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As a follow-up the Question of the Day about Mormons and gambling: When I first started traveling to Las Vegas there were no Marriott properties in the Valley. It appeared that Marriott Corp. purposely avoided opening a hotel in the Las Vegas area. (Was this because top management was Mormon?) I recall that being somewhat strange, since some of Marriott’s international hotels had casinos on the premises, such as the Marriott in Cairo, Egypt. Then, it appeared almost “overnight” that Marriott invaded the Vegas area. Last I looked there are over 20 Marriott properties in the Las Vegas area — including almost all of the Marriott brands! Do you know what caused this change of heart by the corporation?
Right you are: If the Marriott corporations (JW Marriott and Host Marriott) have a brand — and they have many — you can almost certainly find it in the Las Vegas Valley.
Although the corporate biographies of founder J.W. Marriott and successor Bill Marriott make no bones about their Mormon beliefs (you can often find the Book of Mormon alongside the Gideons Bible in Marriott hotel rooms), they're silent about the company’s affiliation with gaming. The latter appears to have been part of Bill Marriott’s 1970-2012 tenure as CEO and chairman. “Regarded as a lodging innovator, Mr. Marriott began shifting the company’s business model in the late 1970s from hotel ownership to property management and franchising.”
Bill Marriott’s road-to-Damascus moment seems to have come in 1982, when he opened the Cairo Marriott Hotel & Omar Al Khayyam Casino in Egypt. Still, the Marriotts have been careful to keep gaming at arm’s length. For instance, the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa’s Rampart Casino had its operations outsourced, most recently to Cannery Casino Resorts.
A more typical Marriott-plus gaming arrangement is found at the Cosmopolitan, which is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection under the Ritz-Carlton flag. That move plugged the Cosmo into a 32-million-customer database.
“The agreement also gives the Cosmopolitan access to a Marriott network of about 130 salespeople who sell blocks of rooms for conventions and other groups staying at the Cosmopolitan,” reported the Las Vegas Sun. “Marriott has been looking for some time for an iconic property in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip and The Cosmopolitan exceeds our expectations for inspiring design, luxurious rooms and meeting space that will draw the world's top customers year-round,” added Bill Marriott. He didn’t mention gambling but hey, early Cosmo management didn’t know much about it either.
Even when Marriott eschews gambling, it likes to be in proximity. For instance, a J.W. Marriott-branded hotel is part of the Galaxy Cotai megaresort in Macao. On the other hand, Orlando World Center Marriott engaged in anti-casino lobbying in Florida as recently as 2013.
In yet another about-face, Marriott was an integral part of the team pitching a “Market8” hotel-casino for downtown Philadelphia (the project was rebuffed by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board), much in the manner of the Cosmo. Marriott will also be the hotel operator of choice for The Drew, Steven Witkoff’s reincarnation of Fontainebleau.
Marriott has tried to get into the Vegas hotel-casino game for itself. In 2011, it pitched the idea of a 16-acre 3,500-room casino-resort, to be built starting in the first quarter of 2013 on the site of the infamous Sport of Kings casino, directly opposite the Las Vegas Convention Center (where Marriott already has a high concentration of hotel rooms, like any sensible hotelier would). Again, however, Marriott used United Coin, a slot-route operator, to advance the proposal to state regulators. Although the Nevada Gaming Control Board gave unanimous approval to the proposal, Marriott never moved forward with the project.
With the Convention Center project sidelined and The Drew having trouble with financing and (a reliable source tells us) infrastructure issues, Marriott is temporarily stymied in Las Vegas. However, it's clear that the hotel giant has arrived at a modus vivendi with gambling, one that will continue into the future.