Faces of Gaming: Buddy Frank – Television journalist, world-class slot operator, influential columnist – CDC Gaming

Buddy Frank is an award-winning slot operator who has written over 280 columns for CDC Gaming within the month-to-month publication “Frank Floor Talk.”

In 2023, Frank was inducted into the EKG Slot Awards Hall of Fame within the Slot Operations class. He earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Nevada, Reno Alumni Association in 2024.

Frank, who’s finest identified for his longtime column devoted to fit operations and on line casino administration, talks about the way it began and what his message is in “Frank Floor Talk.”

Operational perspective
“Former publisher Jeff Compton and I had known each other since my Fitzgerald’s days. I wrote random stories for his early CDC Gaming. When I retired, he suggested, ‘We want to do something from the working side of the casino, and we’re going to call it Frank Floor Talk.’”

“I like talking about things from that operational perspective. There are subjects in the industry that every manager feels strongly about, but feels restrained from saying. If you get a slot director off the record, and guarantee that you won’t quote them, they will say things like, ‘The slots are too goddamn tight and corporate management, and/or the CFO, is making us tighten them again.’”

“I can say that as a result of I’m retired. The solely boss I reply to is my spouse. Once I’ve accomplished her ‘honey-do’ record, she permits me to write down what I would like. Therefore, I can say issues I do know that the business needs to speak about however feels they’ll’t. I actually take pleasure in that position.

“I sometimes start to fret, ‘Am going to run out of subjects?’ But my God, there appears to be a brand new urgent concern each month. Today, the most popular issues are prediction markets, sports activities betting, persistence machines and can AI take my job? Those are extremely vital now; however a yr or two in the past these topics weren’t on anybody’s radar.

“There are at all times topics like that: Are we comping sufficient or an excessive amount of? Is snail mail useless? Why don’t we ditch video poker? Will on-line casinos doom brick & mortar? What rip-off or cyber fraud is circulating now? Etc.

“There is just a wealth of information/disinformation that I think we need to discuss. And if nothing else, I hope my articles get people talking about those subjects,” Frank stated. “I still like teaching, so occasionally covering our history and the industry basics for newer arrivals is also something I believe is important.”

Sparks
Frank’s household moved to Sparks, NV when he was 10, and he fondly remembers good occasions when his mom took him to an area on line casino for lunch (he cherished the unique Awful Awful burger on the Sparks Nugget) after which allowed him to make use of a crayon to mark an eight-spot keno ticket within the restaurant. She would then play it for a greenback.

“So, I guess you could say I’ve been gambling now for almost 70 years, most of them legally,” he joked.

I requested Frank, from the attitude of a younger native rising up within the Reno space, if he ever had the concept that he would finally find yourself within the on line casino enterprise.

“Not even a little bit. I don’t think most locals paid much attention to casinos unless they worked there. In fact, I think in those early days, Nevada casinos had a bit of a negative social connotation with the general population. It was subtly felt that ‘decent people’ didn’t waste their money in casinos. Thankfully, those attitudes have changed nationwide as our industry matured into a welcome entertainment destination.”

Frank went to the University of Nevada, Reno and joined the cross-country ski workforce.

“I enjoyed skiing, particularly Alpine skiing. In fact, skiing is what caused me to change my major. I was studying electrical engineering, but I skied way too much and flunked out the first semester of my senior year.”

Journalism
He misplaced his faculty draft deferment, however joined the Navy the place he found a love for pictures.

“I went back to school, originally hoping for a career in photojournalism. But once there, I drifted more toward writing for the print and broadcasting more than just photography. That led to a position as the student newspaper editor for Sagebrush at UNR. To this day, I still love journalism.”

Frank was additionally working winters on the close by ski patrol and helped get well just a few younger college students caught in an avalanche. He wrote a narrative about that incident and received a scholarship from the Hearst Corporation. “Using that money, a small Sagebrush salary, a monthly stipend from the GI Bill, and a part-time job ‘pasting up’ local newspapers, I was able to work my own way through and graduate with BA in Journalism,” Frank stated.

Springs and levers
While he didn’t get the diploma, Frank’s time with electrical engineering and math was very useful as he moved into slot operations and the rising new expertise he would assist champion.

“When I started, the slot side of our business was pretty much the world of mechanics. And when I say mechanics, I mean you probably had to be able to use a metal lathe, a drill press and know basic electricity. The industry changed right in front of my eyes into a world of technicians, and I was part of it. I don’t think anybody calls them mechanics anymore. Today they have to be skilled in networking, video displays, software, computers, databases and more. And so, for me, it was kind of the right time, right place,” Frank commented.

