Betting on Cape Girardeau: New casino owner talks history, changes

Erwin Haitzmann was a university student in Linz, Austria, in the mid-1970s, and like many college students, he needed a job to help pay his expenses.

Little did he know the job he would take would be the start of a career in the gaming industry and would eventually lead him to ownership of Cape Girardeau's riverfront casino.

"I was studying business administration and needed to provide for myself during my studies," Haitzmann told the Southeast Missourian on Friday shortly before his company, Century Casinos Inc., completed the final arrangements to purchase Isle Casino Cape Girardeau from Eldorado Resorts Inc.

"I found a job as a croupier, as we call it in Austria. Here you call it a card dealer," he said. "I only took the casino job because it paid well and it had evening hours that permitted me to study during the day. It was simple. I could go to the university during the day, and in the evening, I would work at the casino."

For the next five years, Haitzmann completed his master's and doctorate degrees in social and economic sciences. For his thesis, he chose an unorthodox subject.

Century Casino Cape Girardeau pit manager Avon Hill, left, meets with Century Casinos chairman and co-CEO Erwin Haitzmann last week on the casino floor.Jay Wolz

"I thought, why not write about casinos? So I chose to write on the topic of international marketing strategies for casino companies," he said. His research took him halfway around the world to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (only his second airplane flight), where he found the research materials he needed and was able to explore many of Las Vegas' gaming venues.

His research impressed not only his university professors, but his employer as well.

"I was offered a job to head the international department of Casinos Austria International, which had two casinos outside of Austria."

That was in 1981. Over the next 10 years, he and a colleague, Peter Hoetzinger, built Casino Austria's international presence to more than 100 casinos in 25 countries.

"Most of them were small casinos by U.S. standards," Haitzmann said. None of them could compare to what he saw during his "research trip" to Las Vegas a decade earlier.

The early 1990s "was a time of gaming proliferation," Haitzmann said. Riverboat casinos were opening throughout the United States and casino stocks were on the rise.

"It seemed as if all you had to do was put the word 'casino' in your company name and your stock would double," he said.

It was then Haitzmann and Hoetzinger decided they needed to cash in on the casino industry's growth. They left Casinos Austria and appealed to friends and family members who helped them raise $2 million, which they brought to the United States in 1992 and founded Century Casinos. Haitzmann became the company's chairman while Hoetzinger was named the company's president. Both share the title of co-CEO.

The "bet" they placed in 1992 seems to be paying off.

With last week's addition of gaming venues in Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville, Missouri, and New Cumberland, West Virginia, Century Casinos now operates 18 casinos worldwide including 7,185 gaming machines, 285 table games and 3,400 employees (336 of them are in Cape Girardeau).

The publicly-traded company's annual net operating revenue is in excess of $400 million.

Why Cape Girardeau?

"It was probably a year and a half ago that we decided to focus our growth on the United States instead of internationally," Haitzmann said. "We started window shopping and looked at many properties and talking to investment bankers to determine what we could finance and, after seeing probably 15 or 20 mid-size casinos, we started negotiating with Eldorado about a year ago. They had quite a few casinos for sale including the Mountaineer in West Virginia and the Caruthersville casino."

The Cape Girardeau casino was part of the deal when negotiations began.

"It was not Eldorado's intention at the time to sell the Cape Girardeau casino," Haitzmann said. "But we said we were only willing to purchase Caruthersville if we could also purchase Cape Girardeau because the two properties are so close to each other. They (Eldorado) agreed and we agreed on a package that included Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville and the West Virginia property."

As for his general impressions of the Cape Girardeau casino and the community itself, Haitzmann said "it's a fantastic property and a very nice city, clean and well kept. I grew up in a small town (Hallein, Austria, with a population of fewer than 20,000) so I can totally relate to Cape Girardeau."

What will change and what won't?

To begin with, the name of the casino "officially" changed Friday to "Century Casino Cape Girardeau" (and the name of the Lady Luck Casino in Caruthersville is now "Century Casino Caruthersville"). However, it will take several months for signage and other branding to change.

"We will also change the names of the various restaurants and food outlets (Farradday's, Keller's and Lone Wolf) because the seller would not sell the brands to us," Haitzmann explained. "We're in the process of finding appropriate names, but other than that, operationally, I would say everything else will stay the same."

That includes community involvement, from corporate sponsorships and support of downtown development initiatives to ongoing financial contributions to the City of Cape Girardeau.

"Everything will be the same," Haitzmann said. "From a stakeholder perspective, one of our key pillars is to strive to become and be a good corporate citizen, so definitely it all continues."

Future development

Haitzmann said he and casino vice president and general manager Lyle Randolph "have developed a vision together," he said, adding with a laugh, "and that means Lyle knows exactly what he wants and we're listening to it. Lyle knows everything inside and out and knows what has a chance to work and what doesn't."

Among the topics Haitzmann and Randolph are discussing are the future of the casino's idle buffet area and the potential of adding a hotel to the property.

"I think it's fair to say the topic of a hotel is one of the things we're looking at," Haitzmann said, but didn't assign odds to the project.

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Casino sale finalized

It's official. The gaming property in Cape Girardeau formerly known as "Isle Casino Cape Girardeau" is now "Century Casino Cape Girardeau."

The casino's previous owner, Eldorado Resorts Inc. of Reno, Nevada, finalized the sale Friday of the casino's operations to Century Casinos Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the sale of the casino's real estate assets to VICI Properties Inc. of New York.

The sale was part of a three casino sale by Eldorado Resorts to Century Casinos and VICI Properties valued at $385 million. The other casinos are the Lady Luck Casino in Caruthersville, Missouri, and Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in New Cumberland, West Virginia.

The Missouri Gaming Commission approved transfer of the Cape Girardeau and Caruthersville casinos' gaming licenses from Eldorado Resorts to Century Casinos on Wednesday, clearing the way for the ownership change Friday.

Under the terms of the real estate sale, VICI Properties will lease the Missouri and West Virginia properties back to Century Casinos for a total annual rent of $25 million over the next 15 years with four five-year tenant renewal options.

Lyle Randolph, who was the Cape Girardeau casino's vice president and general manager when it was owned by Eldorado Resorts, will continue in that position under the new ownership.

Randolph said it will take several months to completely change the casino's branding from "Isle Casino" to "Century Casino" as it will entail everything from signage to the dice and playing cards used on the casino floor. Customer loyalty cards will continue to be honored throughout the transition period, he said.

— Southeast Missourian

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