Kevin Brady was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Pennsylvania. Brady started in the gaming industry in 1993 as a surveillance officer for Players International Lake Charles and eventually became a surveillance supervisor at Paragon Casino Resort. He later became a surveillance manager and casino controller at Harrah’s St. Louis where he worked in finance while also earning his master’s degree in business administration. Brady later entered the position of eastern division director of slot operations for Harrah’s in 2001 before transferring to Harrah’s Shreveport to work in slot operations. He worked there during Boyd’s purchase of the property and then went to Delta Downs to manage several areas of that location. Brady became vice president of slot operations at Mohegan Sun in 2005 and after two years moved to the Sands Casino in Pennsylvania where he worked for another seven years. Brady currently works at Resorts Mohegan Sun in Atlantic City as vice president of casino operations. The interview with Brady begins with his narrative of his journey through his various positions and roles in the gaming industry. During the discussion, he also talks about his experience and approach in negotiating with vendors for new slot games on the floor, and he provides his philosophy on how to lay out a slot floor. Brady then discusses his view on what makes a good slot manager, with a focus on how to lead employees, and he then talks about the changes in technology since he first started in the slot industry. He also describes how the gaming business has changed overall since he first started, and he gives his opinion on what he believes the future of slots will hold, specifically regarding skill-based gaming and millennials. The interview concludes with Brady describing his personal gambling and his own advice to young people who might want to go into slot operations.

“So my board basically said, ‘Yes, you can start that community [Summerlin] out there, but you will have to raise the money to do it.’” Thus began John Goolsby’s adventure in master planning and developing Howard Hughes’s 25,000 acres of raw Clark County land. In 1980, four years after Hughes died intestate, Hughes’s Summa Corporation hired Goolsby, a San Antonio, Texas, accountant and real estate professional. His task was to manage Hughes’s extensive portfolio of real estate, the value of which was tied to and dependent on Southern Nevada’s continued economic growth. In this interview, Goolsby and his wife, Judy, recall their first impressions of Southern Nevada’s neighborhoods and schools; share their experiences of building two custom homes—one in Green Valley and one in Summerlin; and Judy describes her early meetings with John’s boss (and Summa’s president and Howard Hughes’s cousin), the genteel William R. Lummis: “I was scared to death of the man. I had never been exposed to anybody like him.” Hughes’s acreage to the West of Las Vegas offered Goolsby the unique opportunity to master plan and build an entire new community from the ground up. He assembled a team that spent two years visiting, researching, and questioning why some master-planned communities succeeded and others did not. They eventually evolved a strategy that included “good schools, good parks, open space, community activities, all the things that Summerlin has today.” They began planning in 1983 and broke ground in 1989. Goolsby’s tenure with Summa reveals larger trends in corporate restructuring in the 1990s through the real estate collapse of 2009. Corporate name changes tell the story: in 1980 Goolsby was hired by Summa Corporation as vice president for real estate; in 1988 the board named him president and in 1990 president and CEO. In 1994 Summa renamed itself The Howard Hughes Corporation. Hughes Corporation was acquired in 1996 by the Rouse Company, although Rouse maintained Summerlin as a separate economic entity with an earn-out agreement. Goolsby retired from Rouse in 1998, but he continued to help manage the earn-out agreement to insure that the Hughes owners received all they were entitled to. In 2004, General Growth Properties purchased Rouse, but a 2009 GGP bankruptcy ended the earn-out agreement. Since 2011, Summerlin has been owned by a GGP spinoff named—ironically—the Howard Hughes Corporation.

When Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs talks about the landscape architecture firm her parents, Barbara and Don Brinkerhoff, began in their home in 1958, she brightens and leans in. Since joining her parents’ firm in 1982, Julie gradually assumed responsibility for Lifescapes International’s sales, marketing, financial management, and strategic planning and serves as President and Chief Financial Officer. Here, Brinkerhoff-Jacobs talks of her life before joining and outside of Lifescapes: her family; her youth; her charity, HomeAid; her leadership activities; and her personal interests. Her focus, though, is Lifescapes and the Las Vegas people and the iconic projects that not only altered the ways that visitors perceive Southern Nevada but also changed the business of Lifescapes. “Not just in Las Vegas, but around the world people hire us because of what we've done in Las Vegas.” For Julie, one of the greatest joys of working alongside her parents was discovering them as peers—learning to know them as two people who “chose to live an incredibly artistic life together.” Her mother passed in 2014, but Julie and her father continue to work with and learn from each other.

