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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2002)
JANUARY 1, 2002 Smoke Signals 7 TWO MIDW6ST6RN DUDJ WITH LAS VtqAS eXPERIENCE AR6 MAKING A H0M AT SPIRIT MOUNTAIN i " v. i 1 vie' 7,. f j.' ; ;2 c Vs .. Jl II'-' MlM'MhJfcta. . I u I? wax &agmwwz 71 1 fr";: il " f Gary Poynor is in charge of table games, Shawn McDaniel handles slots, keno and off-track betting. qARy poynor There you have it, money, meetings, food, customer ser vice, advertising, promotions, and now human resources. The same phenomenon that turned a dusty field in Nevada to a living fantasy has transformed a vacant prairie off of Highway 22 into Oregon's chief tourist attraction. It makes perfect sense then that we turned to SMC's own Gaming Directors for insight Shawn McDaniel and Gary Poynor. McDaniel reigns as the director of slots, keno and off track betting; Poynor table games and player development. United, they oversee just about every aspect of gaming in the casino, from when and which new machines to bring in, to budgeting. McDaniel lives in Dallas with his wife and three children. Born in Omaha, Ne braska 35 years ago, he attended col lege and emerged with an Associate's degree in Electronics, though marine biology was an earlier passion. He caught on with Harrah's Casino in Lake Tahoe and only five years ago made the switch to Spirit Mountain and Oregon. Poynor also hails from the Midwest, a citizen originally of Abilene, Texas some 58 years ago. There may not be an other worker more versed in the gam ing industry than he, having begun as a craps dealer at the Sands in Las Vegas back in 1969. He lives with his wife and daughter in McMinnville. "Five years since Joo-lai," he said, through a thinly disguised Texas drawl. Poynor has seen the grand transition, the evolution of casinos during the last 30 years. Table games were in and slots were for the cheap. Like McDaniel would say, times are different now. "Slots. We make the most money there," said McDaniel. "Used to be table games, but there was a dramatic turn around in the 1980's." Poynor nodded his head in agreement. McDaniel estimated that the slot ma chines hold on to only five percent of the money that comes in, while the rest gets redistributed back to players. That five percent may not seem like much, but when one takes into account the sheer volume of money that circulates through the casino on a daily basis, the minute amount adds up and SMC has the revenues to prove it. For years, McDaniel explained, coin payouts were the way to go, and Spirit Mountain took a true gamble by even considering paper payouts. Actually, the Games People Play With a little over 1,400 slot machines, three Craps tables, four Roulette tables, 28 Blackjack tables, three Let It Ride Poker tables, two Pai Gow Poker tables, one Caribbean Stud Poker table, one Big-6 Wheel, a Poker Room with 16 poker tables, 15 Keno boards throughout the casino and room for 35 in the live Keno area, Spirit Mountain Casino offers a large variety of gaming entertainment to its guests. SHAWN McDANia original compact between SMC and the State of Oregon made specific allow ances for only paper payouts and this had many proponents of Indian gaming nervous. It was deviation from a win ning formula. "Other casinos laughed at us," he said, smiling slightly. "Saying paper payouts wouldn't work." Luckily, they did work here. Now, just about every casino does paper payouts, even in Las Vegas and Reno. And that goes both ways, for machines that ac tually intake coins are also on the road to scarcity. "People don't want to pump in 2,000 pennies," McDaniel said. "They'd rather just use a twenty dollar bill." As for the future of slot machines in general, expect the same trend wit nessed in the personal computer evolu tion smaller, more accessible. The success of slot machines was never enough for Spirit Mountain to turn a blind eye to classic casino games like blackjack, poker or roulette. Even though those games don't account for a majority of revenue, their appeal was and is undeniable, which is why SMC fought hard to get games like roulette and craps. The response once again reminded them they were worth the trouble. "People were so excited about craps and roulette," McDaniel said. "We had one guy.. .he wanted to be the first man in Oregon to shoot dice. He was really excited about that." As the main man for table games and a veteran dealer himself, Poynor knows a thing or two about dealing. No other M f.i position captures the essence of the gaming industry better than dealing. "You always have a high turnover rate," said Poynor of dealers. "But we've man aged to keep about one-third of our staff since day one and that's not very common." Fittingly, as a retired dealer Poynor has come to learn both sides of the table. While his duties as head of dealing sees him looking after the dealers, the role as head of player development has him clamoring to keep the "regulars" AKA the high rollers. "We want to know our best players," he said. "We want to know their birth days, their anniversaries.. .so we'll have loyalty." SMC doesn't exactly plan budgets based upon what high rollers pour into the casino. But just the presence of those regulars reminds others that Spirit Mountain is a first-rate casino and sets the tables for more high rollers to even tually find their way here. "When we throw birthday's for them, they'll bring their friends," said Poynor. "We let 'em know we're here, get 'em in, and show 'em a good time." "They won't get this kind of treatment in Vegas," said McDaniel. Facts like that, and the occasional mimicry of Vegas, form part of the new philosophy brought to SMC by Mike Moore. And you can include Poynor and McDaniel among his supporters. "I definitely think we're going to have to be more aggressive," said Poynor. "And with Mike Moore, and the way we're marketing, we're gonna get more people from Portland." Moore, they both agreed, is experi enced. And as a season veteran of the gaming industry, they've the utmost con fidence that what Moore has in store for SMC will no doubt be successful. "I hope Mike stays with us," said McDaniel. "It'd be good for the casino. It'd be good for the Tribe. . "He's seen it all," he added.
