Dealing In
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By Kirsten Srinivasan   
Tuesday, 14 March 2006
When Golden Gaming Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Blake Sartini first bought a group of taverns in 2001, his intention was to increase his slot route business, but it did not take him long to realize the group's own potential. Todd Kunesh, director of operations for the Golden Tavern Group, says Sartini discovered “working with the tavern group was a fun time and a good chance for a good venture.”

Accordingly, Sartini decided to grow his tavern business. Today, Golden Tavern Group is the largest operator of taverns in Nevada and includes four brands: PT’s Gold, PT’s Place, PT’s Pub and Sierra Gold. “His goal is to have 70 in the state of Nevada by 2008,” Kunesh adds. “We'll have 46 at the end of the year.”

The company is in the process of developing and opening six new taverns in 2006. Kunesh says the Golden Tavern Group will continue to grow by “developing new sites, developing properties and buying existing locations and rebranding and remodeling them.”

The marketplace is booming in Nevada, one of the fastest-growing states nationwide. “The migration to the Southwest has proven to be exceptional as Nevada led the country during the 1990s with population growth of 66 percent, which is more than five times the U.S. average,” the company notes. “We believe this migration will continue as the appeal of Nevada’s pro-business climate, tax structure and cost of living should continue to attract a broad range of companies, a diverse employment base and an influx of retirees. The population boom will greatly benefit Golden Gaming’s existing businesses and create new opportunities in Nevada.”

Construction and population growth are helping boost business, Kunesh states. Construction workers often come into the taverns after work “for entertainment, gaming and food and beverage,” he notes.

The company’s taverns feature slots, video poker, sports on TV and award-winning bar food. Gaming accounts for approximately 65 percent of its revenue, while food and beverage accounts for approximately 35 percent of revenue.

Kunesh says the tavern group is constantly seeking new ways to improve. “We are state-of-the-art – cutting edge,” he emphasizes. “Our biggest competitor is ourselves. We challenge ourselves to raise the bar on what we are doing.

“Each tavern competes with each other to have better service and numbers, and as a company we compete with ourselves. Each project we do, we want to be better than the last one we did. How do you grow a business?

“You learn from what you did the first time, and the second time, you do it better, develop better concepts and challenge yourselves.”

The company has a “make-a-difference” or MAD philosophy to “challenge yourself on margins daily and challenge yourself on growth and profits of the facility,” he says. MAD culture is embedded in the employees starting from day one, he says.

“It's hard enough for a team member to leave home for nine hours with travel time, to leave their mom, dad, boyfriend, girlfriend, cat or dog and want to work,” he says. “They need a make-a-difference attitude on guest service and on how [they] perform duties.”

The company's training emphasizes treating customers as guests, he says. “When we hire a bartender, they get reclassified as a bar host,” Kunesh explains. “We want them to tend bar and treat guests as casino hosts would. They have to develop those gamers and develop them as regular customers.

“They want to meet their needs, take care of them, and take them places, if they want to go to dinner and the movies, also. They act as hosts, the same as casino hosts would. “We train our bar hosts that from beginning. They are not gaming bartenders – they are bar hosts.”

Challenging Market
Nevada is a competitive market for taverns, he notes. “The marketplace has changed all the time,” Kunesh states. “More taverns are popping up on every corner. Everyone is trying to outdo each other. We feel we are No. 1 in the business and try to outdo each other. Our competitors are ourselves. It's a tough business. I don't talk badly about competitors. It's a tough business to make it happen. It is not as easy as people think.”

The biggest challenge is finding the right employees, he says. Golden Gaming uses drug testing and background checks to help ensure it has quality staff.

“The challenge is competing with casinos to get the correct team members involved,” he states. “We pay a good wage, but we are up against the big boys with casinos, and sometimes they offer big packages with healthcare and benefits. It's a challenge to keep up with casinos. “Our biggest worry with opening properties is attaining good team members both for back of the house and front of the house to open these places up.”

The company uses job fairs and grass-roots methods to recruit new employees. “We also try to recruit from other people,” he notes. “We do have managers and regional managers who have been in town and know a lot of people. A lot of team members want to work for Golden Tavern Group.

“One of my big goals is to develop a regional managers team and tavern managers team that rocks and outdoes anyone else in town,” he adds.

Overall, Golden Gaming consists of Golden Casino Group, Golden Tavern Group and Golden Route Operations. The company will reach its fifth anniversary in October.

Golden Gaming first got into the casino business with acquisitions in 2005. The Golden Casino Group includes Golden Mardi Gras, Golden Gates and Golden Gulch casinos in Black Hawk, Colo.

Kunesh says casinos are a natural fit for the company, considering Sartini, Vice President and CFO Rod Atamian, and many other management team members have casino backgrounds. Sartini was a COO at Station Casinos Inc. from March 1997 to September 2001.
 
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