property
to feel more collaborative than competitive. Because while while treasure
(27:53):
Chest and Kenner and Boomtown on the West Bank do
a nice job. They're not a destination the way that
we Areeople aren't flying in to go to those properties.
And so, and I've been in the business long enough
now where I know my peers. I've worked with some
of them, and then even regionally. Right like last weekend,
(28:16):
we had a gaming conference at the Harris Hotel and
the general manager from Golden Nugget and like Charles was
in and and and he's more of a competitor to
me than because because that Uston business is valuable business.
But great guy, and I knew him, but not well.
And we really spent some time together last weekend, and
(28:37):
then we know this person and that person, and so
it's more of a smaller community now. I would say
that when you're in locals markets, like when I worked
in Kansas City, the entire Kansas City gaming market, which
is hyper competitive and there's a lot of supply, that's
where you're getting more into paying attention to what folks
(28:59):
are doing. From a marketing perspective. You know, I'm giving
that I'm giving this person ten dollars a free play,
you're giving them five, or you're giving more. Why are
you doing that, you're you're ruining it for everybody. So
so it really depends on where you're at.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
You ever, just walk in the truck stop casino and
throw some chips at him, say, hey, you guys, have fun.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I've never done that, kidding the kidd but I don't
you know what, like like same thing like that's been
around so long that it's not worth worrying about. Meaning
in jurisdictions where you see some of that opening up
now is more and more states need more and more
tax revenue. It is nice that Louisiana's market is mature
(29:41):
and so so you don't have to manage all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
So what do you do when you're not at work?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I mean, I have so my wife and I've been
married for twenty years, and but but we were moving around.
She was chasing her career. She was a court reporter.
So we have a ten year old and a six
year old, right and uh, and so that's the center
of our universe. And and for good or for bad,
(30:11):
ninety nine percent good. But you know, kids can like
this morning, nobody wanted to wake up. But but but
but doing stuff with them, traveling We love to travel.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Favorite place to go so far.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Top three, so top three. So some of this doesn't
involve my family, but but I've been. I've been to
Asian I went to Thailand once and that was phenomenal.
I've been home to Syria. I've been to see my
dad's family a few times. And a lot going on
over there right now. But but but it's it's amazing.
(30:47):
They don't live in a big city. They live out
and my dad's from to call it even a village
as a stretch and it's just beautiful on the Mediterranean
and uh. And then last summer we took the kids
to Barcelona for that's nice, no particular reason, and it
was not a high pressure vacation. It was rent a
place for a week and we'll do what we do.
And man absolutely loved it. And so those three come
(31:11):
to mind. But when you say favorite place, right, one
of my big things is unless it's running to like
occasionally we'll run like my in laws have a condo
and Gulf shores. But I'm not about repeat. I'm about
let's go find the new thing all the time.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I love that travel is so.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Key, absolutely it's and look for our kids now, it
really opens their eyes up to a whole other side
of the world. I'll give you a great example. So
we're in Barcelona and we didn't get a hotel room.
We got an airbnb. And it's because again we wanted
to live and you're not trying to eat out every
meal and all that stuff. And so I walked to
(31:50):
the little neighborhood bodega to get some things we need
in the house and my son and dad, why is
the milk on the shelf and not a refrigerator? And
it's you know, things like that where you get to
to expand your your children's mind and uh. And so
that that's why I loved I love doing The one
(32:10):
thing I don't mind repeating now is stuff I loved
as a kid that I'll do with h with both
of them, Uh, particularly the sports stuff with my son.
He loves football and soccer and UH, and get to
experience it again through his eyes, where it's almost as
good in some ways, even it's better sometimes to do it,
(32:31):
uh seeing his reaction.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Does he play sports?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
He does, and he loves Uh. He loves soccer, which look,
growing up here, soccer was I might have played a
couple of years at the local playground, but it had
no real appeal back then. It was more just a
way to stay busy between other sports. And uh, he's
fully committed, he's all in. He's uh, you know, I
(32:55):
have no illusions he's going to play in Europe. But uh,
but but he he's pretty good. He has some athleticism
that my wife and I have no idea where it
came from. And it's fun watching him play.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I love that when you talk about growing up without
only knowing the gaming industry, the hotel industry from what
you see on TV, yep, where were Was there ever
any apprehension or just as you kept moving up along
the ladder, you're like, am I going to run into
this character? I knew at some point.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, No, I mean I think I pretty quickly figured
out that that wasn't how the industry was anymore, coming
from coming from the hospitality. So I got hired specifically
to help open up Masquerade, which now it's Octavi it's
been redone, but the casino in five was opening up
this nightlife concept right in the middle. And I had
(33:50):
been working at Metro and at a club that was
on top of what is now the Four Seasons called
Three sixty and they were great places, but they were
privately owned. I was never gonna own and one of
them was actually owned by my uncle, but he his
son was in the business. And I'm like, this isn't
really going anywhere for me in terms of an ownership
(34:11):
or a big, you know, career thing. And so I did.
I just I knew the casino was opening up, this
night club, and I had a connection because a cousin
of mine lived next to the The gm and of Harris,
New Orleans at the time had lived in Lake Charles.
She was his neighbor. And I called her and said, Hey,
I just want to get this guy in my resume
(34:32):
and get a chance. And literally she gave me an address,
and I went uptown and put the my resume in
a FedEx envelope in the sill of his door, and
that's how he got my resume, and that's how I
ended up getting hired. And uh, when I say I
had no idea that it was such a even then,
it's not. It's developed so much more, but it was
(34:54):
real business. And uh. But but six months in as
we got Mask open, literally worked probably twelve hours a day,
every single day for six months to get it open.
