Commercial gaming companies need to up their game at building relationships and partnerships with tribal casinos, said casino executives and consultants on a panel last week at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow and Convention in Las Vegas.
Mike Salzman, senior vice president and head of Americas development for Caesar Entertainment, said trust has broken down in some tribal/commercial partnerships because they were not sustainable without changes being made.
CDC Gaming Reports quoted Salzman, “I think the development model is broken, and we are taking a fresh look at that model. There needs to be an alignment of interests and lines of creating value instead of destroying it.”
He added, “It’s a mode we are exploring. The existing model should fall by the wayside.” This model is being explored by Caesars in its new partnership with the Buena Vista Tribe, for whom it will provide consulting services and licensing for the $168 million Harrah’s Northern California Casino.
Unlike some earlier Indian casinos, this Harrah’s will be developed and owned by the tribal gaming authority. It will have 950 slots, 20 gaming tables and one fine dining restaurant.
Caesars now has two decades of experience working with tribes says that this model will increase earnings for the property incrementally without requiring a large capital investment.
Part of the discussion included social gaming in the future of tribal gaming. Some tribes are resistant to implementing social gaming, especially smaller gaming tribes. However, consultants warn that while the brick and mortar model will work for ten or 15 years, it will see revenues drop after that.
Social gaming accomplishes the goal of bringing customers to physical casinos while building up the market in groups that don’t normally patronize casinos.
Don Zillioux, chief executive officer for Strategic Development Worldwide, commented, “One of the things we have encountered throughout Indian country is that people come from the outside and most of the time fail miserably because they fail to understand the core culture of who they are. You can’t walk in acting like you are selling to a big organization like Caesars, a corporation with a lot of history. If you want to make a difference in Indian country, you have to understand what folks are all about. I have folks in the Apache nation teach me the language.”
