{"id":259112,"date":"2024-09-10T02:54:50","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T02:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/10\/palms-names-new-g-m-former-strat-g-m-and-v-p-steve-thayer\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:11:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:11:25","slug":"palms-names-new-g-m-former-strat-g-m-and-v-p-steve-thayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/10\/palms-names-new-g-m-former-strat-g-m-and-v-p-steve-thayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Palms Names New G.M., Former Strat G.M. and V.P. Steve Thayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n By Scott Roeben<\/a>, on September 09 2024 <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Palms has named its new General Manager, Steve Thayer. It\u2019s Stephen, if you\u2019re nasty.<\/p>\n

Thayer moves into the position vacated by Cynthia Kiser Murphey.<\/p>\n

Everything\u2019s all nicey-nice on the surface with these changes, but please, it\u2019s Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPalms\u201d comes from the Germanic word \u201cpalma,\u201d meaning \u201cthose things you use when you can\u2019t get a date.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Thayer was unceremoniously fired as G.M. and V.P. of Strat by Golden Entertainment in June 2024. Of course, we broke the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the same month Cynthia Kiser Murphey announced she was \u201cstepping down\u201d at Palms. Of course, we broke the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starting to see a pattern here? Not with these executive moves, our breaking every Las Vegas story, ever. Please stay focused.<\/p>\n

Anyhoo, not everything has to be about us, probably.<\/p>\n

Steve Thayer takes the reins of Palms on Sep. 16, 2024.<\/p>\n

Thayer has been in the casino and hospitality industry for decades. He was with Caesars Entertainment for 15 years at casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City (motto: \u201cExactly like Las Vegas, except for the pretty much everything\u201d), as well as Wyndham International, which doesn\u2019t have casinos, so why even put that on a resume if you ask us?<\/p>\n

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Thayer is a native of Delaware, a state we just learned has more chickens than people.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Palms is owned and operated by the San Manuel tribe. Working with or for a Native American tribe is, well, different.<\/p>\n

The news of Thayer\u2019s new gig was announced via news release from the San Manuel Gaming and Hospitality Authority (SMGHA). This cabal (technically, a \u201cgovernmental instrumentality\u201d) was created so tribal leaders wouldn\u2019t get the same scrutiny other casino operators are subjected to. Nothing to see here!<\/p>\n

Palms and Strat have a lot of similarities, so Thayer should be in his element. Both casinos cater to a mix of tourists and locals, for starters.<\/p>\n

Expectations are modest for Palms, for the most part. The resort makes about $30 million EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) a year, modest by Strip standards.<\/p>\n

Palms was a way of the tribe dipping its toes into the Las Vegas market and to give its southern California players a perk. The tribe\u2019s California casino, which prints money, was rebranded from San Manuel Casino to Yaamava\u2019 Resort & Casino, just to make life interesting for their marketing team. And don\u2019t get us started about that random-ass apostrophe. What purpose does that apostrophe serve other than trying to annoy bloggers? It is a prank? Payback for that whole colonial genocide thing? Tribal casinos are exempt from U.S. taxes. So, bygones!<\/p>\n

Oh, go cancel yourself, you big baby.<\/p>\n

Actually, Yaamava, with or without the apostrophe is very popular and was recently voted the best casino<\/a> not in Las Vegas. Which is like saying you\u2019re the best Pope outside of the Vatican. All other Popes are invalid. Since we\u2019re already canceled, we can say anything we want.<\/p>\n

You can tell these USA Today polls are legit, because Palms was voted best Las Vegas casino<\/a>. There are lots of ways to define \u201cbest,\u201d and it\u2019s very subjective, but there is literally no definition where Palms is the best casino in Las Vegas, all due respect. It\u2019s a perfectly fine resort. It\u2019s just not the best of anything. The USA Today description for Palms says, \u201cPalms Casino Resort is known for serving as the setting of MTV\u2019s 2002 season of \u2018The Real World,\u2019 as well as a conga line of celebrities who like to party.\u201d When you\u2019re known for being on a TV show nearly a quarter century ago, it\u2019s probably time to shake things up a bit.<\/p>\n

Recently, Palms has been overshadowed by the massive investment being made across the street at Rio.<\/p>\n

We used to love Palms, but then they started using all lower case in their Tweets, so we started feuding and we blocked them and they blocked us back, so it\u2019s a whole thing.<\/p>\n

Palms has a long and glorious history which we aren\u2019t going to get into here because we are very busy scheduling a tour to promote our new hit song.<\/p>\n

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Enjoy this world premiere of a song we made for you. We can’t stop singing it and hope you do not have the same experience, probably. pic.twitter.com\/f0BKdxYJWj<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) September 7, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Palms has managed to avoid drama since the tribe bought the place from Station Casinos in 2021. We broke that story<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

There was lots of Palms drama prior to 2021, including the epic trainwreck that was Kaos. There\u2019s a documentary in the works about it (broke it<\/a>), but it\u2019s taking forever to air.<\/p>\n

Prior to Station Casinos selling Palms, they launched an ad campaign<\/a> touting a massive overhaul to the off-Strip casino. The tagline was, \u201cFrom Dust to Gold.\u201d We fixed it.<\/p>\n

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Station Casinos dumped $620 million into renovating Palms (they bought it for $312.5 million) before selling it to the San Manuel tribe for $650 million. If you\u2019re thinking that math doesn\u2019t math, you\u2019re right. Station is still stinging over its costly miscalculation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does a change in leadership at a casino mean to average folks like you and we? Not much, typically.<\/p>\n

From what we know of Steve Thayer, he\u2019s a good guy. Newly married, beloved by staff, affable and unpretentious.<\/p>\n

Now, if he can just address the sentence case thing in Palms\u2019 Tweets. No pressure.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n