And at some point during that journey, I flopped in
bed one night which I would literally just come home
and sleep and go back to work, and I flopped
(35:16):
next to my wife, and you know, it's like, how
are you? I'm good, what's going on? And I'm half
falling asleep. And I told her, like, I think I
can figure this out. Like it's gonna take a while, right,
you have to grow a career, but I kind of
see the blueprint and now it's just a matter of navigating.
And you know, it's easy to say now twenty years
(35:39):
later that that was maybe I maybe I did figure
something out. But yeah, so that's that's kind of where
I initially understood what the business was like. And so like, look,
my best casino stories. The funny thing is my two
best casino stories are from before I ever worked in
the casino. Right. The one that's local is I was
(36:04):
running the night club across the street on top of
the four Seasons three sixty And my cousin from his
days out of LSU was friends with a guy who
was a receiver at LSU named Eric Martin and later
had a pretty good career with the Saints at one point,
he was a Saint's Career Receiving leader, and so I
knew him and he called me up and he was
(36:24):
buddies with Michael Jordan and they used to golf together.
And so Michael Jordan was coming to town and it
was going to be his fortieth birthday and Eric wanted
to throw a birthday party for him up on top
in this nightclub. And partly he wanted to do it
to throw the party for Michael, and partly he wanted
to fill the rest of the place and charge twenty
(36:45):
dollars a person and make a bunch of money. Right,
And it was like a Tuesday or Wednesday night. So
I'm like, great, it's a free night of business, right,
And so we literally sell out of tickets. The place
is absolutely jammed floor to ceiling, and uh, and all
we're waiting for Eric's there, We're just waiting for Michael. Well,
(37:07):
where's Michael Michael's idea, Where's Michael. Michael's not here, right,
at which point I quickly realized, like, hey, like nobody
controls Michael Jordan's schedule. It said Michael Jordan. And Michael
Jordan was across the street at Harra's New Orleans stuck
for over a million dollars. That's what I was told.
I didn't work here, so I don't know that right.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
But but so then Eric and I go down and
we go across the street, and he sees Eric, and
of course he knows Eric and hugs Eric and tells
Eric he's down a million dollars and he's not coming
over right now because he wants to get his money back.
And I would tell you he never showed up, I think.
(37:48):
But the night it was, it was just such a
great party because I'm backed, we were. It kind of
worked out and I think we refunded like eight people
they're twenty dollars and uh, and made a whole bunch money.
But uh, that's uh, that's one of my two, uh,
my two best casinos stories.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I once ran a restaurant in Atlanta that had a
very strict no cigar policy, and it was a very
busy place. The bar was always jumping, and one night
I see him come through the revolving doors and he
had ducked his head down. You could still tell that
that was the head of Michael Jordan. You're like, oh,
my god, he's here. We get him a table and
he fires up a cigar and the owner looks at
(38:30):
me and he says, what do we do? And I said, well,
we have a new rule that if you're the greatest
in the world of what you do, you can smoke
a cigar.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Goat gets a cigar.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Regular keep coming up, why is he smoking a cigar?
You're not the greatest banker in the next guy, You're
not the greatest this. But it's it's fun some of
those stories and the things we get exposed to that
you would never even think just being in the hospitality industry.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
No doubt. And that's why when I say my best
stories are before I ever worked in this business, it's
because I was still in the hospitality business and you're
running nightclubs and I have like I like, folks would
come in from Vegas back when like the mega clubs
hadn't even really started in Vegas, and uh. I remember
(39:14):
one time the management team of Club Rio, which was
like the first real super club in Las Vegas. Uh,
they came to the club we were running in New
Orleans and uh, and then you had a connection in Vegas.
And then those folks ended up at other super at
the big nightclubs as they started opening up, because they
were the ones with experience, and you build those relationships
(39:36):
and uh it gets you in in some interesting situations
where uh and for me not like not bad situations.
You know. Even people used to ask me, like, how'd
you do so well in the nightclub business? And I said, well,
if you if you show up every day at work
in the nightclub business and you don't get drunk too
much at work and you avoid drugs all together. I
(39:59):
was never a a guy who was in the cocaine
or ecstasy, these things that you would see in the
nightclub business. Uh, Like, you're gonna do great because if
nothing than just attrition of everyone else.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Right right, the when when you first saw the plans
to remodel Masquerade in Doc Tavior, Masquerade was your baby, yep,
you you basically you You've signed your name before they
put the bar top on it. It was going to
be there forever. What were your initial feelings?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Look, of course there's the the part where I'll always
be nostalgic about Masquerade because it literally is what provided
my platform into the industry and and ultimately it's provided
an incredible life for my wife and my family. But
at the same time, over the year is what we
(40:50):
realized was while Masquerade was an incredible concept and and look,
it did tons of revenue over the years, the one
thing it did was it separated the casino in half.
Because it's right in the middle and it was closed off,
it was dark, and so we used to really struggle
with the energy of the floor because the one side
(41:13):
on canal streets always busy. The only thing on the
other side was high limit, and it just divided us
in half. And so the idea that we were going
to evolve it to really balance the floor and make
the entire floor feel great, And it just felt like
the right thing to do at that time. But yeah,
(41:33):
I mean, of course, as you see, the one thing
I'll say too is I knew how obtrusive that cone
was and the idea that you were going to open
all that volume up and combine that with opening up
the second floor. I had some insight into a lot
of that because we were behind the curtain that your
average guest wouldn't know that, for example, that whole second
(41:55):
floor could open up in things like that, right, But yeah,
of course, the other part of it was end of
an era and uh and so uh you know, but
but look, the flip side is I got to be
the person who who oversaw that transition, and so uh
that was a separate I guess it's right, new milestone,
(42:15):
new milestone, right.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
We Samir, We can't thank you enough. You oversee almost
three blocks worth of property, which is remarkable, and at
the same time you're uh, you and your company do
great things for the city. Were very appreciative and thank
you for taking the time to be with us today.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
No, I appreciate it. And and look when you say that, right,
it's it's humbling. And at the same time, uh, no
way I could do it without a great team. And
I know for you for example, y'all know many of them.
