Hotel Online 
News for the Hospitality Executive


 

Inability to Control Costs
Hurts Las Vegas Casino

By Jeff Simpson, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jan. 18--Becky Binion Behnen's 5 1/2-year stint as owner of Binion's Horseshoe was a disaster, industry experts agreed.

What was once a dynamic gambling hall, a place that won money faster than any downtown casino not named Golden Nugget, is now closed, the victim, experts said, of massive incompetence.

After U.S. marshals last weekend entered her property and seized its cash on behalf of the Culinary's pension and health care plans, the Horseshoe was forced to close because Behnen was unwilling or unable to replenish the casino's bankroll.

When she took over control of the property from brother Jack Binion in 1998, she made a number of changes that experts say transformed the property from one of the city's most action-packed casinos into a run-of-the mill grind joint.

Gone was the casino's liberal comp policy and well-known policy of accepting any size bet.

Also removed were the property's second-floor bingo room and its former stand-alone sports book, which was merged with the race book.

Perhaps the most mentioned change was Behnen's removal and sale of the Horseshoe's famed million-dollar display, with 100 Salmon P. Chase-faced $10,000 bills.

The only remnant of the property's glory days, wags suggest, is the accumulated crud on the closed casino's chips.

There are two schools of expert thought on Behnen's tenure at the helm of the landmark downtown casino.

One school blames Becky and her lack of management skills and casino knowledge; the other blames Becky's husband, Nick Behnen, and considers him to be a boorish Svengali who manipulated his wife into frittering away her family's business.

"She didn't know how to operate a casino, and that was the Horseshoe's big problem after Jack left," University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor and casino industry expert Bill Thompson said. "People say that (family patriarch Benny Binion) put Jack and (brother Ted Binion) on the casino floor and Becky in the kitchen. She didn't have the ability to run a casino."

One of Behnen's key weaknesses was her inability to rein in costs, one industry insider said.

The Horseshoe employed more people on an employee-per-room basis than any significant Las Vegas hotel-casino, although its 1,700 employees in mid-2002 dwindled to about 900 at the time of the property's Jan. 9 closing.

"Way too many front-line workers, way too many security guards, and way too few managers to keep tabs on what the front-line workers are up to," the insider said.

Several other casino industry insiders said Behnen's management was incompetent, but blamed those around her, particularly Nick Behnen, who wasn't supposed to be actively involved in managing the property because of regulators' concerns about his background.

"Nick's known as an aggressive guy and a guy that wants to do things his way," said the insider. "Becky didn't do a single thing that Nick didn't tell her to do."

Others softened their criticism by saying that the Behnens were unprepared to deal with declining downtown market conditions, although they acknowledged that other downtown properties, including the Golden Nugget and the three Boyd Gaming casinos, have managed to adapt and thrive.

The Culinary union's top Las Vegas official, D. Taylor, said the property's workers suffered because of Behnen's incompetence.

"There's a feeling by the workers that some of the Horseshoe's best customers got run off," Taylor said. "They didn't keep the place up, and if you don't reinvest in a business, it deteriorates."

Also hampering Binion's was the lack of skilled managers, he said.

"In this day and age you have to have expertise in key areas," Taylor said. "They really had none of that expertise, and their management had a shallow bench."

Thompson said that the downtown market has been difficult for all properties, with even the successful casinos suffering from some erosion of their business as California and Arizona-based drive-in tourists increasingly stay at home and play in tribal casinos or visit the Strip or Laughlin instead.

The local customers who provided much of the property's midweek business now play at grander casinos in the suburbs, such as the Suncoast or Green Valley Ranch.

Despite the market's limitations, the Horseshoe was positioned to continue to thrive if its assets were nourished and needed reinvestments were made, Thompson said.

"She had a little jewel with the World Series of Poker, good restaurants and steady business," he said. "Jack Binion thrived when he had it, so you've got to point your finger at Becky if you're looking to blame someone for the Horseshoe's demise.

Even the World Series of Poker, which enjoyed meteoric growth and generated great publicity for the Horseshoe during Behnen's tenure, succeeded in spite of her rather than because of her, Thompson said.

Some 839 entrants paid $10,000 each to play in the 2003 championship event, and the winner collected a record $2.5 million. But experts noted that the growth came despite a widely reported record of conflict between Behnen, poker players, tournament managers and card dealers.

"The World Series of Poker is valuable to the Horseshoe's perception as a gambling house," Las Vegas Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis said. "The event keeps the property in the forefront, and is extraordinarily important."

-----To see more of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to www.lvrj.com.

(c) 2004, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

 
advertisement 
To search Hotel Online data base of News and Trends Go to Hotel.OnlineSearch
Home | Welcome| Hospitality News | Classifieds| Catalogs& Pricing |
Viewpoint Forum | Ideas&Trends | Press Releases
Please contact Hotel.Onlinewith your comments and suggestions.