foreign ERS and welcome to the latest gauddle uh Temple here and I'm speaking with Melanie Johnson president and CEO of MGM National Harbor Melanie thanks for joining me thank you for having me it's a pleasure to have you to have you back on the podcast um we we had you before um that was during different times during the pandemic um things are a little better now um wanted to know uh how have you sort of been since then uh I'd like to talk a little bit about the pandemic and then the transitioning out of that right now I'm doing extremely well property is doing extremely well but the pandemic um challenged everyone not just us at our property or the gaming industry it challenged the entire world and we had to rethink how we did business we had to think about our labor model we had to do extra precautionary measures to ensure that our guests and our employees were safe and in an environment that was as comfortable as possible so transitioning out of that and getting back to the norm was another challenge we literally had to go back we started opening food venues uh beverage venues uh increased occupancy on our gaming floor we started bringing entertainers back into our property the challenge was getting the workforce there were several reasons uh people chose not to come back it could have been personal still challenged with safety issues and not feeling comfortable or just decided that the entertainment industry was not for them anymore I wanted to reinvent themselves so we worked around getting the correct labor force back into the property making sure that people were properly trained and making sure that everyone felt as safe as we possibly could make them of course I was sent to the Borgata in May of 2020 uh to run that property which was a very challenging time I was not familiar with Atlantic City I had never been to the Borgata before and reopening that property was probably one of the biggest career challenges I've had in my life it wasn't the job itself it was acclimating to the employee base understanding the property understanding the community and also understanding the employees I mean the customer base thoroughly enjoyed my time at Borgata beautiful property absolutely amazing and it is the flagship of Atlantic City so very happy that I had the experience but the company did offer me the opportunity to come back to MGM National Harbor which I love absolutely love the property near and dear to my heart it was a tough Challenge I spoke to many people uh asking what do you think should I come back should I not come back but I came home and I'm glad I came home to MGM National Harbor this is my family uh this is my comfort zone my husband loves the area and he's gainfully employed out here so it was a great decision not only career wise for me but personally as well so this gives me the perfect balance between work and life mm-hmm um well as you've as you've really ably demonstrated there so much has changed since since the last time we've spoken you mentioned kind of the uh the Borgata challenge you know no less all of that during a a global pandemic so yes uh I remember discussing at the time uh yeah definitely not easy but um yeah it's it's fantastic to see uh you describe that you're back home you know it's always it's always great when you know what work can at least be a second home if people are happy in the right job that's that's definitely definitely the case um what's kind of new for for you and and the property itself because obviously at this level you know um you always you always need something new to still at least stay ahead of the competition what kind of things are you are you looking at at the moment I I'd like to talk about a couple of things we've done in the past 18 or 24 months as we reopen the property very happy to say that we expanded our gaming floor by approximately 5 000 square feet we added another 170 uh slot machines on the floor and we also added an additional 3 500 square feet to our outdoor smoking gaming patio we added 74 slot machines in that area as well uh we constantly want to add new food and beverage options to our property for our customers so coming soon we will have bread and butter which will be a three meal uh concept we have another bread and butter at the Borgata so we're taking that same in-house concept and moving it to MGM National Harbor it will serve three meal periods it will provide a hot lunch a hot dinner and a breakfast option for our guests as well very proud of that uh We've also uh opened uh Diablos Cantina which is Mexican Cuisine and we've added a noodle bar to our property as well some what's really exciting is the headliners that we have on our property we've hosted Bruno Mars we've had Jill Scott Alicia Keys Smokey Robinson and so on and so forth because what this is doing is providing an option outside of gaming to the customers in the District of Columbia Maryland and Virginia those are the three areas that we serve yeah absolutely um hearing that focus on food and beverage and entertainment um you know I'm reminded of kind of uh obviously Las Vegas itself um not to mention the rest of the US but Las Vegas back in the day you'd probably have most of the revenue came from casinos now it's it's casinos are as The Gaming revenue is a smaller portion in your day as kind of running the MGM National Harbor what kind of percentage would you would you allocate to maybe do you spend most of your