And uh, at the end of the day, I'm the
face of the organization, and so I get a lot
of credit that on the on the back of other
people's hard work, and and I try to always remember
(42:59):
that and and pay it forward. And again that's where
I'm so proud to be able to do it right
here at home. And so I really appreciate y'all having me,
and uh look forward for what's to come. With us us. Yeah,
we face super Bowl and everything is coming up here.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Good luck for the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yeah, we better make a lot of money, both of us.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Thank you again to all the great mag Wait for
the y yeah wait wait everybody
Big, big, big way, and welcome to another edition of
Between Bites with Nina Compton and Larry Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
We are joined today by one of the more fascinating
members of our community, Samir mo Ed, general manager of
Caesar's New Orleans and all that that entails. Welcome Samir,
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Larry. Uh great to be here, A big fan of
what y'all have been doing on this platform, and UH
surprised and excited.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Invited we've been We've been collecting questions in our mind
for answers we wanted specifically from you for the last
four years that we've known you personally.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You were.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Throughout your reign of the blocks and blocks that you
look over. You were nice enough a couple of years
ago to or before the pandemic actually to invite us
to be part of the renovation of Eras into Caesar's
the and put our concept, Nina's Creole Cottage in the
food hall. So we've known you since then. It's been
(01:19):
a lot of fun, and we just wanted to get
to know you talk about growing up in New Orleans
and what the city means to you, and and where
we're at now and what you're looking forward to in.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
The future sounds great. It's it's been awesome, you know.
As y'all know, I joined Caesars years ago and then
was away for a while and got to come home
about four years ago. With Just to make sure I'm
giving credit where credits due, Dan Reel and Ryan McCabe
were the original guys that had the vision to speak
(01:52):
with y'all and bring y'all in. Certainly as a local
who my family was still here. I'd come home all
the time, had had been in and knew Compare specifically,
and was a fan coming down here with the family
on holidays and things like that. So it's just another
example whereas I got to come home and get even
more intimately involved with with folks like you all, with
(02:16):
the Saints and the Caesar Superdome, just all these ties
where for a local kid growing up, and we were
just saying it, I don't take myself too seriously. It's
kind of amazing some of the things that I've gotten
to do.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
So tell us about your childhood growing up in yours.
What is that your fondest memory for our listeners?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Wow? So for me, so when I was I was
born here and then my dad, which my dad had
emigrated here from Syria and then went through a lot
of education, and when I was one, we moved to
Chicago so he could go to medical school. And then
when we moved back when he was done with in
his residency, when I was almost six, and so, so
(03:05):
what I really remember is is I have vague memories
of coming home and staying with my grandparents for literally
weeks to the point of his young young kid, You're like,
am I ever going back to see my family? When
I was here for you know, a month during the summer.
But it was about walking with my grandfather down to
(03:26):
you know, originally they had a small neighborhood grocery store
in Gentilly and then they ended up moving a metai
and uh and then even that walking a door knacs
with him. He liked to walk everywhere, and uh, that's
what it was about. It was about family, it was
about food. It was I can remember being brought down
to the French Quarter on on holidays and you know,
(03:49):
would go walk Bourbon Street and you're trying to back
then there were a lot of different kind of businesses
on the street.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I was going to say that lifeless, no doubt, you're a.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Ten year old boy trying trying to peek into Big
Daddy's on Bourbon Street. So those are the kind of
memories I have. I can remember coming down it. It
wasn't the Roosevelt at the time, what was the whatever
the what is now the Roosevelt. They still had the
lights when I was a kid, and so we would
(04:21):
go down there and see that. It was all of
those things. Even celebration in the Oaks, while now is
on a whole other scale that existed when I was
a kid, in a much more scaled down version, but
it was super exciting. Yeah, there was no walking tour
back then. You simply got in the car and drove through.
And so it's just all those kinds of things. And
(04:44):
you know, another one, my dad was a huge even
though he was born overseas, he was a huge football fan,
and so we would go to He had LSU and
Saints tickets, and if I came home on a Friday
from Christian Brothers or Jesuit and I knocked out all
my homework, I'd get to go to one or both
games with him. And uh so it's it's all those
(05:07):
kinds of things that really, uh you know, speak to me,
and in some way, even though I was chasing my career,
I always yearned or or believed that my wife and
I who she's also from this area from uh. We've
been married since before I started with the casino twenty
years now, and so, uh so we always kind of
(05:27):
thought we might make it back home.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
That's neat.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And how did you guys meet?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's an even better story. We were both bartending at
the Bourbon Street Blues Company on Bourbon Street and I
think it's now American Bandstand or something like that, but uh,
it was called BBC, and uh I was bartending, I
think originally when I started, she was a shotgirl and uh,
(05:53):
and we met and I was there kind of I
was kind of between I used to I used to
bartend and then manage all these sort of more locals
nightclubs in the city. The Metro is a place a
lot of people know. But they were both the places
I was working were renovating one summer, and so I
just wanted to stay busy, and because everybody would renovate
(06:14):
when it was slow during the summer, right, And so
through a friend, I got a job bartending there and
she's working there and I asked her out when we
were when I worked there, and she said, no, I
don't date co workers and that, and I said, what
are you talking about? This is Bourbon Street. Everybody's sleeping
with everybody. But but she she rebuffed me. But then
(06:38):
once my place is opened back up, I ended up
moving on and we stayed in touch, and she came
and saw me one night at a place where I
was working. As I recall, maybe her her sister or
her friend wasn't twenty one, and so I helped hustle
them in right, and that it's all history from there.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, I love that. It's great, A very surprising story
I would never expect.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah. Well, so two years ago, we're down. We're in
the French Quarter, just walking around with the kids for
French Quarterfest. And it's not very often you can roll
up on whatever it is now what was BBC and
have your two kids stand in the doorway and take
a picture. This is where mom and dad is. God,
(07:26):
how do you like that?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You owe this bar to your exist no doubt, no
doubt coming back to New Orleans to take over the
casino property. As Harris, did you know the renovations were coming?
