Like many other resorts, Green Valley Ranch in Henderson has hosted its share of dignitaries and celebrities (Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, George Clooney). But it is the only Las Vegas-area property whose employees can stake their own claims to fame.
The posh resort, hotel and casino is the setting for American Casino, a Las Vegas-themed reality show that currently airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on the Travel Channel. American Casino captures how the Green Valley Ranch is operated while giving viewers a glimpse at the personal lives of its workers.
One of them is David “Bubba” deMontmollin, marketing manager and a friend of mine from Miami whose involvement was the reason I began watching American Casino when it began airing on Discovery Channel in January 2004. As amusing as Bubba’s Casanova-flavored escapades were, my wife, Sherry, and I became just as intrigued with the other colorful characters being profiled.
Sherry and I booked a trip in mid-April, hoping to meet some of the 15 cast members regularly featured on the show and also to see if the “GVR” was as lavish as presented on television.
We weren’t alone.
Jonathan Figg from Orlando made a 20-minute drive from his hotel room on the Las Vegas Strip. Spotting Bubba in the ornate lobby, Figg was impressed. “I was like, ‘Wow, I feel like I know him from watching the show.'” The 30-year-old added: “I know the people’s names. It’s kind of surreal being here. “It’s not just a glossy presentation of casino life,” he said of American Casino. “It shows the good, the bad and the ugly. They show some really stressful situations that people go through. It’s like a soap opera basically.”
My initial hope was to become the first guest to stay in the “beam room,” which was chronicled in one of the episodes. When a major hotel expansion was being completed, one room was rendered unusable because, owing to a construction error, a giant beam ran through the center of it. Unfortunately, the room was being converted into a butler’s closet, so Sherry and I stayed in a standard guest room.
After watching a slew of construction problems presented on American Casino, we figured some things might be askew. And we were right, as a broken showerhead in our Roman tub spewed water across the bathroom when we bathed. It also struck me as curious that in such a water-starved area there was no flow control on the nozzle. (Then again, excess waste is commonplace in Las Vegas, which doesn’t have a recycling program).
But you don’t come to Las Vegas for the lodging. Sherry and I spent most of our stay doing pretty much the same things as other tourists — eating, drinking and gambling.
We enjoyed two meals at the Italian-themed Il Fornio. My Friday meal was minestrone soup and a seafood pasta that I considered a bargain at $10.95. Il Fornio also has its own brand of wine, priced at around $25 a bottle.
Our other notable dining experience was breakfast at the aptly named Feast, which features a monstrous buffet. The price jumps from $7.95 weekdays to $17.95 on weekends, but the Sunday brunch included additional food stations — Mongolian barbecue for breakfast! — and unlimited mimosas.
We never bothered checking out the 10-screen movie theater, playing bocce or tennis, tanning in the “Whiskey Beach” pool area, or going for spa treatments — any of which may appeal to other guests. And because we like to casino-hop while soaking in the excesses of the Strip, it’s doubtful we would stay for a return visit without Bubba working there.
But that line of visitor thinking is what got American Casino started in the first place.
The Green Valley Ranch opened in December 2001 as part of a new wave of properties trying to lure visitors away from the Strip and downtown areas. But its location — roughly 15 miles southeast of Las Vegas — proved a difficult sell, even though regular shuttle service is offered to the Strip from the suburb of Henderson.
The desire for exposure inspired Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, owners of the Green Valley Ranch and Station Casinos, to open their property to a reality show.
Episodes have focused on such crises as security problems, promotions gone awry and caterers rushing to prepare food for functions after being given incorrect deadlines by other staffers. The wins and losses of high-stakes players are also featured, including a make-you-cringe segment in which one eccentric gambler dropped almost $50,000 in less than 20 minutes at a blackjack table.
But what has helped separate American Casino from other Las Vegas reality programming like The Casino and Caesars 24/7 are the personalities of the employees featured.
There’s hard-drinking marketing director Wayne Shadd, who earned the nickname “Shamu” for jumping into pools at social functions after several cocktails. Director of player development Matt Sacca is always under pressure to find more high-stakes gamblers and make sure they’re kept happy, even when dropping money in a casino that includes 2,500 slot/video poker machines and a 170-seat race and sports book. Some of those guests were featured on American Casino, which they proudly mentioned while rubbing elbows with Shadd and Sacca during our visit.
