The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians will soon be a new brand to the Las Vegas gaming market after announcing its purchase of the Palms this month.
Yet, the band—by design—is no stranger to Las Vegas.
It made a $9 million donation to the Harrah College of Hospitality and Boyd School of Law at UNLV in 2020 for tribal gaming operations and law education so future professionals could learn the operational nuances of tribal gaming.
“The tribe is very excited to be a part of this community,” said Laurens Vosloo, the band’s CEO. “It started two or three years ago when we started investing in some of the nonprofits and in some of the schools, like UNLV, which was very important for us. We want to help make a big difference when we get to Las Vegas.”
Vosloo is also no stranger to Las Vegas, having graduated from UNLV in 2002 with degrees in accounting and business administration.
The San Manuel Band operates its flagship San Manuel Casino in Highland, California, about 70 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The tribe also owns several hotels throughout California and an office building in Washington, D.C.
Now, it’s preparing for entry into Las Vegas, where it announced the acquisition of the Palms for $650 million from Red Rock Resorts, parent company of Station Casinos.
We spoke with Vosloo about the sale and the transition. Here are highlights of our talk, edited for clarity.
How did the deal come together?
We’ve been talking about a diversification strategy for the past three years. With COVID hitting in 2020, that put things on ice for a little bit. With the new year, and with everyone starting to come out of the pandemic, we started to look at a couple of opportunities. This idea was presented to us in the first quarter of this year and we really liked what we saw. We started talking to the [people at Red Rock Resorts] and it went really well. It all took about eight weeks to come together.
Can you say what the other opportunity was that San Manuel considered?
I’d rather not. We, as a tribe, looked at another property on the Strip. We’ve looked at Las Vegas before; it’s only a three-hour drive from us. A significant amount of our database goes to Las Vegas already, so it was kind of a no-brainer for us. We did want to stay close to the Strip, as that appeals to our customer base. We studied all the different gaming markets across the country. We also liked the regulatory environment in Las Vegas and in Nevada.
As Las Vegas continues to recover from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, what is the tribe’s outlook on the market for the rest of this year and into 2022?
We’re very bullish on Las Vegas. Last year was clearly a very difficult year. Even in the last eight or nine weeks, as we talked to the other side at the negotiating table, it’s amazing how things have turned around in Las Vegas. We think that will continue, especially when conventions return in full force. We’re bullish on the rest of 2021, 2022, and beyond.
Will San Manuel bring some employees from California, or hire mostly from the Las Vegas Valley?
From an employee standpoint, we anticipate hiring the majority of employees from the Las Vegas community. We’ll be north of 1,000 employees and, by far, most of them will be from the Las Vegas community.
Red Rock Resorts purchased the Palms for $312.5 million in 2016. It would go on to put over $600 million into the property. What was the negotiation process like to come to the sale price of $650 million?
Like in any big deal, there was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of negotiation. We think we got a good deal, given what we got for that price. You kind of move the biggest and most difficult things until the last few days. I do give a lot of credit to (Red Rock Resorts) for having a lot of integrity and honesty throughout the process. There were a couple of rough days, but we all got through it. With the restaurants, the pool, all of the amenities, it’s a beautiful property. I’ve had a couple of walk-throughs there, and the place amazed me.
What changes could we see with the Palms? Is it possible that there could be a name change?
We want to keep all things on the table. A name change, that’s not something that’s really been discussed. The Palms has a lot of history in Las Vegas. We’d have to do some market research on that, and it’s certainly not the first thing we’d be looking to do. I do think the property will be a little more focused on gaming than on nightlife. That will be a little different from the previous owners. We still have to go through the regulatory process, which will probably take six-to-nine months, but we’re just very excited to be in Las Vegas.