I'm guessing that ahead of time.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, so there's no question that I knew that we
had because it was all part of us extending our
lease with the state. Originally in ninety nine, the company
had signed a I believe, a twenty five year lease,
and so it was going to expire, and we proactively
went to the date and said, hey, look like we'll
spend the money now, and that way we know if
(08:05):
we extend our lease, we'll be fully invested. And you
know twenty nineteen, I mean in seventeen eighteen and nineteen,
New Orleans was setting records, busiest year, busiest year, busiest year,
and it all made sense, and so we wanted to
be ahead of it, knowing that you know, you put
a license up like this forbid and you're going against
the Venetians and the Winds and the MGMs of the world,
(08:28):
and money gets stupid and suddenly you don't have a
license in the Orleans, right, So that was kind of
so I knew it was coming. What I didn't know
when I moved back home was that because of sports
betting getting legalized in the country and subsequently in Louisiana
(08:49):
and New Orleans, I had no idea that the Supernome
was going to become the Caesar Supernome. And in fact,
the first time I read that that was leaked through
a local journalist and that's the first time I heard that.
And usually I kind of pride myself on, you know,
twenty years in the business and with the company, I
usually hear stuff, and I did not hear that one,
(09:11):
and super excited.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, there was a huge grab and fun for the
city and we don't have the same name stadium as
Atlanta anymore, which was another gift.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
That Caesars gave me no doubt, looked and.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Have Mercedes Spence the h when you looked at the
scope of that project and you realize there's going to
be a ton of rebranding. You're taking what was Harris
for a long time and turning it into Caesars.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
What was the challenge mentally there, either with the existing
staff or with your the guests who were regulars at
the casino.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I mean, I think it was more guests related. I
think our staff over the years has just become used
to the challenges that you face when you're operating in
the city of New Orleans. Thing. I'll give you a
great example I was home briefly once in twenty fifteen
for eleven months as the assistant general manager, and that
was when the sinkhole opened up on Canal Street and
(10:11):
so I get a call, you know, I think it
was during the day, but they're like, yeah, the street collapse,
and I'm like, what do you mean the street collapse?
And not only did it collapse where it collapsed A
lot of people don't know this, but we have two
really big basement levels below our building, probably one of
the only basements in Moorlands, I'm sure, and so where
(10:33):
it collapsed was on the very backside of this basement
and you could see straight up to the street. And
so I just used that as one example where you know,
the street was closed for months and you're rewriting traffic
and these are the kind of challenges you learn to overcome.
So the biggest one was with the guests, because the
(10:54):
business was committed to staying open and operating the whole time,
and folks came in and while you know, now they're
raving about it, and luckily it's been so well received
now that we're you know, ninety five percent finished right
now and wrapping up a bunch of stuff. We heard
lots of complaints and frustrations, and so that was keeping
(11:16):
the guests engaged. And then you're coming out of COVID
one minute it's dead, the next minute, the government's flowing
the money into the entire economy, and we're having a
record year because we're making money without spending money, which
is always the best way, right, but very rare in life.
And then kind of dip back down when crime and
(11:38):
other challenges in the city became a problem. And so
it's really just been yet. It was navigating those ups
and downs, particularly with the guests. And for us, it's
a complicated equation because about half of our guests come
from what I'll call locals like sixty miles and in
and the other come from our national guest us that
(12:00):
are as far away from as international and so yeah,
we were slowly refiguring all that out and now we
have the power of the Caesars brand. But that was
the that was the pain point. So what is your.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Most I'm sorry, what is Because people win a lot
of money, Yes, what has been the biggest amount?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I need to know? And so home address, Well, I'm
not getting executive protection, I'm not getting out my home address. Right,
The biggest amount of money I've ever seen somebody win
is six million dollars. Gracious, the biggest amount of money
I've ever seen anybody lose is ten million dollars. What yes, Now,
(12:48):
the most painful loss I've ever experienced as a business
is we had a guy come in one it was
New Year's Eve. This is maybe twenty fifteen, and U
and look, we're I know it's the casino, but we
operate like most businesses, right. We get a salary, but
then based on the profitability of the business versus the
(13:10):
company's expectations, you earn a bonus. And twenty fifteen, the
end of twenty fifteen, we were having a pretty good
year and we were we were up to plan maybe
like a million bucks or something like that. And a
guy came in on New Year's Eve and beat us
for two and so you know, you go from getting
(13:30):
a pretty big check to getting that much of it. Yeah, yeah,
and you can't get it back, right, Like, I'm more
than happy to lose that money on January first, and
I got three hundred and sixty four days to make
it back, But losing it on New Year's Eve is
super painful.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I can imagine.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Do you gamble just casually like it's funny, Like, I mean,
I think the most money I've ever won is maybe
twelve hundred bucks. The most money I've ever lost this
is probably five hundred.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And it felt like the balance of the house. Note
was that five hundred dollars?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh, I mean that's what, right, Like we're feeling the
best gamblers don't sweat the money, right, And I care
about my money, and so I am not the I
am not a gambler at all. And it actually amazes me,
like like if I'm passionate about any gaming, it's I
love poker. I've always loved poker. But even that, you
get in the biggest hands and you play best when
(14:28):
you're only thinking about the cards and not thinking about
the money. And if somebody puts me all in and
I'm up eight hundred bucks, even though I might be
sure I have the best hand, I'd rather go home
with my eight hundred bucks. And that's not a you know,
I'll call myself this. That's a loser's mentality. So I
just do it for fun.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, because I hate to lose.
