From the course: The front nine with Gila River

Hole One (367 yards, par 4) 

In the 20-plus years you have worked with Gila River Resorts & Casinos, how have you seen the properties expand its presence across Arizona? 

We started out in a little slot house way back in the day here in Chandler, and since then it’s been community-based and building out our brand as new leaders. We eventually expanded into Wild Horse Pass, which is now our flagship, then we opened Vee Quiva and also now our newest property Santan Mountain out in the Gilbert area.  

So the brand has evolved over the years and we’ve changed some of our marketing campaigns as the area continued to evolve itself and as we started to attract new consumers from all over – California, Chicago, the Midwest – where we’ve seen people flood into the Arizona marketplace. We’ve had to adapt and be sure to obviously stay true to our original brand of Gila River, while still maintaining a focus on doing what the market tells us. 

Hole Two (342 yards, par 4) 

What type of impact has golf had on Gila River Resorts & Casinos? 

Great question. Golf has done wonders for us, especially in the flagship property Wild Horse Pass, which is just half a mile away from the Whirlwind Golf Club. We also have our Sheraton Grand property that does some deals with Whirlwind as well. Since Covid-19, golf has picked up quite a bit in terms of new players, attraction and the base has grown for the golf community. More recently, the LPGA just did their first stop here at Whirlwind Golf Club in March and it was really nice to have all of that client base come out for support. The female pro golfers were also able to stay at the Wild Horse Pass Casino and the Sheraton Grand Resort.  

They took advantage of all the amenities here; it was really nice to bring all the crowds in and, from what we understood, it was one of the highest-ever LPGA turnouts in Arizona and brought 19 of its top 20 players to the event as well. It was a great experience not just for the casino but the community overall, so I believe we’re going to negotiate and have the LPGA come back to Whirlwind for the next year or two. The partnership Whirlwind has with us is through our health and wellness department, and our initiatives have grown over the past five years, where they had me head up the golf piece of it all, partnering with Whirlwind to hold golf programs for our enterprise and for our employees. They can come to learn the game, even the very basics such as how to swing, putt, hold the club, what a club is, all of that. 

Then we also do a series where we take them on the course, they play nine holes and learn about course management. I’ve also created an additional piece called the Major, which is a big golf event where we have around 60 employees come out, some celebrities, pro golfers and we just have fun, play DJ music and host activities like giveaways and prizes for attendees. For our more seasoned golfers, we are currently holding a summer program where they’ll go out and play nine or 18 holes, and gain points similar to the FedEx standings for the PGA before we award a championship at the end of the summer.  

Hole Three (549 yards, par 5) 

Having worked on the casino floor prior to becoming GM of Vee Quiva, how has the brand continued to stay up to date with the latest gaming innovation? 

How we go about it is every property has its own GM, but we also have a centralized corporate gaming office that does a great job of procuring new titles and the updated technologies. Whether that’s analytics or devices from various game makers, the GMs come in and work directly with the office to fine tune what they feel is best suited for their property.  

Every property is unique here, even though we’re in such close proximity we all have our various client bases we have to tend to; but we do work closely with our corporate gaming office to ensure we have the best and latest gaming technologies out there. And, of course, travelling to IGA and G2E, working with our vendors to see what’s hot and new out there. 

Hole Four (140 yards, par 3): 

In what ways has sports betting begun to have a greater impact at Gila River properties, including the BetMGM sportsbooks within each casino? 

The sportsbook was integrated when we had our compact renegotiation with the State of Arizona, allowing us to bring in not only sportsbooks but craps, roulette, baccarat and all the other Vegas-style gaming – which we were very excited about. We jumped at the opportunity to partner with one of the major players out there, and we ended up with BetMGM. It’s been a great partner for us at each one of our casinos, and we were also able to build our own mobile segment through working with the BetMGM team.  

We felt it would be a good fit for us, being that Arizona is such a heavy sports state, also maintaining partnerships with the Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Suns, Arizona State University and the Coyotes NHL team before they departed for Utah. With those partnerships, we’re able to hopefully build our sports segment and bring people into our retail sportsbooks at each one of our properties.  

