Joe DeSimone
5 QUESTIONS
Joe DeSimone bought the Railroad Pass casino and hotel from MGM Resorts 10 years ago . He has spent that time upgrading the casino , adding hotels , truck stops and a new standalone restaurant , the Bullet Train . In the meantime , he bought a casino from Boyd Gaming in downtown Henderson he renamed the Pass Casino , and he ’ s also building a hotel there , the first for that neighborhood in Henderson . DeSimone was new to the casino business when he first started , but he ’ s now ramping up the gaming options at both properties . He spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros at his office in Henderson in June . To hear and view the GGB Podcast , visit GGBMagazine . com .
1
GGB : As someone who had never been in the casino industry before , what did you see in the Railroad Pass ? Why were you interested , and how did the sale go from MGM ? DeSimone : My interest was that I considered the casino business as a kind of a sexy business for a young person at the time . And also a challenge . I wanted a change in my career , and that ’ s why it attracted me .
For MGM , it wasn ’ t a critical asset for them , but it was for me . They gave me a good price and they walked me through the licensing process . They were really good people , and they still are .
2
What did you see that you wanted to change immediately when you got in there ?
I wanted to make a statement to the people of Boulder City and South Henderson , as well as the customers and employees . We immediately did a lot of improvements to the property . We painted it , we replaced the roof , replaced the air conditioning system . We redid the rooms ; now I ’ ve just redone them again . So we wanted to make a statement that we ’ re here and we ’ re going to invest the capital . And we ’ re going have some fun doing it .
3
You also added a truck stop , a large convenience store with fast food , and a gas station .
What was the thought behind that ? That experiment worked . If you park a truck at Railroad Pass , there ’ s not much in the way of options for food or accommodations . We have a casino with three restaurants , and we now have the Bullet Train restaurant . We also have entertainment and a sportsbook , and we have rooms . We have a separate menu for truckers , and they enjoy it . It ’ s kind of a captive audience , and it ’ s fun to see the same guys come through once or twice a week that are on different paths . So it ’ s been a good experience done very well .
4
Halfway through this process , you were able to buy the Boyd-owned casino in downtown
Henderson and transform that into the Pass Casino . What was the thinking behind that ? Well , my first thought was economies of scale as it relates to my management people , whether it ’ s HR , security or maintenance . And it went a long way towards saving some costs , but also generating revenues with the multi-play card system from Aristocrat . We ’ ve invested a lot of money in the Pass and have exciting things happening there , too .
5
Joe DeSimone
Owner , Railroad Pass and the Pass Casinos , Henderson , Nevada
You recently removed table games from Railroad Pass . Why did you do that ? Are you considering electronic table games ? The time had come . We had one pit of games for a very long time . It was a loss leader . There wasn ’ t much demand for the games — we just weren ’ t getting enough play . And the cost of running one pit with six tables is extremely high . We learned at the Pass , when we took the table games out of there , we saved a bunch of money and actually the slots picked up . The coin-in picked up , and so did our hold .
We ’ re still trying to figure out if it would help to add ETGs . I went over with my slot people today , which machines I wanted , and we ’ re getting pricing now .
“ They Said It ”
“ We ’ re not people who think in the short term .”
— Patrick Dumont , president and COO of Las Vegas Sands Corp . and the new governor of the Dallas Mavericks , telling reporters his family has a lot of patience waiting for the fortunes to change in Texas when it comes to gambling
CALENDAR
September 2-4 : SiGMA East Europe , Hungexpo Budapest Congress and Exhibition Centre Hall E , Budapest , Hungary . Produced by SiGMA Group . For more information , visit sigma . world / cis /.
September 10-13 : European Conference for the Study of Gambling ( EASG ), A . Roma Lifestyle Hotel , Rome , Italy . Produced by the European Association for the Study of Gambling . For more information visit EASG . org .
September 24-26 : SBC Summit , Feira Internacional De Lisboa , Lisbon , Portugal . Produced by SBC Events . For more information , visit sbcevents . com / sbc-summit .
October 7-10 : Global Gaming Expo ( G2E ), The Venetian Expo , Las Vegas , Nevada . Produced by Reed Exhibitions . For more information , visit globalgamingexpo . com .
October 21-24 : World Lottery Summit , Paris , France . Produced by the World Lottery Association . For more information , visit world-lotteries . org .
November 11-14 : SiGMA Europe , Mediterranean Maritime Hub , Xatt il-Mollijiet , Marsa , Malta . Produced by SiGMA Group . For more information , visit sigma . world / europe .
November 27-28 : Eastern European Gaming Summit , Inter Expo Center , Sofia , Bulgaria . Produced by the Association of Gaming Industry in Bulgaria . For more
8 Global Gaming Business AUGUST 2024