If I break even I'm out. If I make a
little extra, that's great.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Well, and then when I go to Vegas, I if
I go with my wife then which she doesn't enjoy
it at all, and so she then expects whatever I'm
willing to wager in cash that she can invest at
the Caesar's Forum shops. And so yeah, that's another deterrent
that keeps me in check, right.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Right, right, So what does it take to be a
seven star?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I mean, ultimately it takes you have to earn a
certain number of Tier credits with us.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And again seven stars at the highest level.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
For the Yes, so we have a loyalty program with
multiple tiers. Gold is entry level, Platinum, Diamond, and then
seven stars is the highest. And so depending on the
game that you play, you're trying to earn one hundred
and fifty thousand Tier credits on a slot machine, a
tier credits five dollars. You don't need to win or
(15:48):
lose any certain amount of money. It's simply that you
put that in play, and so that's how it works.
And then from there you get rewarded, and you get
rewarded from being able to get preferred access or perks,
hotel rooms, locally Vegas, any of our properties, and if
(16:10):
you're a big enough player, not for a seven star,
not for like making that hurdle doesn't get you a
private right, private jets, or for things with people like
half million dollars a million dollar lines of credit right
and who have a history of playing up to those lines.
The one thing I can't emphasize enough is just we
(16:30):
just want you to play. That's what we want. We
believe if you play over time, we're not worried about luck.
Luck takes care of itself. But if you're you know,
we we have people, for example, with super Bowl coming,
if you're a million dollar player, you're probably going to
be able to get Super Bowl tickets. But we've had
players who are maybe one hundred thousand dollars players and
(16:53):
they're like, hey, I'm going to wire in a million
bucks and I'm like, listen, that's great, but you've never
one or loss more than one hundred grand in your life,
so you're gonna need to do that. Improve it to
me before Super Bowl, which is super soon now if
you want to get four tickets right right. So, but
it's amazing. As a kid who grew up, I knew
(17:16):
nothing about the casino business when I started with Harris
twenty years ago, and what I did know was mostly
the falsehoods or maybe the history that is in the movies, right,
And so it's just so much different. It's a business.
Even as a guy who grew up in the hospitality business,
(17:38):
you know, I was. I told you nightclubs like it's
about handshakes and knowing who the right people are and
trying to let them in. But I mean, at this point,
I am up to my ears and analytics, and luckily
I have a lot of smart people that work for me,
and I've been able to at least be smart enough
to keep up right. A little little shout out to
my Jesuit education make everybody loves that, right, But but
(18:03):
it's it's incredible. The I mean, we have a data
scientist that works for us in Las Vegas, and we
have entire analytics departments that do nothing but make sure
our business is profitable and efficient and as good as
it can be. Now there's still the fun of it,
because I tell you all that, you know, the goals
(18:24):
to make the guests feel like they're having a good
time and not managing their experience with tier credits and rewards,
and it's a it's a balance, is that.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
They're a soundtrack that you can play that affects the
action on the floor or is it just good?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, it's more just about energy and music. And that's
something that's It's funny my team here, they they I
wear them out about the music because as haven't been
a nightclub guy, I understand how energy drives business us.
It drives spending, it drives experience. And lately as we've
(19:05):
opened Caesar's New Orleans and had the grand opening and
all that, we've had all these corporate partners in, we've
had all the company's regional presidents and gms from around
the company, and they've all been coming in and saying,
the music here is so good on your casino floor.
And my team's like, hey, boss, did you hear what
they said? Because you're always you know, and it's just
(19:26):
one of those things that it's just one of the
many levers that you're trying to manage all the time. Yeah,
temperature matters, though, like you don't want it. You don't
want it to be too you want it to be
cooler as opposed to warm, But you don't want it
to be too cold, which.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
What else There are windows in the food.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Hall, yep, and that's new. And look, that's the new
updated thinking of uh, you know, with phones and things
like that. Now the idea that there's this perfect mouse
trap and you're gonna sit there and play versus get
up and go do something. I mean, you can sit
there on your phone and do whatever you want. And
so we've just tried to open the building up. And
(20:04):
and that's also part of modernizing the hospitality experience, which
is the same thing that's where you all come in
for For twenty years, we we survived with mcallisters and
Fudruckers in Starbucks and uh yeah, and and a buffet
and and so of course COVID changed some of that.
I mean, I would tell you COVID was also an
(20:25):
excuse to get rid of the buffet because buffets are
loss leaders. And as the businesses have gotten smarter, Uh,
it's no longer enough to just manage the food waste
and minimize the loss. You want to you want to
make those businesses profit centers. And uh, as you build them,
they just become stronger and stronger, and they become attractions.
(20:46):
And uh, you know, let Nina's Creole Cottage is a
great example of that. Where we opened up, we wanted
to get our partnership going. You opened up literally next
to a construction wall. I think I think we all
had some about where is this going. It's you know,
it's not as busy as we hoped. And then as
you open everything up and you start to see people
(21:09):
reacting to the local concepts like Emeralds, like you all,
it's it's just been great. And then even the external
concepts like no booth have all been very well received.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
How do you figure out where to eat lunch or
dinner every day?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Well, you know what my goal is to bring lunch
or dinner home because otherwise I'm already, you know, as
a guy who grew up here, I'm already trying to
keep my pounds under control. And if I ate in
our food outlets every day, and and let's be honest too, right,
like our guests don't come to the casino looking to
stay on their diet. So your your salad is that
(21:45):
that they have at Nina's Creole Cottage is the one
saving grace?
