Andre Carrier President & COO Eureka Casino Resort at Eureka Casino Resort Interview by Peter White
Could we commence this interview with an insight into the background of the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite and the Brook in Seabrook?
Eureka Casinos is a 100% employee-owned casino resort company headquartered in Mesquite, Nevada, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The Company’s signature property, The Eureka Casino Resort, is a premier destination for golfers and vacationers from across the globe. Visitors come to challenge themselves on some of the finest desert golf courses in the world or take in scenic views of Mesquite's red-topped mesas. The magic of Eureka is the beauty of its small-town charm mixed with its big time fun, facilities, and service that rivals any five-star resort. Renowned not only for the work they do to serve their guests but also their community, The Eureka is a central pillar in essential charity and service programs throughout the region. Widely known for its quality service, products, and innovative community service, Eureka was most recently recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top 100 Medium Workplaces in America – 2018.
In January 2019, Eureka Casinos acquired an iconic property located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, just over the border from Massachusetts and began a year-long, multimillion-dollar project to completely remodel and rebrand the 90,000 square foot facility as The Brook. The transformation included an ultramodern Race & Sportsbook, the largest of its kind within 300 miles, at the only pari-mutuel facility in New Hampshire. The new space offers stadium seating on couches and movie theater-style chairs with three cinema-size screens and hundreds of TVs, making it a premier destination on the Seacoast for watch parties and date nights, as well as group and corporate events. Recently, New Hampshire's first DraftKings Sportsbook retail location opened at The Brook adding to the overall sports experience.
Eureka Casinos is the only employee-owned gaming company in the United States. The opportunity to do things both differently better was the impetus behind the idea of becoming employee-owned. The Eureka views employees as family and have always wanted their employees to develop an “owner’s mindset” and feel that the Eureka is their company. In 2016, an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) was formed. Unlike a 401k that employees contribute to through their career, an ESOP grants shares over the course of a person’s career at no cost to the employee. The objective of the company is thus to provide positive returns to its employee shareholder and make a positive impact on the communities the business operates in while retaining its positioning as a great place to work.
Image: Andre Carrier, President & COO Eureka Casino Resort
How have the last 12 months been for Eureka Casinos?
The last 12 months have been a rollercoaster ride for everyone in the industry. For example, just over a year ago we closed for the first time ever and we weren’t even sure how to lock the doors. Uncertainty of reopening and what that would look like was a unique challenge. For employees – was it going to be safe for them to return to working full shifts? And for guests – would they return? Without any real blueprint, the company made the strategic decision to prioritize time and resources on the items with in their control.
Our employee owners were our top priority. During our closure, we paid our employees for as long as possible before any need for unemployment. The company funded 100% of their health care cost for the entire shut down. We also hosted a weekly drive through food pantry. We provided items for full meals including eggs, milk and Easter hams. The company made early investments in testing kits so we would have the capacity to provide the testing services that we believed would be essential. We made strategic partnerships with the medical and test lab industry which allowed us to have coinvent and frequent in-house testing. We developed a division for contact tracing and embraced a blue tooth driven technology to help us bet track and monitor the presence of the virus at our properties. We also communicated constantly with video and print messages with comprehensive briefings happening one to three times per week.
When it came to preparing for reopening, we charged forward identifying best practices and innovating solutions to make our casino safe for both guest and employees. We created a comprehensive safety protocol and trained our employee owners on the practices and standards. We designed and built and array of one of a kind safety equipment to address the most specific safety concerns.
At the same time, we were looking to help globally. Our founders, through the Ted & Doris Lee Family Foundation invested one million dollars to speed entrepreneurs in the development of innovations necessary to address the problems facing the hospitality, entertainment, or travel industries resulting from Covid-19. By partnering with The Lee Business School at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, these technologies and solutions ultimately made the industry safer for both guests and employees of the hospitality or travel sectors, which boasts roughly 330M jobs and an economic impact of $8.9 trillion dollars worldwide.
