Vegas connection to Coast grows stronger

By TOM WILEMON
tewilemon@sunherald.com

LAS VEGAS – Corporate mergers have made the casino world smaller.

A decade ago, ownership connections between casinos on the Mississippi Coast and Las Vegas were scarce. Today, almost half the casinos here report to corporate parents there. The largest of the corporations, Harrah’s Entertainment and MGM Mirage, operate the Coast’s biggest casinos.

Their gamblers and employees will increasingly have opportunities to travel and work between the different markets.

Harrah’s arrival on the Coast is a big factor for this trend. The company, which now owns the Grand Casinos, prides itself on its database of 40 million gamblers and cross-markets its properties.

Clem Roux, a retired school teacher from New Orleans who drives an airport shuttle bus, is one of the people in the database. Using his Diamond Card and the points he accumulates on it, he goes to Las Vegas about twice a year.

The most recent trip was a slot tournament.

“They had a promotion where they offered members three free nights at either the Strip hotel or the Rio,” he said. “I stayed at the Strip property, but the slot tournament was at the Rio. What they did was shuttle you back and forth.”

He likes to play $15 to $20 hands of blackjack.

Another gambler with a whole different level of pay is Gene Bicknell, the chairman of NPC International Inc., the world’s largest Pizza Hut franchisee. He has visited casino resorts all over the world, but prefers the Mississippi Coast.

“This is my favorite of all the places,” Bicknell said in May when he visited the Imperial Palace. “Las Vegas has gotten too big. You don’t really get the individual attention that you do in a place like this.”

Bicknell said he usually goes to where Vic Vickrey, an old friend who manages player development for Imperial Palace, is working.

Vickrey was one of the first people from the Coast to work in Nevada’s casino industry and bring his experience and knowledge back home.

A handful of others have followed. A notable example is the new general manager at Grand Casino Gulfport. Jim Hoskins, who grew up in Jackson County, got the job after serving as CFO at Caesars Palace, which is also owned by Harrah’s.

Chris Latil, another Jackson County native, is serving as director of planning and analysis at Caesars Palace.

It’s his second stint in Las Vegas, where he lives with his wife, Tina Wilson Latil, another Coast native. She is a gaming audit supervisor at Mandalay Bay.

“If you’re away from the Strip, it’s just like any other city,” Latil said. “In my neighborhood, there’s a Chili’s and an Applebee’s. We go to a Catholic church here that has about 2,500 families. We looked around for a church. We went to five or six. They’re new and they’re packed. The church we go to, you’ve got to arrive 30 minutes before it starts just to get in. They’re all like that.”

The big adjustments are getting used to a faster pace, dealing with heavier streams of traffic and not getting to see family often enough, he said.

Housing and gasoline cost more in Las Vegas, he said, but those expenses are somewhat offset by the fact that Nevada has no state income tax.

Although he can water ski or snow ski within a short driving distance of Las Vegas, he still misses boating out to the barrier islands.

Leaving the beach sand to tread the desert sand is worth it, he said.

“It is the Mecca of gaming,” Latil said. “It is definitely a career opportunity.”

Source: Biloxi Sun Herald