CASINO COMMUNICATIONS
Q
& A
Cynthia Kiser Murphey
General Manager , The Palms
Cynthia Kiser Murphey had a long and distinguished career with MGM Resorts , leading its human resources efforts for 15 years and later as president and CEO of New York-New York in Las Vegas from 2008 until May 2020 . She was recently hired as the general manager of the Palms Casino Hotel in Las Vegas , which is now owned by the San Manuel tribe of Southern California , the first Las Vegas casino resort owned and operated by a Native American gaming venture . The Palms will reopen in the spring . Murphey sat down with GGB Publisher Roger Gros on the day after the deal with previous owner Station Casinos closed . For a full GGB Podcast of this interview , visit GGBMagazine . com .
GGB : What attracted you to the Palms ?
Cynthia Kiser Murphey : I think the Palms is a very unique , and a bit of a boutique asset for our community and for our industry , and there are tremendous opportunities to leverage everything that the Palms has . A meticulous job was done to remodel and to carefully think about how to reenergize and refresh it . So it ’ s a real opportunity to take what ’ s here .
Station bought the Palms three years ago , and they were able to put half a billion dollars into renovating it . It ’ s a beautiful property ; it ’ s still almost brand new . What do you have to do to open the doors ?
Well , first and foremost , hire back 1,200 Las Vegans — get 1,200 Nevadans back to work . That ’ s super important .
There ’ s a bit of work to do operationally too . When we were with the Gaming Commission yesterday , I made reference to “ If you leave your TV turned off for a couple years …” So the sportsbook needs technology as well as other areas of the resort .
We also need to do some work in the back of the house to refresh some of the employee areas , and make that more consistent with the values of the San Manuel organization . The tribe ’ s values are a really important message to the employees .
There have always been these great themed suites on the property . They had the Playboy suite , they had a basketball suite . They ’ ve got swimming pools in some of the suites . Are you going to continue still to offer those kinds of themes ?
The suites are a really exciting thing , and when we bring on a new executive to send them on the tour they are very impressed . They ’ re outstanding , and they are in great condition , and just the experiences we can bring to guests will be really , really amazing . So , I look forward to that .
You must appeal to locals to be successful . Will you offer what they want — good video poker , reasonable table game rules , a buffet and a progressive players club ?
Very much so . We ’ re looking at that , and I think what I ’ ve learned so far about the Palms is there was a lot of geography based on the different entryway doors , so that will be kind of an interesting play on how to merchandise the gaming floor , and really to look at different day parts and look at different customer segments . Embracing the Las Vegas community will be extremely important .
Obviously you didn ’ t get the Station database when you bought the place , but how are you planning to build a new database of customers ?
We ’ re working on some plans right now to start building that , and that ’ s obviously going to be a core component of the Palms . And doing it deliberately . This market has changed a lot . The pandemic changed all of the market conditions , so what do we do to respond to that and really come out with something fresh and new for the customer ? That will be a very big focus of our team .
Another thing that the Palms has always been famous for is its food and beverage . When Station opened , they had a couple of celebrity chefs like Michael Symon Mabel ’ s BBQ . What kind of plans do you have for the food and beverage outlets here ?
Well , Michael Symon is definitely a big part of it . He actually came to see us ; we just met with him recently in Mabel ’ s . A few members of our team went to Cleveland a few months ago to enjoy his amazing barbecue . We ’ re also very excited about the steakhouse , Scotch 80 Prime . And really adding an element that I believe was initially intended — we know what Scotch 80 means if you live in Las Vegas ; it ’ s in a historic neighborhood of Las Vegas , and we ’ ll celebrate that , tying that to the fame of that steakhouse . I ’ m super excited about doing that .
Tell us about how you plan to build an executive staff . You have this great background in human resources , so what are your plans to recruit some of the executives you want to bring in here ?
We ’ re going to be a small and mighty team of people , working hard to bring together people with the right skill set with the right approach and philosophy . It ’ s very important for us to be completely aligned with the values of San Manuel , and the rich history and the culture , the real commitment to people , the real humble approach to how we do business , and finding the right people will be crucial . And that ’ ll be my job in the next 90 days — to get that group fired up and get everybody lined up with all the things we needed to do to get open .
This is the first hotel casino in Las Vegas that ’ s owned by a Native American tribe . Actually , their hospitality arm , we have to make that designation . But that must be exciting , to be able to take the lead in something that ’ s really groundbreaking like this .
The moment of history is not lost on me . It ’ s very symbolic and very important for San Manuel and for GHA — the Gaming and Hospitality Authority — it ’ s very important that we do this right . And we have a legacy to create for them , and we own that . And we ’ re going to do everything we can to honor them and to represent them and to be the kind of property that they can be proud of .
54 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2022