today gaming america is speaking with ali evangelista the president of hard rock casino bristol which is currently under construction in virginia and due to open later this year we have questions for her about the new destination as well as the place of gaming in the region at large thank you for speaking with us today ali thank you for having me cameron it's my pleasure to be here today um well just to begin i wanted to know about your own uh sort of professional life up to this point and how did you arrive at the position where you now find yourself well that's a great question because i like to say i'm blessed i've been blessed with the right people in my career with the right opportunities at the right time so i was born in brazil i grew up in brazil went to school one college there and then i moved here as an adult in the in the us i started in the hospitality business in the hotel business specifically in orlando florida my first job in the u.s was a hotel housekeeper so i cleaned rooms hoping that i could make it to the front desk that was my goal and that did happen at some point i continued to work um in the hospitality industry with different leaders that opened doors for me i became a director in the hotel business at some point i had an opportunity to join gaming in 2006 in the state of missouri and i started that in this law department so i've been doing gaming now for 16 years and seven different states later i'm now in virginia as the president at hard rock bristol excellent so that's uh you've really seen every side of the industry then absolutely yeah that has helped me a lot yeah so i wanted to ask would you consider yourself you know you have a history in the hospitality side uh you have a history in the gaming side uh what is more dominant for you and how you manage the casino and uh do some produce you know bigger challenges than the other between the hospitality and the game yeah i think the hospitality experience opened the doors for me to get into gaming i like to say that back at the time when i joined gaming i believe the industry of casinos was starting to realize that everybody has a shining slot machine and the same table games and how can we take better care of our customers and that's how i had an opportunity to join the industry to bring bring the experience and the customer service and the hospitality industry so i don't know that there's one that is more important than the other because i think nowadays you can do gaming without hospitality not successfully not well and certainly not how we do a hard rock but i would say um they're both challenging and they're both rewarding at the same time i spend most of the time obviously within the gaming operations just because that's the core of the business i've been operating for the last 16 years but this property will give me an opportunity to be a little bit on every one of that the food and beverage the hotel the spa the live entertainment and of course the casino that we will be operating sure and i wanted to ask about the property because it's still under construction as i understand and it's due to be open later this year i was wondering if you could tell tell us where it stands now when you expect it to be complete and then just sort of describe you know its features and what makes it unique absolutely so it is under construction as a matter of fact we are now at the construction site we are building this property at what used to be a shopping mall so as i speak to you i'm in a dressing room of a department store it's really a construction site and we're super excited for what we're building here so the project is a long time project i would say the first phase of the project is opening a temporary facility which will open in in a little while soon hopefully this summer will be open and operating here and there will be a facility that operates under um mostly gaming space so approximately 900 slot machines 21 table games we'll have a full service restaurant we have a grab-and-go restaurant a retail sports book and we'll also have some kind of entertainment on the gaming floor during that time also high limit play and non-smoking facility for guests so all of that will be part of the temporary facility once we open this facility we'll continue to operate it while the permanent facility construction is taking place and that property will then feature hard rock cafe and then we'll have you know two hotel towers we'll have uh hard rock live for full entertainment options multiple restaurants and a larger gaming facility for sure so this is a two-year project right a little bit whatever that looks like when it comes to construction but we'll start with the temporary and then we'll end it up with an amazing property that has pretty much all the bells and whistles that we provide our guests in other locations and i as i looked at the architectural renderings so the the temporary property is sort of the repurposed mall bit and then the hotel is a new entirely new construction is that correct yes so the mall is it's a large possibility we are going to build a temporary in one side of the mall what used to be a department store and so the permanent facility will start at the mall as well but the other side of the mall and then yes the hotel towers will be an add-on feature to to the footprint that we have right sure sure um and i was wondering because obviously there are many it's a pretty dynamic property you're talking about there are many different facets between hospitality dining gaming and then entertainment what do you think will be uh sort of the outstanding draw for people in the area yeah so initially gaming will be the the biggest offering we have right so we will be attracting the guests to come for gaming although we will offer food and beverage and uh sports betting and some entertainment i think that once we're all done with the project this will be a destination for different reasons whether you want to come game or you want to come watch a concert right or you want to come stay at a state of art hotel with a nice spa and a nice bowl all of that will be available to our guests i also like to say that hard rock has a different kind of following that other gaming companies don't have because we are in the entertainment industry uh with live concerts and amazing food and beverage offerings that usually are not readily available or not the focus of the business for other gaming companies so i think that um once we're all said and done this will be more a destination people will come to us for many different reasons initially it will be mostly gaming sure and i wanted to ask uh bristol virginia for those who don't know is on the um the state line between virginia and tennessee is that correct so uh who do you anticipate will be coming for instance what are the biggest uh the nearest big cities to where your location is yeah so literally the border right so bristol there is bristol virginia and bristol tennessee it's one town within two states as a matter of fact you can have dinner in virginia and pick up your dry cleaning on