Friday, February 4
Changing Roles of Casino Venues
Moderator: Billy Brill, Billy Alan Productions
Leanna Hoffman, Agua Caliente Spa & Casino
Steve Blanck, Gayle Force Entertainment
Tinti Moffat, William Morris Agency
Lori Otelsberg, Signature Entertainment & Promotions
Stephan Boyd, MPI Talent Agency
Crisper Stanford, Caesars Entertainment
Steve Gietka, Trump Taj Mahal Entertainment

Native American gaming has come a long way from parking lots and bingo halls, moderator Billy Brill of Billy Alan Productions said. And with the casino boom taking place all over the country, what does it mean to the concert industry?

“Money, wealth and success for every one of us in this room,” Brill said, plus more and better venues for artists to perform.

“If we’re going to make this casino industry work, we have to be honest with ourselves, have integrity and most importantly, we have a responsibility to give our casinos the edge,” he added.

Brill began the session by asking the panelists whom they think raises the prices of the acts – the agents or competitors? The panelists were split.

“Both, actually,” said Steve Blanck of Gayle Force Entertainment, which oversees entertainment for Harrah’s properties. “It really depends on the situation. In a lot of territories, there are competing casinos and it can create a bidding war and that drives the prices up.

“On the other hand, you’ve got agents who always try to be, or sometimes try to be, the hero and try to get the best price for their act. I don’t blame them; that’s their job. But we’re all in this together. When bidding wars start, it’s bad for business, bad for everyone.”

“I think it’s the demand,” said Crisper Stanford of Caesars Entertainment. “At some point, whether it’s the agent or whether it’s the buyer, I think it’s the demand for the artist. Ultimately, that’s the bottom line.”

He also pointed out that concerts are an amenity for casino patrons, and not the main cash flow.
“We’re not concert promoters. There’s a misconception. We don’t do concerts to make money, we don’t have restaurants to make money, we don’t have hotels to make money. We are in the gaming industry, period. And it’s not always a fair situation.”

Stanford explained that a casino can lose money at the gate on a concert but still show an increase in the casino’s drop.

The panelists said players’ club cards help in deciding what type of entertainment to bring in. They track where patrons spend their money and determine the average age of a casino’s concert audience, among other factors.

Casinos look at demographics and whether an act is willing to spend time with the venues’ VIP players.

“A lot of it is the ease of the artist to work with,” Stanford said. “If they’re easy to work with, they’ll give you more meet-and-greets with your players. If they just go that extra mile, that goes a long way, too.

“It goes back to: We’re in the business of taking care of our players, and meet-and-greets are huge to us.”

Establishing and maintaining good relationships with agents regarding routing and getting acts booked in a timely manner are also priorities.

“It’s absolutely a great value to get a routed date,” Tinti Moffat of William Morris Agency said. “We’re always trying to seed for the future. I have the best relationship with those buyers out there who are open to receive ideas and open to try and figure out something new to give to their players.”
When the discussion turned to working with agents and others to land a specific act, Stanford had to interrupt.

“This is probably opening up a can of worms. The whole thing, to me, is as casino buyers, we’re paying you (the artist) to do a job, period,” he said. “The bottom line is it’s basic business; we buy the acts, we should have more control over what the acts do.”

Stanford added that regardless of how talented and accomplished an artist is, if casinos are paying a premium price for their services, why not do the gig?

Brill then called on CAA agent Brett Steinberg to come to the mic. The discussion got a bit heated from there.

“If a casino is taking a date away from a promoter who’s had a relationship with the act for many, many years, a casino should pay a premium on that artist,” Steinberg said. “They’re making ancillary income called gaming.”

Stanford and Steinberg disagreed on who profits more and who takes more risks booking an act.
“You’re booking an artist to make money on a drop,” Steinberg said.

“So, you’re mad because we’re making money?” Stanford asked.

Steve Gietka of Trump Taj Mahal Entertainment interjected it’s a misconception that casinos always make money on a show.

“When a promoter takes a bath, he gets all the love. But when [casinos] constantly pay a premium, and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t an uncommon occurrence, no one wants to hear about that loss,” Gietka said. “I think it’s about a little more common courtesy and a little more understanding about what really happens.”