Family owned casinos continue to become a thing of the past. Latest casualty: John Ascuaga’s Nugget, an icon of the Reno-Sparks market. The Ascuagas are giving way to out-of-state owner Husky Finance and operator Global Gaming & Hospitality, whose principals include the respected Carlton Geer. In a doleful statement, CEO Michonne Ascuaga said it was “the best possible scenario … The new owners have the financial resources needed to invest in the property and allow it, and its 1,300 employees, to prosper in the years ahead.”
In other words, the Ascuagas are tapped out. Husky and Global promise an immediate capex infusion of $20 million into the casino’s public areas, part of a larger, $50 million overhaul. While the inevitable removal of the Ascuaga name effaces a little bit more of Nevada history, it’s preferable to seeing employees lose their jobs because ownership came up empty. The Ascaugas had a good, 53-year run and now it’s somebody else’s turn, in a not un-challenging market. Needless to say, the story is huge in the Reno market, perhaps as big as Steve Wynn selling Wynn Resorts would be down here.
You can’t fix stupid. Casinos in Las Vegas have notoriously poor security on their gambling floors (and, as we learned earlier this week, elsewhere). But let one lesbian use the ladies room and all hell breaks loose. I mean, just because somebody in the powder room allegedly got their nose out of joint after seeing Susan Ho, does that warrant six alleged employees allegedly confronting Ho and allegedly ridiculing her?
My wife and I love to patronize the Gold Coast (where the alleged incident allegedly occurred) but if this is how gay patrons get treated, we may have to think twice — and if mannish-looking women are such a shocking novelty, Boyd’s employees need to get out more often. The company is not commenting on Ms. Ho’s lawsuit but it has issued a couple of quasi-apologies. It might do well to find the knuckle-draggers in its workforce and knock some sense into them, too. They’re in a customer-service business, not a customer-harassment one. By the way, Ms. Ho has taken her business elsewhere. That’ll get Boyd’s interest, if nothing else does.