the other side of the road in tennessee which is pretty cool town i had no idea how um how unique this is but it so it is an area we call it the tri-cities here so there is um you know bristol there is kingsport there is johnson city those are the main local areas but knoxville is one of the bigger towns in tennessee that is only an hour and 20 away from us there's also roanoke which is also very good drive and you know like easy drive to us uh asheville is a little bit south of us that there is a good um a good following that we think we will attract which is in north carolina so there is like a throughout three state draw that i believe is going to come to us it's unique also because virginia is new to gaming will be the first casino in virginia which will allow us to really target and offer entertainment for guests that haven't had the opportunity to do that in a driving distance of an hour and a half to two hours sure sure um yeah and i i heard that uh casinos were voted into virginia by the people of virginia and uh in bristol would you say that there was sort of uh resistance from the local community of building the hard rock there or were people open to it yeah no i don't think there was resistance at all as a matter of fact i have been in seven different locations you know doing this and this has been the most welcoming i ever felt in any of the communities that i joined um people here are so excited this was also one of the reasons why i felt that coming here was the right move for my career was something i wanted to do because over 70 of the population said they wanted us to be here and that's very unusual when it comes to gaming so i think from from a community perspective i couldn't have asked for more it's it's a community that understands the benefits that comes from gaming from us being here but it's also community that is um excited to welcome people from all over not only as a tourist but people that are you know relocating here like myself so it's been nothing but amazing and i can't wait to have this product open so that they can enjoy as well sure um i wanted to ask so some might disagree with me but others might say that the southeast the region in general is sort of lagging behind in terms of gaming lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of gaming or you know sports betting casinos and all these sorts of uh aspects of gaming would you agree with that or disagree with that and uh if you do agree with us with this view that it's lagging a bit what do you think it could do to catch up well i don't know that i agree or disagree per se but i would say you know i think gaming in general has really expanded in the us in the last few years especially with sports batting obviously being one of those things which is um going we will be uh providing that here in virginia as well as a retail space but we're also looking into tennessee which is an area that does not currently have casinos right i just mentioned virginia is just now launching casinos and it's nice to be part of this process here but out of this you know the 50 states there are only six locations in the country that don't offer any kind of gaming um but certainly the southeast is an area that hasn't developed it developed as quickly or has as many offerings as other states i don't necessarily think that's a bad thing especially because i think that states are realizing the benefits of gaming whether it is online gaming or whether it is sports betting or casinos and slowly things are changing and virginia is a good example of that so um more to come i guess i think the the country is very advanced when it comes to understanding the benefits that come from this amazing industry sure sure um and we'll you have this sort of mobile betting industry or this online gaming industry that is that is indeed rising and i was wondering uh if you think that will be integrated with the land-based operations or does it pose more of a threat to land-based operations no i think it's absolutely an integration i believe in omni-channel i believe that you know people want different ways of interacting with the gaming options that they have right i think it's a way of the industry to continue to innovate not everyone wants to drive somewhere and play on a slot machine so i think that being a company that is looking at all of that continue to make us relevant in the in the industry i do believe and have experience that our guests that play online gaming whether it's for fun or for money or do uh wagering sports on a mobile app or at retail and play in our casinos tend to be more valuable and more loyal to our brand so i do believe that all of that complements what we offer and who we are as a company so no track if anything it just kind of gives people more options and there's nothing wrong with that right absolutely uh just wrapping things up i had one final question uh which is you're you're overseeing the uh the development of this of this great space and i was wondering uh where once it's all finished and and going and operating well smoothly where do you see it where do you want to see it in 18 months time yeah that's a great timeline because 18 months from now i'm hoping that we're really getting ready for the permanent facility and all that coming along so i would say um it's less about the property because i know it's going to be an amazing product it's less about my team and what we're going to do here as far as an entertainment because it's going to be amazing it really is about the community so when we get into a location where there hasn't been much um of some kind of economic investment in the community a casino or a property like ours is going to really change people's lives whether it is because we're offering people uh jobs that have better compensation that they've had in the past or the tax benefits that come from this industry i i can see that this community is going to change from investments that will come in the area but then also just the tourism in general it is already a beautiful area with beautiful nature people come here already just because it is a great place to visit so when we have a facility out like ours i do believe people are not going to just come in and drive by and stay one night probably stay a little bit longer there's more to do so i i am excited for the the tri-cities the community the south uh southwest virginia and you know north is um tennessee area i think this is going to really when we look not just 18 months from now but you know two five years from now things are going to to look a lot different in a very positive way for everyone so that's what makes me excited about this project but also about hard rock being here which i must mention it is the birthplace of country music it comes really it's a great marriage with hard rock right so i feel like that would give us a lot of opportunity to do great things sure well thank you so much for speaking with us this is uh ali evangelista the president of uh hard rock casino bristol very excellent speaking to you thank you for having me it was my pleasure you