Television reporter
After commencement, Frank spent the subsequent 10 years working as a tv information reporter for Reno’s CBS affiliate, KTVN-Channel Two. “I had a little bit of hair back then, so I was also the weekend anchor. And of course, at a small market station, you fill in everything from running the cameras to processing film. I’ve done the weather, sports reporting and legislative news at the state capital, including covering Nevada’s Gaming Control Board and Commission. I really enjoyed it. Being out in the field and talking with the public is what I found was most rewarding. It was also a skill that translated well to being on the floor with team members and casino guests,” Frank recalled.

You can be taught
Frank’s introduction to gaming got here from a buddy, Terry Oliver, who labored for Lincoln Management. That was a gaggle fashioned from a number of former Summa Group executives. They managed a number of Howard Hughes casinos in Las Vegas and one in Reno. The group (Phil Griffith, Max Page, Paul Manske and Oliver) finally left Summa and bought Fitzgeralds Casino Hotel in Reno. They employed Frank as an out of doors publicist, writing one or two tales on a weekly foundation. They quickly made him full-time as their Marketing Manager. During his tenure, the group acquired two extra casinos in Reno (the pioneering Harolds Club and Nevada Club), together with operations in Las Vegas, New York state, Colorado, Mississippi, Arizona and Illinois. Frank was a part of the advance workforce for all these ventures

“Then Terry Oliver came to me and said, ‘We need you to become the slot director.’ And I honestly told him, ‘I know absolutely nothing about slot machines,’ but he said, ‘You can learn.’ It was a wonderful career opportunity, and a good fit since many of the then-current slot operators lacked marketing and technology skills. I think that was a huge advantage. But I did have to work hard and study to learn the slot side,” Frank stated.

Eldorado & Atlantis
Fitzgerald’s varied casinos focused mid-range company. After a decade, Frank moved to the Eldorado Reno so he may expertise a high-end luxurious property. Likewise, desirous to be taught extra about “locals” casinos, Frank later joined Atlantis Reno. “Like Stations and Boyd in Las Vegas, the Atlantis catered to that hometown crowd with some added conference enterprise. It is in locations like this that you simply study excessive ranges of repeat play, video poker, value-based merchandise, flooring effectivity, good meals, frequent occasions and the like. Nevada native operations carefully mimic what happens at geographically remoted Native American properties.

Middle of nowhere
After the Atlantis, Frank took a place at State Line/Silversmith casinos in West Wendover, NV, simply subsequent to the Utah border.

“I went out there in the middle of nowhere because they made me a partial ownership offer, and I thought that was an opportunity too good to refuse. It didn’t work out, but I learned a lot there. At the time, I was becoming an expert in advanced slot systems. Ironically, this property didn’t have one! They were almost completely manual. And my God, was that ever a learning experience. But it was also an invaluable education in the basics and, surprisingly, improved my system skills even more,” Frank recalled.

Most Wanted List
Frank tells a Wendover story a couple of man who was enjoying Megabucks.

“I get a name that somebody downstairs has simply put in two cash within the Megabucks machine and hit a $10,000 jackpot. He ought to have received $17 million by enjoying only one extra coin (a $3 guess). It was a frequent fable in our business that this had occurred, however I had by no means seen it documented.

“I knew this could be a great national story. It would get us publicity and would encourage people to always play max coin. I’m starting to interview the winner, and all of a sudden a plain clothes guy from the sheriff’s office pulls me aside and says, ‘I need you to go outside in the parking garage. There’s a white van out there, and you need to talk to them.’ He made it clear it wasn’t a suggestion, but an order.”

“I go out there and it was like one of these things from television’s ‘FBI.’ The agents were in the van with computers and cameras and everything, and said, ‘The guy you were talking to is on our most wanted list for serious and violent crimes in Utah. We’ve got to nail him, but we don’t have a Nevada warrant right now to make an arrest.’”

“Our casino was located right on the Nevada side of the state line, but our attached parking lot was across that line in Utah.” At the FBI’s insistence, Frank satisfied the man to go to the car parking zone with a doubtful promise to get some further perks together with the jackpot.

“Anyway, I got him out to the van, and boom, they make the arrest and hauled him away,” Frank exclaimed. “Needless to say, I killed the story immediately. No one needed to know that winning at Stateline could land you in prison. For months I struggled to decide if I’d done the right thing (getting a violent crook off the street) or was being a bit of a snitch and providing the worst possible casino guest service? Today, I’m pretty sure what I did was right (and yes, we did pay him the jackpot).”

