The Back Nine: How Gila River ‘develops its own market’ to evolve consumer base
Gila River – Vee Quiva GM Myron Sundust recalls his own memorable experiences with golf and efforts made to expand the operator’s consumer base outside of neighboring states and the US entirely.
Hole 10 (347 yards, Par 4): Having been with Gila River for over 20 years, do you find this to be a common trait amongst the company’s staff?
Absolutely, we have a lot of 30+ year team members here, including our CEO Mr. Kenneth Manuel. It’s nice to see a lot of the seasoned team members have their kids now working with us, since I’ve met a lot of them and remember them when they were children, and now they’re starting careers. That means a lot to us as an enterprise because it does feel more family oriented, and that’s what I think is beautiful about our properties and our team here. It makes us unique in that sense and we really pride ourselves in having a good uh connection with our team members and long-tenured members as well.
Hole 11 (378 yards, Par 4): What features of Vee Quiva help the property stand out amongst fellow Gila River enterprises?
Currently in the West Valley, we’re the only casino that has bingo, and the other piece I feel is just our team overall. We have a good retention rate at Vee Quiva, so we’re very proud of that as a leadership group and it helps for not constantly having to train new team members and those who are long-tenured get better and better every day. The service improves, then the consistency and the quality is there to build relationships with those guests. The relationships that our team builds with our clients is what’s key for us and our uniqueness as well as our mountain west location.
Hole 12 (164 yards, Par 3): Does competition in California and Nevada help Gila River stay innovative in how it attracts new consumers, or perhaps provide inspiration as well?
I would say both. We definitely want to kind of learn and grow from the Las Vegas market, but Gila River develops its own market which is unique and different. We look to Vegas for them to be groundbreaking on certain technologies, new games, anything really, and we visit them quite often to gain inspiration on what we want to bring back to our market.
As far as competition, seeing that we’re neighbouring states with Nevada and even California, we do try to target some of the higher client base and draw attraction to our properties. Our player development team has been working diligently on building out that base, even going outside the Arizona markets, tackling Vegas, Washington, the Midwest, and even overseas where they’re starting to look into the London market as well.
Hole 13 (300 yards, Par 4): How has golf improved your own leadership career both on the casino floor and as GM of Vee Quiva?
It’s done a little bit of everything. It’s definitely helped me build some relationships and my network. I met a lot of great people through the game of golf, whether that’s in gaming, the Whirlwind team here, social media influencers, even celebrities, so it’s definitely built up my own personal brand. I’ve been able to travel to some amazing places, play some beautiful courses and again meet great people along the way.
And for the competitive side, yes, definitely. There’s some executives here at Gila River who have started to grow fond of the game as well. One is our President and CMO, Dominic Orozco, and he fell in love with the game just as much as I do. So now there’s a competitiveness between us and of course there’s always a lot of other golfers among the enterprises that are very competitive in nature already, so this just helps enable that even further.
Hole 14 (118 yards, Par 3): What types of events, even outside of golf, is Gila River able to provide its customers on a yearly basis?
Gila River as a whole contains a lot of development primarily around our Wild Horse Pass Resort and Casino. We have a development team that oversees our Rawhide Entertainment entity, which puts on big name acts, shows and raves. We’ve partnered with Relentless Beats in the past to host shows, the Sheraton Grand is one of our premier destinations.
When you come here, you’re on your own little island, so to speak, you don’t necessarily need to go far to get everything that you need. That’s what this destination provides for us and we’re also looking at doing this for other properties such as Santan Mountain. My property, Vee Quiva, is possibly looking to do some development out there for the West Valley residents and extend our market reach.
Hole 15 (461 yards, Par 5): What are some of the memorable moments you’ve experienced on the golf course since choosing to take up the sport?
It’s hard to choose. I had my first hole-in-one here at Whirlwind, which was what we just played here on Devil’s Claw number seven. Hit it on the front middle of the green and it just moved slightly left and rolled in. That was the first and only hole-in-one of my short golf career, but it couldn’t have happened on a better hole. It’s the signature hole here at Whirlwind on Devil’s Claw, so I was ecstatic about that one. I didn’t really know if it went in or not. I thought it rolled behind the flag, but one friend was cheering for me, the other one was like, ‘Did it go in? Did it go in?’ so I was kind of torn. But when we drove up, it was in there, so that was really cool.
Again, all the people I’ve met, the team here’s been great. I love the culture that they’ve built here and it pretty much mirrors what we’ve built at Gila River Resorts and Casinos as well. I also got to be around all the LPGA pros, including my favorite Jeeno Thitikul, who is ranked world number one. I got to play with her in the pro-am and cheer her on as she went out.
Also, the clinics that I’ve partnered with at Whirlwind to put on for the Gila River youth out here and it was very meaningful. The LPGA was nice enough to work with us and hold a youth day, which meant a lot to us and it was very nice to see all the community youth come out who have no idea about golf but get excited about it and want to learn more. The LPGA players were great to work with, they truly cared about building up the youth, working with them and just giving them some inspiration as well.
Hole 16 (358 yards, Par 4): Despite having earned your first hole-in-one here, what do you believe is the toughest hole at the Whirlwind Golf Course?
The hardest one, gosh, it would have to be number 14 at Cattail for me. So number 14, it’s short but deadly, meaning there’s water all along the left side. So if you hit it long to the left, you could put it into water, and then there’s all kinds of bunker activity on the right side. You really have to split through the two and get your distance just right. Even then, if you are lucky enough to land it on the fairway, your approach shot still has water all to the left and again bunkers to the right.
If the groundsmen are having a bad day, and they put you on the left side near the water, you could be in trouble. But if you are able to get a par there, you take it, smile and run away. But that to me is one of the toughest holes out here.
Hole 17 (484 yards, Par 5): Given the hesitation some Tribal entities have in integrating sports betting, did Gila River see it as a necessity to form a partnership with BetMGM?
I wasn’t really part of the implementation of it all, but I know again that we were just looking to maximize the amended compact with the state of Arizona. I don’t feel we knew exactly how well it was or wasn’t going to do, we just wanted something to benefit ourselves, and it’s been a great addition to our properties and it does give it that true Vegas feel. That’s what some of our guests look for, but now that we have all of this, they don’t have the need to travel to Las Vegas or California to get certain game types.
It has been helpful and impactful in that way and we do have some heavy sports bettors here in Arizona that don’t have to go to Vegas. They can do it here at our properties and we’re happy to accommodate, and we welcome the partnerships with BetMGM and what they’re doing in their market in that respect. It made us unique and I’m not sure how the other Tribes perceived it or what their thought processes are on it, but just speaking from our perspective, I feel that’s how we benefited from the partnership.
Hole 18 (380 yards, Par 4): To finish, what can guests expect from Gila River properties for the remainder of 2025, as well as in the years ahead?
Guests can always expect the great service that our team provides, entertainment value, dining and hospitality. In terms of the rest of 2025 we’re going to continue to listen to the market, try to feed off that whether it’s through new capital projects or renovations. We’re always going to do our best to give the guests a quality product and great experience. Within our executive team, we really want to drive home the word ‘hospitality’ to our team members, so that guests can truly feel as if they’re coming into a five-star resort at any one of our properties.
For the future, again, we will do what we can to stay competitive in our market, learn and grow as leaders, as an enterprise and as a community. I’m very proud of the direction we’re heading.
The Front Nine interview with Myron can be found in the September/October edition of Gaming America
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