Closer to home, it became clear that resources were limited to get our community vaccinated. Since Mesquite is a rural part of Clark County (where Las Vegas is located), the challenge was getting our town vaccinated in a timely manner without having to drive the 90 miles to Las Vegas and compete for vaccination time slots with the millions of people who live in the Las Vegas metro area. We knew there had to be an efficient and effective way to accomplish this, so Eureka partnered with the city of Mesquite and Mesa View Hospital to accomplish the task. Eureka donated a venue, staff, money, and online resources to vaccinate thousands of people a week.
What have been amongst the biggest alterations to the Casino Gaming Areas to cope with the challenge presented by Covid-19?
In addition to the required regulations, we created a new department named the Clean Team. This roving group of sanitation experts focus is to keep public areas clean 24 hours a day, including sanitizing machines between each player and upon request, and doing deep overnight cleans.
We also fabricated all of our Plexiglas dividers, used at table games, slot machines, food outlets and hotel front desk, in-house. Not only did we save time and money, we were able to keep our engineers employed during the closure and have Plexiglas tailored perfectly to every application.
Are there any new games and displays at the Casinos that have been installed during periods of lockdown?
We took the time during our closure to evaluate how our gaming floor functions and what guests wanted in their casino experience. We were able to switch out some underutilized machines for new exciting games. We also added a non-smoking section to our Mesquite property.
What is the position on Cashless at the Casinos?
Going cashless in our casinos is a possibility in the future. We have discussed how this would look but there are still obstacles to overcome when going completely cashless. We have taken steps, including installing “do-it-all” kiosks in an effort to minimize cash transactions. At The Brook, we installed electronic table games that allow for cashless, chip less, card less game play. We are able to sanitized the machines between each player.
How important is the locations of both Casinos?
We believe that both pre and post pandemic, our casinos being in rural areas provide a peaceful, less congested settings. During the pandemic, positivity rates were never as high as the nearest metro areas – Las Vegas and Boston.
What percentage of your patrons in more normal times are local vs tourist/traveling business people?
We have guests visit our properties from all over the globe but the majority of our business comes from regional, drive-in markets. Because of this, we weren’t as affected by the travel restrictions that were put in place. We also saw an increase in that drive-in business because people were staying close to home when they did travel.
Eureka Casino Resort has a lot going on, with Golf, UTV Expeditions etc?
Mesquite, Nevada, is the perfect gateway to some of the best adventures and things to do in the American West, including:
• Zion National Park
• Bryce Canyon
• The North Rim of the Grand Canyon
• Brian Head Mountain
• Valley of Fire State Park
Blessed by more than 330 days of sunshine each year, Mesquite's scenic desert setting offers boundless opportunities for UTV tours, hiking, mountain biking, fishing and boating. Plus, Eureka is also located within 7 minutes of 7 world class golf courses.
What does the future look like for Eureka Casinos?
Everything is trending for 2021 to be a positive year. We constantly strive to be better and 2021 will certainly be a year where we accelerate our continual improvement in both our service standards and physical assets. Feeling the energy and buzz of people back in the casino, hearing guests cheering and yell when they win, is what we have been waiting twelve months for and we couldn't be more thankful.
Eureka Casino Resort also provides for Meetings and Events, is that now looking more favourable in the months ahead and what key aspects of the Resort make it a destination for company’s AGMs and Events?
People’s interest in holding in-person meetings is increasing once again. As restriction ease, we are welcoming more and more groups back to the property. The Eureka provides a perfect place for meetings because we have traditional and non-traditional meeting space coupled with a destination that provides entertainment and relaxation.
For those of our readership that like to travel and enjoy the facilities of a Resort Casino what would you like to say to them as to why they should choose your Eureka Casinos?
Our casinos provide a different casino experience than your large corporate properties. Being an employee-owned family business shine through in our approach with our guests. We live by our core values: serving our guests, community and one another with care, compassion, and dedication. We promise a great time in a safe casino environment with resort town hospitality.
...... Interview originally published July 2021 Casino Life Ukraine Issue 04 ......