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah, exactly, It's the side in that food hall.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
One hundred percent. And and look, it's still like it's
a great it's great to have it, but it's definitely
not the best seller.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
The Wings and the Gumbo and the Red all these
things are much.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
More popular with the you touched on the underground subterranean
realm that you over overlord the what when did the
pass of the what do you call that? A walkway
a hallway from Fulton Alley right beside Harris's Hotel underneath
Poyder Street up into the casino? How did that come about?
(22:29):
And how were you able to keep that going on?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So somehow that so the way it came about was,
you know, originally before it was the Casino, it was
the old convention center for New Orleans, it was called
the river Gate. And there was a plan decades ago
to where the river Gate was going to get connected.
There was literally going to be an underground highway that
(22:55):
would connect you to the interstates. You wouldn't have to
go through the French cour Order or the CBD to
get great access to the interstate. And that's kind of
what opened up the thinking of all of that. And
then quickly they realized, while you can do some of
that where we are, which is at the highest point
(23:15):
in the city, right up against the bend in the river.
You can't do that all the way down. And even that,
that's what preparation that had been done, work that had
been done decades previous, that's what led to that sinkhole.
And so that was the idea behind the tunnel. I
would tell you the tunnel is still a fight. We
(23:37):
deal with leagues. I mean we don't. We definitely love
it in the sense of is the city has gone
through its ups and downs with safety and things like that.
The fact that folks cannot go out on the street
at night and can get underneath and as you all know,
we have a security officer down there at all times,
(23:58):
and so that's the positive of it. I just say it, though, Look,
we just did all this work on Poyder Street and
then all of a sudden there's a leak back, and
who caused the leak and who's going to fix the leak?
And you know that's that's that's always interesting.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
So are you excited about the hotel with the addition of.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
That super excited? I mean, the the hotel is beautiful,
and I would tell you that I've you talked about
when I'm coming back, and am I going to do
this project? I mean, I've clearly never done a project,
nor will I probably ever do another project of this
size and scope and dollar amount. But every time I
have done some kind of smaller project at other properties,
(24:41):
they always give you renderings or a picture of what
it's going to look like. And and in the history
of my career and tell this project, I don't think
the actual product ever looked nearly as good as the picture.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Right, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
And when we open the sports book, which was the
very first thing that we renovated and redid and opened
in the casino, it's the first time where it looked
exactly like the pitch. And as we've gone section by section,
anytime we had renderings, it looked like the renderings and
the hotel rooms are the same. And then you combine
(25:17):
that with the views and the Florida ceiling glass, and
if you're fortunate enough to get one of the rooms
on the corners, particularly on the canal street side, I
mean to your right, you're looking out over the bend
in the river and and seeing all the all the
traffic on the river, and to your left you literally
have a straight shot right down Canal Street and uh,
(25:40):
I'm excited to This isn't really going to happen, But
in my dream, I commandeer one of those rooms from
Marty Broth and watch the parade. Right, Yeah, but there's
gonna be someone who's worth much more than me who's
in that room. So let's just get that dream out
of my head. Right, I'll go, I'll go check out
the you during the day. Is there's a check in
(26:02):
check out, right.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I need to inspect this room before before you arrive.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
But yeah, and then as we bring the top floor,
which is still getting finished up online, which is really
where we have some sweet product that is unrivaled and
what we had even in the Harris Hotel, it's it's
going to be great because it's going to allow us
to bring in a better quality of guests. When you
combine the Caesar's brand, which Haras was a great brand
(26:27):
twenty five years ago, but doesn't resonate with our international guests,
and we have lots of them, lots of high net
worth international guests. And so when you bring that brand
to the city and you combine it with a hotel
room that is on par with the with product at
Caesar's palace probably as nice as anything at Caesar's, other
than we'll never have anything like those, like their villas.
(26:50):
Their villas are like entire homes basically. But but yeah,
we're excited at what it's going to allow us to
do and to to invite people in.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
How do you get along with other casinos? Now, obviously
you're the big dog for many, many hundreds of miles
around yep. So it's different than if you were just
on the strip with everybody right next to you. But
for example, when we were in Miami, even our best friends,
we didn't really talk about business with or we weren't,
(27:20):
you know, we were always pushing against them. You come
to New Orleans and the biggest names in town were
the nicest ones, most welcoming to us. We all get along.
They're no competitors in our town. How's it work in
the casino business.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I mean it's a small industry, and so of course
you're friendly with folks. There's a competitive aspect to it
as well. It's easy for me to feel not as
competitive when I say me for the New Orleans property
to feel more collaborative than competitive. Because while while treasure
(27:53):
Chest and Kenner and Boomtown on the West Bank do
a nice job. They're not a destination the way that
we Areeople aren't flying in to go to those properties.
And so, and I've been in the business long enough
now where I know my peers. I've worked with some
of them, and then even regionally. Right like last weekend,
(28:16):
we had a gaming conference at the Harris Hotel and
the general manager from Golden Nugget and like Charles was
in and and and he's more of a competitor to
me than because because that Uston business is valuable business.
But great guy, and I knew him, but not well.