Blossoming in all places
Frank moved to the San Diego space with the Native American-owned Viejas Casino as Vice President of Slots in 2002.

“I knew Native American gaming was beginning to blossom in all places, so when a chance arose, I shortly joined Viejas (simply east of San Diego). It was a beautiful market, however like many Nevada operators, I’d by no means heard of them.

“I kind of rolled in there thinking, I’m an experienced Nevada guy, and I’ll show these ‘hayseeds’ how it’s done. But I was shocked to find out they were doing better than most Las Vegas casinos.”

“While I was certainly able to apply some of my experience to improve their operations, they also helped me see many things in a new light and the value of applying some Native American culture to standard business decisions.”

“Because they had no casino history, they developed some of their own unique techniques, many of which I quickly adopted as my own. Perhaps the best of these was that rather than planning just for the next quarter, tribes were more interested in what strategies would benefit their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren. I believe my time with Native Americans produced (for me) some of the ‘best of the best’ practices,” Frank stated.

Pechanga
After 5 years at Viejas, Frank accepted a suggestion as Vice President of Slot Operations at Pechanga Resort & Casino, Temecula, CA. At the time, it was the most important on line casino in California and remains to be rated No. 3 nationally when it comes to slots. That final 8+ yr cease of his full-time profession featured many highlights, together with setting a Guiness World Record for the most important slot match (over 2,000 machines directly), the business’s first high-speed community flooring, and internet hosting the Bally Users’ Conference.

Frank recalled the problems of going from 2,000 slots to 4,200, which pressured Pechanga to discover lottery machines, Class Two bingo-based machines, and at last, with adjustments in legal guidelines and rules, all Class Three machines (at the moment Pechanga has expanded to five,500 C3 slots).

“I experienced major revolutions like seeing the floor evolve from what I jokingly called ‘hooked together with tin cans and strings.’ We pioneered an ethernet-based slot system over a high-speed digital network. This gave Pechanga some significant advantages.”

He tells the story about pitching this high-speed community to the tribe together with the VP of IT. “The tribe asked, what’s the ROI on our multi-million dollar investment on this when it is installed? And we had to be honest and say, ‘None.’ But we added, before the end of the year, this is going to be really big. With a high-speed foundation, you can do a lot of things in marketing and promotions that no one else will be able to match.” Today nearly each on line casino has made that transfer, however Pechanga was one of many first.

“In many ways, Pechanga did that over and over and again. They took risks, and they were willing to explore and try things if they thought it had a long-term return that would benefit both them and future generations. I think that is a major difference between some of the leading tribes and the corporate ownership groups,” Frank commented.

Guinness World Record
I requested Frank how his workforce received a world document for slot tournaments at Pechanga.

“Because of the high-speed slot system, we could make 2,000+ video- based machines instantly switch away from their standard game themes to a universal tournament format. That meant 2,000 players could play the same game at the same time, and the scoring was completely automated. They played like crazy, and at the end, the machines all quickly reverted back to regular revenue games. The buzz on the floor was electric. Happily, that day produced some record revenues too. We were certain that we could pull it off, so we had Guinness come in and observe. Somewhere on my office wall here, I’ve got one of the plaques that declared we set an official record,” Frank acknowledged.

Teaching gaming operations
During his years at Fitzgerald’s, Frank began educating gaming operations on the University of Nevada, Reno.

“It was wildly popular at UNR because then no one else in the country was academically teaching casino topics. Professors offered probability theory and business principles; but we decided to teach basic marketing and operational principles as they applied directly to casinos. I remember one of my very first students in Casino Marketing was a fellow named John Farahi, who’s now the CEO and chairman of the board of the Monarch Corporation, which owns Atlantis. Years later when he hired me to run his slots, he became my teacher in management and financial oversight.
That was just another reminder that even today, this is still a remarkably small industry where relationships and past deeds matter,” Frank stated.

Frank continues to do random visitor lectures and teaches “Advanced Slot Operations” each fall at UNR.

Consultant
After retiring in 2016, Frank fashioned BF Slot Strategies and started consulting.

“Sometimes I feel everybody questions their very own worth, pondering that maybe their time has handed. But I hold discovering that have nonetheless counts. This sounds hokey, however I actually really feel a have to ‘pay it back.’ Lots of people have been very variety to me throughout my profession, providing nice recommendation and counsel. I’d go to lunch with them, and they’d train me great classes they’d discovered from the college of arduous knocks.