Steve Keener was born in Bridgeton, New Jersey and received his bachelor’s degree in finance at Stockton University. With a background in electronics from his service in the military, Keener started in the gaming industry as a slot technician at Tropicana Atlantic City in 1981 where he worked on and conducted preventative maintenance on some of the early stepper slot machines. He would eventually promote to the positions of lead technician and slot technical manager before moving to Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Delaware in 1997 where he is now assistant vice president of casino operations. The interview with Steve Keener begins with his discussion of his background in the slot positions at both properties. Keener also discusses dealing with customers, what customers are looking for in casinos, and which qualities make good and bad slot managers. He later discusses what makes a good slot floor, particularly when considering denomination and type of slot machine, and he also describes the process of working with vendors to get those machines onto the floor. Keener later discusses the biggest changes in the gaming industry, specifically the expansion of video over stepper, server-based gaming, and the increase in riverboat gaming. He also mentions the role of free play in slots and provides his opinion on what he believes the future of slots will look like with skill-based and 3D gaming being introduced into slot machines. The interview concludes with Keener’s answer to the question of whether he gambles, and he provides his advice to young people who want to get into slot operations as a career.

William Morgan was born in Kansas City, Missouri and moved to Las Vegas with his family in 1969. Morgan entered the slot industry early by becoming an instructor at his father’s gaming school which provided instruction on slot and arcade repair and maintenance. His start in the gaming industry was in 1989 when he became a slot technician at the Imperial Palace. Morgan would later move to the MGM Grand as a journeyman slot technician in 1993 and eventually to the Stratosphere in 1996 as shift lead slot technician. Shortly thereafter, Morgan moved to Tunica, Mississippi to become director of slot technical and arcade at Grand Casino Tunica. After moving back to Las Vegas, Morgan became a lead slot technician at New York-New York as it was opening as well. After going back to Grand Casino Tunica for a short period of time, Morgan returned to MGM Grand and eventually back to New York-New York where he was able to promote to slot technical manager. He then moved to the Aladdin to also become slot technical manager where he stayed until 2004. He held the same position at the Lady Luck and later helped to develop The Plaza in Downtown Las Vegas. In 2005, Morgan began working for AC Coin & Slot as western regional service manager and was later promoted to national service manager in 2011. He worked at AC Coin & Slot until it closed in 2013. The interview with Morgan starts with his discussion of his background in slot repair and management, including his experiences in opening several properties. He goes on to give his opinions on which qualities make good slot managers and then discusses his approaches to both laying out a slot floor and interacting with customers. Morgan then describes how slot machines have changed since he started in the industry. The future of slot machines is also mentioned, particularly how the use of Wi-Fi technology could change the way games are played. The interview finalizes with Morgan’s advice to those who wish to go into the slot industry.

As she ponders a possible run for Nevada State Governor in 2018, former Nevada State Assemblywoman and current Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani recalls her first vacation to Las Vegas in summer of 1978 with some girlfriends from Johnson County, Kansas. After visiting the Special Education department at UNLV, Chris decided to stay. In this interview, the special education teacher talks of her experiences finding an apartment, enrolling in the Master’s in Education program at UNLV, tending bar, finding a teaching job, and entering union politics, where she met future husband Gary Gray. Chris also discusses campaigning for the Nevada State Assembly, where she served 1991 to 2006, and for Clark County Commission, where she began representing District E in 2006 and is now serving her third and final term. She speaks to the politics of a publicly funded stadium for professional football; she describes plans for the revitalization of the Maryland Parkway corridor, and she ruminates on the UNLV Medical School and the breakup of the Clark County School District, currently the sixth largest school district in the United States. She also shares her thoughts on her future political plans—but not entirely.

Mike Gausling started in the casino industry as a slot floor person at the Aladdin in 1976. After about a year, he moved to the Stardust in a similar capacity and in 1980 went to the the Sundance, later named Fitzgeralds and The D Las Vegas. Gausling later worked at the Holiday Casino where he held supervisory roles and then after about 12 years in those roles, eventually assisted in opening the Stratosphere. He would then move to The Mirage where he would start on the floor again before moving into higher positions at that property. Gausling later went to Green Valley Ranch Resort where he currently holds the position of slot guest service supervisor. Mike Gausling’s interview begins with his discussion of the various roles in slot operations he has held over the past 40 years. After describing the various positions and properties at which he worked, Gausling provides his thoughts on what makes both good and bad slot managers. He then discusses his experiences in interacting with customers and what his philosophy is on what casino guests want in playing slots. Gausling also discusses the differences between local casino properties and those on the Las Vegas Strip, and he describes his work in opening Green Valley Ranch. The interview continues with Gausling’s opinion on the impact of technology and free play as some of the biggest changes in the slot industry, and he later describes how a slot floor should be laid out. He also discusses how he thinks the future of slot machines will look like, particularly with skill-based gaming, and he also mentions his personal gambling preferences. The interview concludes with Gausling’s advice to young people who want to go into slot operations as a career.