And we really spent some time together last weekend, and
(28:37):
then we know this person and that person, and so
it's more of a smaller community now. I would say
that when you're in locals markets, like when I worked
in Kansas City, the entire Kansas City gaming market, which
is hyper competitive and there's a lot of supply, that's
where you're getting more into paying attention to what folks
(28:59):
are doing. From a marketing perspective. You know, I'm giving
that I'm giving this person ten dollars a free play,
you're giving them five, or you're giving more. Why are
you doing that, you're you're ruining it for everybody. So
so it really depends on where you're at.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
You ever, just walk in the truck stop casino and
throw some chips at him, say, hey, you guys, have fun.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I've never done that, kidding the kidd but I don't
you know what, like like same thing like that's been
around so long that it's not worth worrying about. Meaning
in jurisdictions where you see some of that opening up
now is more and more states need more and more
tax revenue. It is nice that Louisiana's market is mature
(29:41):
and so so you don't have to manage all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
So what do you do when you're not at work?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I mean, I have so my wife and I've been
married for twenty years, and but but we were moving around.
She was chasing her career. She was a court reporter.
So we have a ten year old and a six
year old, right and uh, and so that's the center
of our universe. And and for good or for bad,
(30:11):
ninety nine percent good. But you know, kids can like
this morning, nobody wanted to wake up. But but but
but doing stuff with them, traveling We love to travel.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Favorite place to go so far.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Top three, so top three. So some of this doesn't
involve my family, but but I've been. I've been to
Asian I went to Thailand once and that was phenomenal.
I've been home to Syria. I've been to see my
dad's family a few times. And a lot going on
over there right now. But but but it's it's amazing.
(30:47):
They don't live in a big city. They live out
and my dad's from to call it even a village
as a stretch and it's just beautiful on the Mediterranean
and uh. And then last summer we took the kids
to Barcelona for that's nice, no particular reason, and it
was not a high pressure vacation. It was rent a
place for a week and we'll do what we do.
And man absolutely loved it. And so those three come
(31:11):
to mind. But when you say favorite place, right, one
of my big things is unless it's running to like
occasionally we'll run like my in laws have a condo
and Gulf shores. But I'm not about repeat. I'm about
let's go find the new thing all the time.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I love that travel is so.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Key, absolutely it's and look for our kids now, it
really opens their eyes up to a whole other side
of the world. I'll give you a great example. So
we're in Barcelona and we didn't get a hotel room.
We got an airbnb. And it's because again we wanted
to live and you're not trying to eat out every
meal and all that stuff. And so I walked to
(31:50):
the little neighborhood bodega to get some things we need
in the house and my son and dad, why is
the milk on the shelf and not a refrigerator? And
it's you know, things like that where you get to
to expand your your children's mind and uh. And so
that that's why I loved I love doing The one
(32:10):
thing I don't mind repeating now is stuff I loved
as a kid that I'll do with h with both
of them, Uh, particularly the sports stuff with my son.
He loves football and soccer and UH, and get to
experience it again through his eyes, where it's almost as
good in some ways, even it's better sometimes to do it,
(32:31):
uh seeing his reaction.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Does he play sports?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
He does, and he loves Uh. He loves soccer, which look,
growing up here, soccer was I might have played a
couple of years at the local playground, but it had
no real appeal back then. It was more just a
way to stay busy between other sports. And uh, he's
fully committed, he's all in. He's uh, you know, I
(32:55):
have no illusions he's going to play in Europe. But uh,
but but he he's pretty good. He has some athleticism
that my wife and I have no idea where it
came from. And it's fun watching him play.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I love that when you talk about growing up without
only knowing the gaming industry, the hotel industry from what
you see on TV, yep, where were Was there ever
any apprehension or just as you kept moving up along
the ladder, you're like, am I going to run into
this character? I knew at some point.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, No, I mean I think I pretty quickly figured
out that that wasn't how the industry was anymore, coming
from coming from the hospitality. So I got hired specifically
to help open up Masquerade, which now it's Octavi it's
been redone, but the casino in five was opening up
this nightlife concept right in the middle. And I had
(33:50):
been working at Metro and at a club that was
on top of what is now the Four Seasons called
Three sixty and they were great places, but they were
privately owned. I was never gonna own and one of
them was actually owned by my uncle, but he his
son was in the business. And I'm like, this isn't
really going anywhere for me in terms of an ownership
(34:11):
or a big, you know, career thing. And so I did.
I just I knew the casino was opening up, this
night club, and I had a connection because a cousin
of mine lived next to the The gm and of Harris,
New Orleans at the time had lived in Lake Charles.
She was his neighbor. And I called her and said, Hey,
I just want to get this guy in my resume
(34:32):
and get a chance. And literally she gave me an address,
and I went uptown and put the my resume in
a FedEx envelope in the sill of his door, and
that's how he got my resume, and that's how I
ended up getting hired. And uh, when I say I
had no idea that it was such a even then,
it's not. It's developed so much more, but it was
(34:54):
real business. And uh. But but six months in as
we got Mask open, literally worked probably twelve hours a day,
every single day for six months to get it open.
And at some point during that journey, I flopped in
bed one night which I would literally just come home
and sleep and go back to work, and I flopped
(35:16):
next to my wife, and you know, it's like, how
are you? I'm good, what's going on? And I'm half
falling asleep. And I told her, like, I think I
can figure this out. Like it's gonna take a while, right,
you have to grow a career, but I kind of
see the blueprint and now it's just a matter of navigating.
And you know, it's easy to say now twenty years
(35:39):
later that that was maybe I maybe I did figure
something out. But yeah, so that's that's kind of where
I initially understood what the business was like. And so like, look,
my best casino stories. The funny thing is my two
best casino stories are from before I ever worked in
the casino. Right. The one that's local is I was
(36:04):
running the night club across the street on top of
the four Seasons three sixty And my cousin from his
days out of LSU was friends with a guy who
was a receiver at LSU named Eric Martin and later
had a pretty good career with the Saints at one point,
he was a Saint's Career Receiving leader, and so I
knew him and he called me up and he was
(36:24):
buddies with Michael Jordan and they used to golf together.
