Meet Drew Skeen, the Casino Fixer Who Saves Properties Nobody Else Will
Drew Skeen has spent two decades rescuing debt-ridden, understaffed casinos from Nevada to South Dakota. His current project is a property on the South Dakota/Nebraska border, and he's not done yet.
The Casino World Has Its Own Kind of Fixer
Gordon Ramsay swoops into struggling restaurants with cameras rolling and insults flying. Jon Taffer does the same for bars on the brink of closing. Drew Skeen does something similar for casinos, only without the theatrics, the television crew, or much public attention at all.
As reported by CDC Gaming, Skeen has spent roughly two decades as a freelance consultant walking into casino properties that are bleeding money, dodging the IRS, struggling to retain staff, and sometimes already have the plywood ready to nail over the windows. He fixes them. Then he moves on.
His current assignment is Rosebud Casino, a property sitting on the South Dakota/Nebraska border that CDC Gaming describes as deeply in debt. It is, by Skeen’s own accounting, a familiar situation.
“When you look back at it, they needed to make money,” Skeen told CDC Gaming. “But number two, you’re protecting jobs in small communities.”
A Career Built on Long Drives and Longer Odds
Skeen started taking on casino turnaround work in 2006. His first project was the Flamingo Laughlin in Nevada, which he helped reshape into what became the Aquarius Casino Resort. From there, the assignments took him to places that rarely appear on anyone’s radar: Hawthorne, Nevada; Winnebago, Minnesota; small towns in Arizona and New Mexico where gambling is, as CDC Gaming puts it, almost an afterthought.
He saved them all, according to the report.
One project that stands out is Sturgeon’s, a small property in Lovelock, Nevada, a town of about 2,000 people. The casino was owned by Vic Salerno, a member of the Sports Gambling Hall of Fame and a figure widely credited with computerizing sportsbooks. By the time Skeen arrived, the plywood was already sitting in the parking lot.
“That little casino, they already had the plywood in the parking lot, ready to board it up when I walked in to see if I could save it,” Skeen told CDC Gaming. “And I saved it.”
Salerno confirmed to CDC Gaming that the property would have shuttered without Skeen’s involvement, and his praise was direct. “He took care of it like it was his own,” Salerno said. “Just one of the best employees. Never disappointed me.” Salerno added that Skeen would drive equipment himself from Las Vegas up to Lovelock when needed, handling everything from getting the kitchen up to code to refurbishing rooms and rebuilding staff morale.
The People Side of a Numbers Business
What comes through clearly in Skeen’s own words, as reported by CDC Gaming, is that he does not think of this work primarily as financial triage. He thinks of it as something closer to community service.
“You go in and you train people that are trainable, that are motivated, that were skilled enough to find a job somewhere else, off a sinking ship,” Skeen said. “I look at it more as a people business, a little more so than just a casino where you’re making some wealthy guy that owns it rich.”
John Wholihan, a longtime casino executive who has worked alongside Skeen at Rosebud Casino and visited him at previous properties including Sturgeon’s and a stop in Ely, Nevada, offered a pointed description to CDC Gaming: “Drew is a calming force in casino workplaces that are typically a scramble.”
Skeen was apparently approached at one point about doing a television show modeled on Kitchen Nightmares or Bar Rescue. Those discussions ended when COVID arrived and the plans were shelved. He does not seem particularly broken up about it.
“I’m not that flamboyant,” Skeen told CDC Gaming. “But that’s what you’re doing. You’re having to go in and break down every department and rebuild.”
Small Towns, Real Stakes
The casinos Skeen tends to work on are not the kind that anchor Las Vegas Strip blocks or generate headlines during earnings calls. They are often the largest employer in a small town, and when they close, there is frequently nothing waiting in the wings to replace those jobs.
That framing matters. Plenty of consultants work with casinos on the upswing, helping optimize already-profitable operations. Skeen’s niche is the properties that have already run out of options. The ones where, as he put it to CDC Gaming, the IRS and vendors are already circling. For those places, his arrival is less a business engagement and more a last call.
Who is Drew Skeen?
Drew Skeen is a freelance casino consultant who has worked since 2006 to rescue financially struggling casino properties across Nevada, Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, and South Dakota.
What casinos has Drew Skeen worked on?
According to CDC Gaming, Skeen's projects have included the Flamingo Laughlin in Nevada, which he helped transform into the Aquarius Casino Resort, Sturgeon's in Lovelock, Nevada, and currently Rosebud Casino on the South Dakota/Nebraska border.
Was Drew Skeen ever considered for a TV show?
Yes. According to CDC Gaming, Skeen was approached about doing a television show similar to Kitchen Nightmares or Bar Rescue, but those plans were shelved when COVID struck.