Two high-ranking officials at Strip resorts won key executive licenses in unanimous votes after suitability hearings by the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday.
Jonathan Halkyard, chief financial officer for MGM Resorts International, and Patrick Nichols, president and CEO of The Venetian, received support of commissioners in separate hearings.
Halkyard returned to the state after starting his gaming career in Northern Nevada.
He started in 1999 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and became chief financial officer of what became Caesars Entertainment Inc. in 2006.
After a brief stint at NV Energy, he worked for Extended Stay America in North Carolina before being recruited by MGM in 2020.
Halkyard discussed MGM’s international connections in Osaka, Japan, and Macao.
MGM is in the midst of building the first-ever integrated resort in Japan in a partnership with Japanese financial services company Orix. MGM has a $3 billion commitment to its 40 percent ownership role in Osaka being spent over four years, with 10 percent already invested. MGM Osaka is an $11 billion project.
“It’s a pretty significant commitment for MGM Resorts over the next several years, but the economic opportunity there that we think is pretty much a generational opportunity, and it’ll be a really good thing for MGM Resorts and Osaka when it opens in about 4½ years’ time,” Halkyard told commissioners.
Halkyard, a private pilot, also serves on the board of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.
Nichols joined The Venetian in 2008 after his college graduation from Cornell University.
“I quite literally grew up in the hospitality industry,” Nichols told commissioners. “My parents had a number of limited-service hotels, 30 to 70 rooms, and I was put to work. You name it, I’ve done it. Front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, painting, landscaping, I learned the business in and out.”
He joined The Venetian as Palazzo was opening and jumped at the chance to help open Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
When MGM Resorts International acquired The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, he helped transition the property to MGM ownership.
Around that time, Apollo Global Management was acquiring The Venetian and brought Nichols back.
Ats 39, he’s one of the youngest CEOs on the Strip.
Commissioner George Markantonis asked Nichols about The Venetian’s compliance committee with several resorts recently appearing before regulators to answer money-laundering complaints.
“I do not sit on our compliance committee, but I’ve attended every compliance committee meeting since I’ve been at the resort,” Nichols said. “It’s something I’ve just learned over the years that there’s no one customer, no one decision that’s worth my reputation, the state’s reputation, The Venetian’s reputation. And so it’s very, very important to me. I believe our compliance posture at the resort starts with me. The team knows that.”
In other business, commissioners unanimously approved a sport book license for Boomer’s at the Mizpah Club in Tonopah.
After opening a sports book last month at North Las Vegas’ Ojo Locos property, Boomer’s CEO Joe Asher appeared before commissioners on his newest project in central Nevada.
Asher said Boomer’s still has five more sports book openings in the pipeline, making it the fastest growing sports-betting business in the state.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
