Casino Entertainment: Transitioning To The Next Era (Pollstar Live! Recap)

 Anyone who has gone to Pollstar Live! or read the magazine over the past couple of decades knows the casino business has evolved far beyond the banquet halls and buffet loss-leaders of the old days, but with gaming and hospitality as a core business for mega-resorts across the country — and properties varying wildly from one to the other — challenges remain in fitting in with “regular” venues, in many ways and on many levels.

“What we do as a company is try to educate and build out an awareness to the new generation of entertainment,” says Kell Houston of Houston Productions, who buys talent for dozens of dozen tribal properties and fairs in the U.S. Among challenges at his amphitheater venues in particular include trying to independently fit into national amphitheater tour routings. “The acts that would never play casinos are playing casinos now, but the properties are a little slow to make changes and catch up, so it’s a challenge.”

Good news is that there’s a lot of talent looking for good opportunities in casino venues, from high-class amenities in smaller markets to marquee plays in Glitter Gulch.

“(The next generation of casino talent) is coming from all different angles,” said Deana Baker of Choctaw Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, which includes the 3,500-seat Grand Theater. She notes younger country artists coming up including, Zach Top and Red Clay Stays, but plenty of other genres. “We’re kind of stepping out of the box, we’re doing Diplo and we’ve done Marilyn Manson and Five Finger Death Punch. We’re going across all genres to try to get the next group of folks to come in as our young gamers.”

Moderator and tribal casino entertainment mainstay Billy Brill of DWP Talent Services brought some show-biz flair to the discussion, cracking jokes about competing venues and poking fun at the “trust fund kids” in the audience still recovering from long weekends in the desert for Coachella. With a bit of Rodney Dangerfield, he asked bluntly if casinos get any respect from the artist side of the entertainment business. 

The lone agent on the panel, Dan Boyle of WME, was more than able to handle himself.

“My advice you’re not asking for is if you behave like ‘a casino,’ they’ll probably treat you like one,” said Boyle, who represents artists including LL Cool J and the Beach Boys along with casino-specific bookings. He and others on the panel agreed that the tribal and gaming-focused industry can operate differently from other players in the industry that are more focused solely on hard ticket sales to make a living. Expectations from casino stakeholders can vary wildly on matters of fine print on contracts and riders, which is especially complex with dealing with tribal laws, and they may need to roll with the punches on things the rest of the industry considers normal.

“If you behave like a professional venue — the hot drinks are hot, the cold drinks are cold, the artists are treated with respect — if you do those things, your pricing will be more desirable because people will want to play your venue. Otherwise there’s always an asterisk — ‘Well, it’s an OK venue, but they force the meet and greet, we’ve got too many people showing up in the dressing rooms or whatever. They won’t pull cash from their cage for no reason.’”

Of course, the hospitality-focused nature of the casino business has led to a competitive environment and development of first-class venues in recent years, with properties including multiple Hard Rock Live venues, MGM’s Dolby Live hosting high-profile, long-term residencies and tribal properties like Thunder Valley Resort near Sacramento investing $100 million in a new bespoke theater venue.

“The only limitation like I said before is when the facility can’t handle the tour; that’s when we’re losing the act,” said Joe Moallempour of DWP Talent Services. It’s a problem not specific to casinos but still a challenge when some properties are able to accommodate large tours while others are less robust when it comes to rigging capacity or other requirements. “There’s still a handful of acts that won’t tour casinos, unless it’s a Vegas casino or a fully fledged room like Thunder Valley or Agua Caliente or Foxwoods.”

Regardless of the type of venue or casino property, there’s always the question of what kind of entertainment makes sense and why.

“What I tell our stakeholders is that every show will check a certain number of boxes,” said Paul Davis, senior vice president of entertainment at MGM in Las Vegas, which includes three arenas and high-profile residencies like Usher’s extended stay at the top-notch Dolby Live theater at Park MGM. “Certain artists will check all the boxes – iconic, going to sell well, great crowd – and that’s great if you want to do six shows a year, but if you want 60, 70, 80 shows at your venue, you’ve got to get people buying into the fact that you’re not going to check all the  boxes on every single show.”