vip mobility by global payments gaming solutions casinos and their customers win with cashless gaming reduced cash handling expenses more cash and play improved performance metrics play never interrupted to get cash enhanced security reduced aml exposure it's now possible with vip mobility by global payments gaming solutions hello and welcome to the latest episode of the jr huddle today i'm joined by an esteemed guest melanie johnson president of borgata hotel and casino this episode is sponsored by global payments the industry leader in cashless contactless and touchless gaming [Music] so melanie hi and thanks for joining us thank you for having me uh that's no problem at all uh we're honored you can come on the jr huddle um my my opening question is uh how do you reflect on your first few months as the bought the president um that's a that's a great question by far um the first three or four months has been the most challenging period in my career i must say and it's not necessarily because of the technical aspect of the work or transitioning from one property to another because that's been part of my uh career i've worked in multiple gaming jurisdictions and moving is just part of my natural journey but the challenge with this was leaving a property during covet 19 when we had all of these restrictions coming to a property that has been closed and the employees had been here 18 19 20 years very seasoned staff the properties closed very limited individuals working here and then moving in to a role where other senior leaders were no longer here i'm unknown to the staff the staff is unknown to me we're worried about health we're worried about safety we're trying to figure out how we will reopen this property and then trying to formulate a relationship where i earn respect i'm an unknown my employees they didn't know what they were getting it's like who is melanie johnson melanie johnson has worked for mgm resource international for a little over five years she worked in tunica mississippi at gold strike casino she worked at mgm national harbor and um national harbor maryland so who is this person transitioning to our property regatta is the flagship of atlantic city and i knew that so walking in it was big shoes to fill and combine with managing through health and safety protocols and not knowing when we would open the property and thinking about our employees who were no longer here with them and thinking about their lives their their safety their health their welfare and also thinking about the team that i left behind and in conjunction with thinking about my family as well and are they okay and are they okay with me moving to atlantic city during the middle of there so very challenging very different uh 2020 i must say is a year that no one could have ever imagined in our lifetime i think that's definitely fair how did you how did you adapt um i mean given given the number of challenges you've kind of you've outlined there what what were the kind of the main approaches you took to you know overcome these these obstacles um meeting with the staff i'm a people person i i love to talk i love to get to know everyone it's not just on the business level know something personal about each and every one because you have to have this family atmosphere in order to be effective and efficient and i'm a firm believer in that and it was just walking on the property this property is amazing it truly is a las vegas uh integrated fully integrated resort learning the lay of the land learning my staff learning the house the winds the why's and it took time and i'm still growing and i'm still in that learning phase i've only been here maybe six months now feels a little longer considering everything that we have gone through but definitely i've embraced it i love living in south jersey i didn't think i would i didn't know anything about it but uh i fallen in love with this area uh the customer base our customers are so friendly our employees are so friendly and i just it feels like a natural fit right now you you spoke about kind of your career um before this and how would you say your your rise to the role resonates for for other women in gaming and particularly at boardroom level the journey has been tough and i don't look back and have regrets i honestly don't i think my best learnings have come from my biggest mistakes but in order to be successful as i reflect on my career i was really young when i graduated from college i graduated from college at 21 years old i grew up in a very very small town so i didn't have a lot of exposure the one thing that helped me in my career is relationships it's established establishing relationships in the work environment and outside of the work environment and having that network of people to shore me up so in order to be successful and in order to achieve this level of success you've got to have the correct foundation that's the educational background it's the on-job experience and then having your support group that can help you you can bounce things off of if people can share best demonstrated practices and it's learning how to accept negative news in a positive way it's learning how to deliver messages where the individual will receive it and not taking everything personally you really can't and learning how to process when you have a setback you can't wallow in that and allow it to be all consuming because you can't move forward so it's processing information seeking help making sure you've got the correct foundation and uh it's your network it's your team and remember the way you deliver your messages because everyone's perception is their reality so that was my recipe um what advice would you give and i think you mentioned a few things there but what advice would you give to aspiring executives perhaps from diverse backgrounds specifically within gaming so you mentioned you graduated at 21 looking at kind of young executives what specific advice would you have for them i would tell them right now i'm mentoring quite a few young people and they graduate from college and they've got their degree and all the education but there's a rush to i should be a property president or vice president in 12 months it doesn't happen that way you've got to stay the course it's not a sprint it's a marathon and you've got to learn book knowledge is one type of knowledge but on-the-job experience goes a long way and the only way you can learn certain aspects of your job is to have hands-on experience the book knowledge is definitely important but you've got to have on-the-job experience you've got to stay the course you've got to establish those relationships and you've got to be patient patience truly is a virtue and i think that that certainly makes sense in terms of an advice point of view but when you say patience is a virtue i think in 2020 that that definitely applies and especially for casinos in atlantic city and looking specifically at borgata and other atlantic city casinos how would you assess the situation today um after some encouraging recent results but obviously such a tumultuous year with the pandemic it's been a very tough year for us considering all the restrictions that have been placed on casino operations uh with the 25 occupancy the six feet of social