Hole Five (314 yards, par 4) 

Have Gila River properties become a destination for fans during those big sporting events? 

Yes, to a certain degree but especially Wild Horse Pass and even our newest property Santan Mountain, because they developed their sportsbook to be built around a true Las Vegas style.  Those properties were able to build sportsbooks with this feeling in mind, whereas some of our other properties were converted existing spaces into a sportsbook.  

Santan Mountains was built for a sportsbook, however, and you can really tell when there’s a good following at that location: the management teams do a great job of activating a greater presence for football, the NBA Playoffs, golf events, etc. I think we’ve really captured the desires of an Arizona sports fan when building out these offerings.  

Hole Six (511 yards, par 5) 

How does Gila River and its properties remain dedicated to Tribal sovereignty and connecting with the community in which the Tribe is located? 

We do our best to stick to our values, our mission and the vision for the community side of it all. We are really big on trying to fulfill that mission by promoting from within. I, myself, am a product of our community mentorship program for executive leadership. I went through it twice, once as a middle manager and then as an assistant director. 

We created the program to help our community and ensure we’re building up our members to grow new leaders from within, so we’re more self-sufficient in being a Tribal-owned casino. There are a lot of new Tribal leaders in executive roles and it’s nice to see them take what they learned from the outside, come back and bring it to our communities. The contributions and all the hard work we put into the mission, the enterprise and the business side of it pays dividends to our community through various educational programs, housing programs, health programs, etc.  

I feel this is how we really contribute to our own community, grow and become almost a benchmark or a leader for travel gaming in Arizona. I’ve seen other Tribal communities either do outreach or come to us and ask how we’ve built our programs to give back to our members, whether that be in leadership, health or whatever they may need as well.  

Hole Seven (126 yards, par 3) 

How can each Gila River Resorts & Casinos property stand out on its own even while falling under the same brand? 

We have different demographics and market segments we can tap into. For example, Vee Quiva has a 90-room hotel and can attract leisure travellers, group travellers and of course our own local market. Wild Horse Pass tourists are more resort-style, they have the big pools and parties, which makes them unique. They have big conference rooms for large groups and handle the main attractions or big names for entertainment.  

Lone Butte is more the locals casino and they just expanded their poker room, which represents the only poker room at any Gila River property – to help stand out. Santan Mountains, as I mentioned earlier, is unique through its sportsbook. It was designed to capture the Vegas-style feel and Santan Mountains also has big open windows that carry natural light to help the property feel brighter and more open. It’s a modern redesign I am looking to bring to Vee Quiva within the next few years.  

Hole Eight (268 yards, par 4) 

On the other side, how can each property form a sense of cohesion with those that also fall under the Gila River brand? 

The cohesion would be directed by our corporate teams and our Chief Executive teams to ensure consistency among marketing campaigns, corporate promotion initiatives and partnerships that we leverage with the local sports teams. We all get a piece of that, as well as the BetMGM partnership. We’re all connected in that sense and of course the missions, vision and values we hold to ourselves and our guests.  

I think with any initiative we put forward, our corporate teams or our leadership always ensure there is cohesion for each of the properties before we introduce it to guests, partners or whoever. From there, we can obviously add our own uniqueness for each initiative to help stand out within the consumer base.  

Hole Nine (393 yards, par 4): 

Finally (for now!), in what ways did beginning your career with Gila River Resorts & Casinos on the gaming floor help to prepare you for a leadership position? 

It definitely helped me stay grounded in terms of what the guest experience is like, working with our guests from a frontline perspective, middle management perspective and now executive level. It helps me in my decision-making, on what I feel is best for the consumer – and not only the consumer but my team.  

Making their jobs easier, taking into account what they’re experiencing and what they’re dealing with, while giving them the tools they need to do their jobs effectively and provide excellent guest service. And of course, staying up to date with the trends, technologies and everything that comes into play within our environment. It gave me an opportunity to see what the frontline employees go through and gain a large respect for the work they accomplish.  

You can read the Back Nine interview on the Gaming America website to complete your round. 

Kirk Geller

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