And so Michael Jordan was coming to town and it
was going to be his fortieth birthday and Eric wanted
to throw a birthday party for him up on top
in this nightclub. And partly he wanted to do it
to throw the party for Michael, and partly he wanted
to fill the rest of the place and charge twenty
(36:45):
dollars a person and make a bunch of money. Right,
And it was like a Tuesday or Wednesday night. So
I'm like, great, it's a free night of business, right,
And so we literally sell out of tickets. The place
is absolutely jammed floor to ceiling, and uh, and all
we're waiting for Eric's there, We're just waiting for Michael. Well,
(37:07):
where's Michael Michael's idea, Where's Michael. Michael's not here, right,
at which point I quickly realized, like, hey, like nobody
controls Michael Jordan's schedule. It said Michael Jordan. And Michael
Jordan was across the street at Harra's New Orleans stuck
for over a million dollars. That's what I was told.
I didn't work here, so I don't know that right.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
But but so then Eric and I go down and
we go across the street, and he sees Eric, and
of course he knows Eric and hugs Eric and tells
Eric he's down a million dollars and he's not coming
over right now because he wants to get his money back.
And I would tell you he never showed up, I think.
(37:48):
But the night it was, it was just such a
great party because I'm backed, we were. It kind of
worked out and I think we refunded like eight people
they're twenty dollars and uh, and made a whole bunch money.
But uh, that's uh, that's one of my two, uh,
my two best casinos stories.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I once ran a restaurant in Atlanta that had a
very strict no cigar policy, and it was a very
busy place. The bar was always jumping, and one night
I see him come through the revolving doors and he
had ducked his head down. You could still tell that
that was the head of Michael Jordan. You're like, oh,
my god, he's here. We get him a table and
he fires up a cigar and the owner looks at
(38:30):
me and he says, what do we do? And I said, well,
we have a new rule that if you're the greatest
in the world of what you do, you can smoke
a cigar.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Goat gets a cigar.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Regular keep coming up, why is he smoking a cigar?
You're not the greatest banker in the next guy, You're
not the greatest this. But it's it's fun some of
those stories and the things we get exposed to that
you would never even think just being in the hospitality industry.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
No doubt. And that's why when I say my best
stories are before I ever worked in this business, it's
because I was still in the hospitality business and you're
running nightclubs and I have like I like, folks would
come in from Vegas back when like the mega clubs
hadn't even really started in Vegas, and uh. I remember
(39:14):
one time the management team of Club Rio, which was
like the first real super club in Las Vegas. Uh,
they came to the club we were running in New
Orleans and uh, and then you had a connection in Vegas.
And then those folks ended up at other super at
the big nightclubs as they started opening up, because they
were the ones with experience, and you build those relationships
(39:36):
and uh it gets you in in some interesting situations
where uh and for me not like not bad situations.
You know. Even people used to ask me, like, how'd
you do so well in the nightclub business? And I said, well,
if you if you show up every day at work
in the nightclub business and you don't get drunk too
much at work and you avoid drugs all together. I
(39:59):
was never a a guy who was in the cocaine
or ecstasy, these things that you would see in the
nightclub business. Uh, Like, you're gonna do great because if
nothing than just attrition of everyone else.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Right right, the when when you first saw the plans
to remodel Masquerade in Doc Tavior, Masquerade was your baby, yep,
you you basically you You've signed your name before they
put the bar top on it. It was going to
be there forever. What were your initial feelings?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Look, of course there's the the part where I'll always
be nostalgic about Masquerade because it literally is what provided
my platform into the industry and and ultimately it's provided
an incredible life for my wife and my family. But
at the same time, over the year is what we
(40:50):
realized was while Masquerade was an incredible concept and and look,
it did tons of revenue over the years, the one
thing it did was it separated the casino in half.
Because it's right in the middle and it was closed off,
it was dark, and so we used to really struggle
with the energy of the floor because the one side
(41:13):
on canal streets always busy. The only thing on the
other side was high limit, and it just divided us
in half. And so the idea that we were going
to evolve it to really balance the floor and make
the entire floor feel great, And it just felt like
the right thing to do at that time. But yeah,
(41:33):
I mean, of course, as you see, the one thing
I'll say too is I knew how obtrusive that cone
was and the idea that you were going to open
all that volume up and combine that with opening up
the second floor. I had some insight into a lot
of that because we were behind the curtain that your
average guest wouldn't know that, for example, that whole second
(41:55):
floor could open up in things like that, right, But yeah,
of course, the other part of it was end of
an era and uh and so uh you know, but
but look, the flip side is I got to be
the person who who oversaw that transition, and so uh
that was a separate I guess it's right, new milestone,
(42:15):
new milestone, right.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
We Samir, We can't thank you enough. You oversee almost
three blocks worth of property, which is remarkable, and at
the same time you're uh, you and your company do
great things for the city. Were very appreciative and thank
you for taking the time to be with us today.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
No, I appreciate it. And and look when you say that, right,
it's it's humbling. And at the same time, uh, no
way I could do it without a great team. And
I know for you for example, y'all know many of them.
And uh, at the end of the day, I'm the
face of the organization, and so I get a lot
of credit that on the on the back of other
people's hard work, and and I try to always remember
(42:59):
that and and pay it forward. And again that's where
I'm so proud to be able to do it right
here at home. And so I really appreciate y'all having me,
and uh look forward for what's to come. With us us. Yeah,
we face super Bowl and everything is coming up here.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Good luck for the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yeah, we better make a lot of money, both of us.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Thank you again to all the great mag Wait for
the y yeah wait wait everybody
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