distancing right now we've got an executive order where we're not allowed to have any indoor dining or beverage options between the hours of 10 p.m and 5 a.m on a daily basis so that is very challenging in itself so what do we do to try to keep customers on property during those hours and it's programming it's promotions it's making sure that we've got the correct health and safety protocol uh having options where customers if they'd like an alcoholic beverage we've got to go options uh extending the hours of in-room dining for customers who are in our hotel they have the option of ordering and eating in their room or having a venues open for takeout only as well so during this pandemic what has this done to our operations definitely um our volumes have decreased because there are people who are still fearful of coming out because of covet 19 no one has the answers we do our best to promote our seven point health and safety protocols to ensure that we are doing everything humanly possible to provide a safe clean environment for both our employees and our guests we've got hand washing stations on the floor custom built two on each end of the casino we've got a bergata be clean team and that's our environmental services group going around constantly sanitizing high touch areas throughout the day we've got hand sanitizing stations on the floor we've got the sanitizing wipes on the floor and it's just a constant presence of we're cleaning we're cleaning we're cleaning we're doing everything humanly possible uh to ensure the safety of our employees and our guests we're working with um the decrease in volumes on our gaming floor and our food and beverage uh menus but all casinos in atlantic cities and throughout the united states they're facing the same challenges that brigada's facing on a day-to-day basis it's definitely important to mention those challenges and and while it's it's it's great to hear kind of the proactive approach bulgaria's taking how important in your opinion is kind of online gaming for new jersey and atlantic city especially given this year the uh you know the decrease in volumes you've mentioned it's very important and i'm really excited about online gaming because it gives customers another avenue to have an entertainment experience without having to leave the comfort of their homes so it's very critical for us year over year regatta has done extremely well on that side of the business and we're very happy to say that we have it for sure and for the next couple of questions um when looking at kind of the recovery new jersey and atlantic city has had given where it was perhaps around 10 years ago and now and obviously online gaming has played a part in that but um in terms of kind of there's a couple of phrases i'd like to throw at you and let me know if you agree or disagree linking them to kind of atlantic city is rags to riches a fair phrase to look at the recovery it's made i wouldn't say rags to riches and i'm going to tell you why i wouldn't say this i i've not been in atlantic city long enough to make that kind of assessment at this point i think it stayed of course and then it goes back to riches versus rags to riches uh atlantic city and its heyday i know before pennsylvania and other states approve legalized casino gaming was the number two uh gaming destinations in the united states of america and then with regatta uh we've got some tricks up our sleeves we're 20 21 which i don't care to share right now so we can uh grow the atlantic city gaming market so i'm very happy about that and more to come sure so uh another phrase i was thinking of perhaps this this might match your description more maybe blueprint for success in terms of the framework that other states perhaps could follow right now right now this is a test for us and i think it's a test for all of the gaming industry it's cobit has put a heightened awareness on health and safety and even when we get past this and once 75 of the populace has been vaccinated i still think there's going to be a fear out there so i think we've got to stay the course and maintain those same health and safety protocols to ensure our guests are safe when they enter the property and to ensure that our employees are safe but well so we're going to provide this happy environment an entertainment environment a safe environment and then you know we're going to do the bells and the whistles we'll have the programming the promotions we'll get back into entertainment we'll have convention sales we'll do all of that but first and foremost customers have to feel they're walking into a safe and healthy environment sure of course that's very important it makes a lot of sense um one thing i wanted to to ask you as well is um some of the conversations i've been having with industry executives recently have highlighted the role um perhaps pandemic aside in the past uh the role of the regulator in in aiding new jersey casinos uh very much kind of working with the industry um how much of that success would you would you put down to kind of the attitude of the regulator and how helpful has the regulator been as you say during these more difficult times both state and gaming regulators have been very instrumental in helping all of our casinos open to the general public uh we've got a there there's someone who has to set the precedence and understand that we all are following the same rules whether it's the governor's office executing on his executive orders we wholeheartedly support those executive orders because if safety and health is first and foremost we're going to adhere to those things and then having the department of health come in and inspect that's important having our gaming regulators come in and support the last thing we would want to do is have an unsafe environment for anyone so it's a definite must great partnership and we truly support all the endeavors that's that's very good to hear and my final question for you and it might be slightly difficult given given there's there's a lot of factors at play at the moment but what's your what's your general outlook for atlantic city for 2021 but perhaps also more 2022 when things hopefully will stabilize more 2022 i see as a year of celebration i see that we're going to be back in business we're going to be past covet 19. hopefully i've got my fingers crossed and my toes crossed to be quite honest with you but i look at it as the year of the rebirth the year of us spreading our wings and flying and then getting our business back and just having fun and having everyone come back to their happy place which is bergata well melanie thank you very much for your time and your answers and uh we wish you the best of luck at borgata and the rest of atlantic city thank you so much have a great day you can read more of melanie's thoughts in the january february edition of gaming america where we'll focus specifically on new jersey and atlantic city until next time goodbye vip mobility by global payments gaming solutions casinos and their customers win with cashless gaming reduced cash handling expenses more cash and play improved performance metrics play never interrupted to get cash enhanced security reduced aml exposure it's now possible with vip mobility by global payments gaming solutions