And of course, there’s Bubba.
He wasn’t nearly as much of a ladies man while attending Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove. But that was before he got to showcase himself as a lothario on American Casino, thanks to his niche scouting female talent as servers or dancers for prominent functions. The role made Bubba issue a pre-show warning to his mother Dee, a minister in North Carolina.
“I was a little worried when they were filming the show that they were going to make me out as being the bachelor of Las Vegas,” Bubba said. “I had to tell my parents that this is reality TV and they didn’t show my whole life.
“I would say this show is the 2 percent of my life that’s interesting for TV. The other 98 percent, grinding it out in the PR business, isn’t really good reality TV.”
Green Valley Ranch vice president/general manager Joe Hasson said he has allowed the camera crews to film whatever they want inside the property under one condition. “They have a handshake deal with me that says, ‘Tape the indecision, the chaos and the uncertainty, but please bring it to a resolution by the end of the episode,'” Hasson said.
A recent Saturday night at GVR’s Club Whiskey would have made for a perfect American Casino episode had cameras been on-site.
The club, which is owned by Cindy Crawford’s husband, Rande Gerber, was expecting visits from that high-profile couple, as well as Pamela Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, following the Ultimate Fighting Championships show. Because the card ended early, Crawford and Co. arrived 90 minutes early, forcing club manager Darryl Margolis to scramble in securing a VIP area and arranging meal service.
Margolis had to hurry to ensure the music was just right. And a server needed to be rerouted after trying to bring a meal through the club’s main entrance. But once the scrambling was over, the celebrities were able to enjoy the club’s ambience both inside and outside their roped-off area.
Maybe more surprising than Margolis and his staff pulling off the preparations without a major hitch was the fact that a celebrity like Tarantino could walk outside the VIP area and not get harassed inside Club Whiskey, which has a less stringent dress code and a more relaxed atmosphere than nightclubs not nearly as nice on South Beach.
Bubba, though, says other Green Valley Ranch patrons aren’t always so laid-back during filming.
“This reality show is different than any other because it’s in a public setting where anyone can come down and basically walk onto the set of a TV show,” he said. “We’ve always had difficulty where we’re filming a conversation and people jump into the camera shot talking about American Casino looking at the camera. It pretty much messes up the entire scene. Reality shows don’t usually have to face that.”
Nor do they have to face the reality of a cast member dying.
Michael Tata was American Casino’s most memorable character, a detail-obsessed vice president of hotel operations whose verbal sparring with fellow employee Ninya Perna made the two seem like siblings constantly fighting for one-upmanship. Entertainment Weekly described Tata as a “first-class weasel, groveling to the higher-ups, then swerving around to become sadistically passive-aggressive and condescending to Perna.” Which made him a perfect character for reality television.
But Tata, who was genuinely liked by his peers, died last July from an accidental overdose of alcohol and a prescription painkiller. He was 33.
Not only were GVR employees devastated by the news, but the grieving process became even more difficult because Tata’s death wasn’t chronicled on the show until three months had passed. That resulted in another round of condolences from American Casino fans.
“The toughest part was, it was not going to go away because people were going to keep asking about it,” Sacca said. “It’s almost a year later and we’re still talking about it. It’s harder to put behind you because people are always bringing it back.”
American Casino, which averaged roughly 1 million viewers weekly at the show’s zenith on Discovery Channel, recently switched to the Travel Channel. So while new episodes are no longer being filmed, GVR employees will get to enjoy the spotlight a little bit longer.
“When you have an area like this that’s a little way from the Strip, the way they’re building the customer base here is by getting to know the people,” said Craig Murray, a 63-year-old Las Vegas resident who is a daily GVR patron. “That’s the great part about the show. People can walk up and say, ‘I saw you on TV. You did a great job!’ It makes people want to come here more. You feel like it’s a family thing rather than a gambling thing.”
Alex Marvez can be reached at .
IF YOU GO: GREEN VALLEY RANCH RESORT AND SPA
Getting there: Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa is at 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway in Henderson, Nev.
Rates: From $119 to $324 a night. Package rates also are available.
Information: Call 866-782-9487 or visit resort.com.
– ALEX MARVEX