“I really feel an obligation to do this to the subsequent group who’s arising. My time within the highlight is lengthy gone, however theirs is simply starting, and if I will help them by some means do higher, I actually take pleasure in that.

“I’ve got a few clients on the supplier side, some data providers and a few operators who just want a little advice, either short-term or long-term, about how they might improve their operations or maybe they just want to hear a second opinion,” he stated.

Greatest instruments
I requested Frank if he thought that AI would assist or harm casinos.

“It might harm. But if it does, it’s your fault. I feel AI is likely one of the biggest instruments we’ve ever had, and it’s merely getting higher and sooner and higher once more. But that may solely assist you to should you be taught and undertake it. I imply, take full benefit of it, know its shortcomings, in addition to its strengths.

“I acquired into slot techniques early and actually embraced them. I actually dove into the system aspect of our enterprise. Yet I observed that lots of my colleagues didn’t take full benefit of all of the options and advantages of a strong system. That gave me an enormous benefit in my profession.

“There’s a regular saying on the ground that ‘the worst system is the one you own.’ That is a particular results of not using what you’ve got properly. Believe it or not, I’m satisfied that whereas there are some variations, all the main techniques at the moment are terrific. If you might be having points with yours, spend money on extra coaching.

“Guess what? That’s the same advice I’d offer to those who are scared as hell about AI. Just get in there and learn how to use it. It’s just a tool that can be powerful. It’s not going to put you out of work. On the contrary, it can make you even better if you make the sweat investment. You’ll reap countless rewards in your career. You don’t need to be a coder or systems analyst; you just need to keep current and effectively adapt to these tools.”

The finest they are often
With over 280 columns, I requested Frank what he’s making an attempt to speak with Frank Floor Talk.

”I really need to assist operators be the very best they are often. I typically dip into administration subjects about how you must take a look at your workforce and find out how to deal with your folks, which is a seamless topic. The fundamental classes are 100 years outdated, however they solely work with constant utility. If you do a terrific workforce occasion, don’t wait years to do one other. You should continually implement these sorts of issues.

“On the opposite finish of the dimensions, new and rising developments can throw a wrench into every thing. Like tightening your slots an excessive amount of. Like too many REITs. Don’t neglect the diversions of resort charges, paid parking, worth gouging, IRS rule adjustments, cashless and Bitcoin.

“I try to bring up topics that I think people should be discussing. I mentioned resort fees above. I mean, they just drive me crazy. The government has cracked down a little bit now, saying you have to be more transparent with the actual total fees. But didn’t it seem obvious for years not to surprise and anger our guests with last minute hidden fees? It’s a hot topic now, but when no one was addressing it, I liked bringing it up frequently,” Frank stated

Super menace
I requested Frank to debate among the outstanding developments that he sees affecting the on line casino business.

“There is an actual menace now with prediction markets. Essentially, they’re unregulated gaming. Of course we’ve at all times had unregulated gaming, however we’ve by no means had the federal authorities selling it. Were you conscious that Truth Social is the official web site utilized by Crypto.com to put these bets? Or that the president’s son is on the advisory boards of Kalshi and Polymarket? OMG.

“It is frightening. An 18-year-old in Utah can guess on sports activities or nearly the rest, and the state that particularly prohibits playing in any kind has no say in it. That’s horrible. Some argue that it’s simply sports activities betting, and to not fear since that’s solely a small a part of our on line casino business.

“Consider that many people by no means thought we’d have Class Two machines primarily based on Bingo. Who would have predicted that we’d have slot machines primarily based on Historical Horse Racing (HHR)? With these precedents, I may see somebody utilizing prediction markets to permit limitless use of unregulated on-line slot machines.

“This kind of thing is a big issue right now. But it’s almost certain we’ll have bigger issues in the future. And we’ve had bigger issues in the past.”

Distinctive voice
Buddy Frank’s distinctive voice has 30+ years of on line casino slot operations expertise backing it up. His column challenges the business with a standard thread. Frank believes in avoiding previous business errors, working to get the slot flooring proper and is satisfied that expertise is just not a bottleneck. He provides: “Its improper execution can be.”

Finally, I requested Frank concerning the secret to success within the gaming business primarily based on his huge expertise.

“The secret to success in casino management is for all your teams to get  out of their silos and start working together. I would not have had any success in my career, but for the fact that I had a very close relationship with the IT Team, the Marketing team, the Finance team and the Regulators. If you don’t have those departments on the same page and you are not talking to each other on a continual basis, you’re going to fail. At the very best, you won’t succeed nearly as much as you could have,” he stated.