Vol. 5, No. 7, July 2008
RSS Feeds
Q & A: Interview with Joe Domenico
Interview with Joe Domenico President, Bally’s Atlantic City
For years, Joe Domenico headed up table and slot operations at Harrah’s Atlantic City as vice president of gaming. For the past several years, he has held executive positions at Harrah’s properties throughout the Midwest. He is now back in town as the new president of Bally’s Atlantic City, where he has a tough act to follow, succeeding longtime Bally’s chief Ken Condon. He spoke with Casino Connection Publisher Roger Gros and Editor Frank Legato at his office in June. To hear a full version of this interview or others, go to www.casinoconnectionac.com and click on Boardwalk Podcast.
Casino Connection: You started in Atlantic City. How does it feel to come home to run one of the company’s most important casinos?
Joe Domenico: It’s a pleasure to come back home. We had great relationships and great properties in the Midwest. Hopefully I’ll bring some of those good Midwestern values as they relate to service and bring them back to Atlantic City.
Have you been back long enough to have a vision of where you see Bally’s going?
We now have a four-property strategy in Atlantic City. We’ve put some significant investment into Showboat as well as Harrah’s, we’re in the process of completing some changes at the Caesars property, and we are just beginning here at Bally’s.
We’ve completed three new restaurants offerings up on the sixth floor—6ix the Bistro, the Red Pearl Asian restaurant, and the soon-to-be-open Reserve, which is our seafood and steak house. That’s the first aspect in completing our sixth floor destination experience. Right now we’re thinking about how we’ll master plan the rest of the facility, particularly the casino floor. It’s a piece of the asset that hasn’t had significant investment for quite a period of time.
One of the changes is closing the first floor of the Claridge Casino. Why did that happen?
We found after some significant analysis, and really as a result of the Sands closing, that the critical mass at that part of the facility just wasn’t there. That first floor, we found, was more like an appendage to the building; it was like working in the basement. So we said, ‘Lets move everything upstairs. Let’s create an exciting gaming environment that’s consistent all the way through the Wild West, all the way through the Claridge.’ It made sense to take all the table games down on that first floor and move them up to the third, so now there is essentially one level of gaming throughout the facility. It works better from a customer and traffic flow standpoint.
Will improvements include room upgrades?
Yes, because they provide an additional 500 rooms to what was originally Bally’s foundation. So rooms are key. Rooms are key to the whole future of Atlantic City.
You continue to emphasize the convention business.
We have found it’s a very profitable and strong business at Bally’s. With the rooms we now have, we run in excess of 95 percent a night, even during non-peak times, because we can supplement the gaming business with conventioneers.
One of the objections about the smoking ban is that it could hit the Asian business badly. What’s your prediction about how it will impact that customer?
Every one of our markets that had smoking had between a 15 and 20 percent impact on overall business (when smoking bans went into effect). The challenge for us here, as well as our competitors and sister properties in the market, is that the 25 percent smoking that we do allow is primarily in the high-end areas: high-end slots and high-end tables. That’s my main concern, because those customers have been allowed to continue to smoke.
As for Harrah’s policy on a national level, we would have preferred to see non-smoking in every market, but the issue goes state by state, versus being mandated federally. But by October, we will be in full compliance, with smoking lounges ready to go in strategic locations for those customers who desire to have a smoke.
Bally’s has been known as a great slot house ever since it opened. Now that a slot guy is in charge, do you plan to tweak the slot ops?
Well, I’m not necessarily a slot guy; I have a finance background and came up through the ranks that way. As far as our slots, we’ll continue to enhance the offerings in each one of our locations—that being the West, that being the Bally’s main floor, as well as in the Claridge. We’ve had some new game offerings that we just brought on board. We did bring in Rapid Roulette for table games; we also brought in roulette slot machines. So any new game offering that’s available will be on the Bally’s floor. We prefer to be first to market when we can, and that’s our focus because it is a great slot house. And being at center Boardwalk, you can’t overcome the location.
We understand that Trump Plaza is installing an entire floor of electronic poker tables. Are electronic table games something you’ll be looking at more and more?
They have performed rather well down at our Cherokee property, so at some point we’ll take a look at them. We find that Rapid Roulette, being our first venture in, has been good in terms of real customer appeal from both a table game standpoint and a slot standpoint, because it has all the attributes of a slot machine as well.
How about server-based gaming? There’s such a buzz in the industry about it; MGM City Center has announced they’re going to have a totally server-based floor when they open next year. Is this something you’re preparing for?
Not as of yet, but Harrah’s as a brand is, in terms of our strategic slot team. We’re looking at some point to enhance our coupon offerings through our slot machines called Real Rewards, and we look at some point in the future to have the downloadable credit technology when the technology has the flexibility to meet not just Bally’s needs or Harrah’s or Caesars in our marketplace, but over 40 properties domestically and soon going worldwide. It will be a considerable investment.
Are customers ready for it?
I don’t have a feel for it yet. It’ll depend on the experience of the customer. There are things we’ve invested in that took off without question, and customers didn’t even look back. When we went to ticket technology, for example, the customers never looked back at coin, and originally we were all skeptical about it. It all depends on what the customers want.
Bally’s has been known for sponsoring major events at Boardwalk Hall. Will you continue to do that?
Yes. It may be wrapped up the in Caesars brand, because it’s known now that Harrah’s will change its name to Caesars Entertainment. That’s a great icon in gaming and we are a separate brand under the Caesars brand. We’ll continue to support Boardwalk Hall, particularly in boxing; we’re changing the entertainment strategy here and offering shows in our respective ballrooms—Kenny Loggins, John Rich of Big & Rich—trying more of the monthly shows versus the conventional production shows we’ve had in the past. Boardwalk Hall will be continue to be supported by all four properties.
Your neighbor next door is Caesars Atlantic City. How closely do you work with Caesars and with Dan Nita?
We work closely with all the properties in the market. We share customers among all properties through our “four-stop strategy.” We do market events collectively and we coordinate our calendars to make sure we’re not running over one another in terms of events, while still providing customers with choices.
At one point there was talk about re-theming Bally’s. Is that completely off the table?
Right now it’s on the back burner, because we’re still the second or third highest-grossing property, fighting back and forth with our sister property, Harrah’s.
You took over for Ken Condon. How did you get the employees used to the change?
Kenny’s a great guy and an icon in Atlantic City who had a great rapport with the staff. I’ve just been getting out there, talking to the folks, customers as well as each one of the team members. It’s a big property, almost 5,000 employees and though I like to say I can remember 5,000 names, I’m not quite that good. We want the best for each and every employee. If we have happy employees we’ll have happy customers, and at the end of the day that will benefit us financially. That’s the overall goal.