time looking kind of those food and beverage and entertainment options and does the gaming actually take uh less of your time than it maybe once did well there's two different types of gaming bottles Las Vegas is more food beverage room night souls and conventions National Harbor is a regional property and we've got seven Regional properties and our operating model is very different the vast majority of our revenue is derived from slot Revenue cable revenue and poker Revenue so over 80 plus percent of our revenue is from gaming and food beverage theater um conventions that's ancillary revenue for us but literally and I don't know if you were aware of this and um the further calendar year 2022 outside of tribal and the Las Vegas Strip MGM National Harbor held the record number one gross Gaming revenue producers in the United States which was a huge accomplishment for a regional property yeah definitely um when it comes to uh the the property and the how the the Maryland gaming Market breaks down obviously you guys take a massive sort of Market leading share of that uh of that kind of gaming landscape can you can you talk talk us through how that market looks in terms of the retail breakdown and of course you've got the online breakdown as well right now uh I would like to go and say that their their competitors in this market there are six gaming operators by far MGM National Harbor is the number one Gaming revenue producer in the state of Maryland which we're very proud of that uh we're in a great location like I said we serve the District of Columbia Maryland Virginia and quite a bit of our revenue is derived from Northern Virginia which is great for us so I'd also like to talk about in terms of sports fitting we've partnered with Venom GM and we've opened a sports book and Lounge to add something more exciting and generating um more activity on the gaming floor which is very new and it's very different we also have online Sports vetting as well we do not have online casino gaming which means poker slots or uh table games right now in the state of Maryland so right now like I said you've got several smaller Casino operators but by far MGM National Harbor is the flagship for the state of Maryland yeah absolutely um we looked at kind of the the June numbers for the state came out uh you know recently um you know a healthy kind of overall number in terms of Revenue but in terms of year-on-year growth um it was it was it was quite marginal across the board um in terms of driving growth and you know where you can find that little bit extra moving forward which kind of areas can can you and MGM you know look into I'd like to take a step back and compare our revenues to 2019. the gaming Market recovered much faster than anyone could have ever anticipated so our revenues were on a constant Hiatus we were waiting for this anticipated recession that never happened like every other business in the United States of America so gaming revenues constantly grew and grew and grew we knew at some point I guess the ancillary money that customers had because of that pent-up Demand with being in-house for so long it was going to balance out what we're seeing is a balancing of these uh revenues to 2019 levels so we're not looking at it as a decline if you're comparing that year-over-year growth at some point it like it plateaus and you're not going to get that but one of the things that we take pride in how do we grow this gaming market and it's through our other assets that we've got within MGM Resorts International we have the power of the brand where we're doing cross marketing efforts where we're having Regional customers come to National Harbor uh We've are having Las Vegas customers come to National Harbor and this is how you drive incremental revenue and we're doing it because we have such a large asset base and a compendium of customers and that's what we're doing looking ahead to the rest of rest of the year and and I'm looking perhaps into 2024. I know you mentioned a few things already in terms of the kind of the new F and B options and things like that but what's on the horizon in terms of maybe new Ventures or or as you've said even just maintaining the kind of the levels that you are at the moment right now we're leveling up because we did like I said there was two massive multi-million dollar expansions that we've done on the property to grow our market share but on the horizon we're looking at investing not only in our employee base through educational programs but we're also looking at investing more in our community where we're spending with the minority business enterprises or the small business the woman on the disadvantage of the veteran owned businesses and we're also looking at volunteerism and charitable contributions um for our our neighbors we want to be a good neighbor wherever we operate we want to make sure that we improve the community we want it to be better than when we first got here and part of that is through giving money uh volunteer hours education programs uh having my leadership team become board members on certain boards in this community where we live well Melanie thank you very much for for everything you've said so far and for your time um best of luck uh with the property and for the rest of the year and Beyond and yeah it's a pleasure to speak with you again I'm sure we'll catch up again in the future all right thank you so much thank you foreign