Casino Enterprise Management

When recounting his rise in the gaming world, Kevin Brady starts at the beginning. “I was born in Chicago,” he tells us.

But he didn’t stay long there. By the time he was in kindergarten, Brady was in Yardley, Pa., not far from where George Washington crossed the Delaware and not far from where he has ended up today. In this respect, Brady is an odd gaming exec—he’s never worked in Vegas. “Pennsylvania is home and the place where I want to be,” he says.

Brady is the vice president of casino operations at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pa. Open since mid-2009, the Sands sits on the site of the iconic and historic Bethlehem Steel plant. The property improves on the steel plant’s offerings though, boasting 3,000 state-of-the-art slot machines and 89 table games, culinary offerings ranging from Emeril’s Chop House and Burgers And More By Emeril to the Carnegie Deli, St. James Gate Irish Pub and Carvery, and Cobalt Cafe. Its Coil bar, Infusion lounge and Molten lounge feature live entertainment five nights per week. Expansion plans for the Sands’ Bethlehem location include a 300-room hotel, 200,000 square feet of retail space and another 50,000 square feet for multi-purpose uses, allowing for meetings, conventions and special events. About an hour drive from Philadelphia and the Jersey suburbs and 30 minutes more from New York City, the Bethlehem Sands is in the perfect location to draw from the region’s large and varied population.

Before he landed at the Sands, Brady says he “had the luxury of working for many great companies,” including Mohegan Sun. Yet Brady‘s gaming education started in earnest in surveillance, at Harrah’s.

“Surveillance was a great opportunity to manage a smaller department, which helped in my professional development of employee relation skills, financial acumen and the regulatory components of the job,” Brady says about his first position within the industry.

Brady explains that the surveillance department was a great place for a young up-and-coming gaming guy to be, as “we had to know most other departments’ protocol and understand the essence of each position to identify if there were any abnormalities.” Brady was able to learn the ropes by, quite literally, watching others.

Brady says that although there are many details one cannot learn by surveillance alone. “I did not really understand a lot of the dynamics of employee turnover and the magnitude of issues that arose with much larger employee bases,” he says. “When I left surveillance and became the casino controller, I learned very quickly about employee turnover, as we had five cashiers quit [during] my first weekend.”

Brady says his new department had an eyebrow-raising 180 percent annualized turnover. This provided the groundwork for Brady to make one of his first major eyebrow-raising achievements. “Within nine months we stabilized the department and brought the turnover down to around 28 percent,” he says.

To augment what he had learned on the job, Brady got his MBA at Lindenwood University in St. Louis while at Harrah’s. (His undergrad was done at King’s College, where Brady is now a member of the President’s Council.) After his MBA, he rose to become Eastern division director of slots and then director of casino operations before leaving Harrah’s in 2005.

To this day, Brady says his start was all thanks to a friend: “My roommate from college, Mike Barbato, was involved in the gaming business and this influenced my decision to follow suit.”

Brady says he cross-trained in numerous specialties, which, by his own recollection, included “casino controller, table games, slots, player development, valet, transportation, players club and divisional/corp slots.”

Brady insists these many industry roles and jobs have given him a unique understanding of gaming. He’s sure this rounded understanding will see him to his career goal of becoming a general manager at a property.

One property where he is already general manager is his home. Brady’s two children, Tanner (age 3) and Allison (age 22), provide a diverse challenge. He had help though, from an unexpected place. Brady says, “A colleague of mine in the gaming business actually just reunited with me and my daughter after 19 years.”

Brady stays humble by playing golf. He also collects baseball cards, especially from the pre-1970s. He explains, “The best is a 1955 Topps Set with a Sandy Koufax rookie.”

 “We want to provide the best product for our customers [and] we need to evaluate the cost/benefit structure,” Brady says when the subject turns to networked gaming. He reports that the Bethlehem Sands property is researching the subject and wants to better understand all aspects and how such technology would serve its customers.

He adds: “We are very fortunate in Pennsylvania, as the environment to make changes, working with the Pennsylvania Lab, OPS, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and GTECH, has been nothing short of amazing. We are able to make changes on our floor to provide the best product very quickly.”

Brady also believes that the protocols the state has established “are one of many reasons Pennsylvania gaming numbers continue to improve year-over-year compared to the recent trends in some other jurisdictions.”

 On the subject of biggest challenges, Brady sees many. In his specific region, he points to expansion of gaming on the East Coast. “Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware customers have many more options to choose from, which is great for the customer,” he says. “As operators, we need to differentiate our brand, product and service to ensure our guests choose our business and keep coming back.”

Brady sees the casino business as a retail one, with each customer voting with his or her every dollar. “How we take care of them is essential, with fast service from a tech or attendant, beverage service or host,” he says. “Our goal as a property is to have every touch point with a guest exceed expectations, from valet to coat check.”

On a more technical level, Brady points to higher taxation as a real industry challenge, noting that gaming expansion on the East Coast has seen high slot taxation rates (Pa. at 55 percent, N.Y. at 70+ percent, and Md. at 60+ percent). “Higher taxation rates are a challenge from an ROI standpoint and become restrictive on capital reinvestment for hotels, restaurants, etc.,” he explains.

Of his current place in “Team Sands,” Brady says: “We have worked very hard as an organization to improve our financial performance at our properties with the change in the economic climate. We get great support from our Corporate Slot Team, and we work closely with Eric Persson and Tim Merrill to ensure we have the best product for our corporation.”

Brady sees the available technology and tools continuing to improve. “The slot machines developed by the manufacturers continue to have new and innovative play mechanics that appeal to the customers,” he says. “The manufacturers on our floor (WMS, Bally, IGT, ATRONIC, Konami, SPIELO, Aristocrat) all perform at a high level, and the support we have received from each has been excellent.”

 But what would Kevin Brady be doing if not in gaming? “I would be an airline pilot.”

Abram Sauer is a contributor for Casino Enterprise Management.