James F. Allen | |
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| Born | 1960 (age 63–64) [1] |
| Nationality | American |
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James F. Allen (born 1960) is an American businessman who is the chairman of Hard Rock International and chief executive officer of Seminole Gaming. [3] Previously, he served as vice president of operations of The Trump Organization and senior vice president of Sol Kerzner's company, Sun International.
James Allen was born in 1960 to Robert C. and Kathryn Allen, and had a modest upbringing. He attended Mainland Regional High School in Linwood, New Jersey, graduating in 1978. [5] [6] To support his mother and aunt, Allen began working in restaurants at the age of 13. [2] [7] [8]
Allen took career-development courses, including gaming classes at University of Nevada, Reno and creative writing and hotel management classes at Atlantic Cape Community College in Mays Landing, New Jersey. [2] [8]
Allen has worked in the casino, hotel, and gaming industries since 1979. [2] [3] [9] His career began as a cook at Bally's Park Place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, [2] [10] where he has been credited with helping successfully implement data tracking software to balance profit and food costs. [2] Via Bally's, he entered a management training program around 1980. In 1985, he joined Atlantic City Hilton as a purchasing manager. [7] [8] [10] [11]
Allen worked at The Trump Organization, which had taken over the Atlantic City Hilton, until 1993. [11] He became part of the senior management team for three Trump properties in Atlantic City, [7] before being promoted to vice president of operations. Allen next worked for real estate developer Christopher Hemmeter (Hemmeter Enterprises), [10] serving as general manager for four Colorado casinos and helping to open another in New Orleans. [2]
He was then hired by South African business magnate Sol Kerzner to serve as the Mohegan Sun's senior vice president of property operations and help develop Atlantis Paradise Island. [2] [7] [8] Allen was Kerzner's third hire, starting in 1995 and departing in 2001. [2] [12] He was promoted to senior vice president of property operations in Kerzner's company, Sun International, which included Mohegan Sun, Atlantis Paradise Island, and the Ocean Club and the former Desert Inn, Las Vegas. [2] [10]
Allen is a former member of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission Task Force on Gaming Regulation. [13]
Allen serves as chairman of Hard Rock International (or Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment) and CEO of Seminole Gaming. [2] [3] [14] Allen, who is not of Seminole origin, has led the Seminole Tribe of Florida's gaming operations since 2001. He was initially hired to operate five casinos on the Brighton, Coconut Creek, Hollywood, Immokalee, and Tampa reservations, and to develop the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa. [5] [7] [15] Allen is credited with driving the 2003 development of bingo-based "Class II" gaming machines that are similar to slot machines. [11] He has also been credited with leading the tribe's acquisition of Hard Rock International during 2006–2007 and for overseeing its brand, customer experience, image, memorabilia collection, and management practices. [2] [5] [3] [10]
Allen received a casino marketing lifetime achievement award in July 2016, at the Casino Marketing and Technology Conference, which was hosted by Casino Journal and its parent company BNP Media. [7] [16] The award was established in 2004 to recognize individuals who have made "outstanding contributions in the area of casino marketing, promotions and customer service". [10] In March 2017, Allen led the Hard Rock International purchase of the Trump Taj Mahal from investor Carl Icahn. [6] Allen had "played a major role" in opening the hotel and casino, which closed in 2016, and reopened the property as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City in 2018. [17]
Allen has been credited with the Guitar Hotel expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, as well as the guestroom tower expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa. He was honored as a 2020 inductee into the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship's Entrepreneur and Business Hall of Fame at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida. [18] In 2019, Allen was named a Business Hall of Fame Laureate by Junior Achievement of South Florida. [19]
Allen serves on the board of the American Gaming Association and his two-year tenure as chair began in January 2022. [20]
Allen resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. [2] He and his former wife, Isabel Allen, divorced in 2019. [21] He is married to his wife Shelley, as of 2022. [22]
In 2005, to commemorate Seminole Gaming's twenty-fifth anniversary, Allen directed a beautification of the tribe's Council Oak, the site of many Seminole Tribe ceremonial events. [23] He serves on the American Gaming Association's board of directors and the advisory board of the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade. [24] [25] He is also a board member of the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. [26]
Hard rock is a genre of rock music.
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, as well as independent groups. The Seminole people emerged in a process of ethnogenesis from various Native American groups who settled in Spanish Florida beginning in the early 1700s, most significantly northern Muscogee Creeks from what are now Georgia and Alabama.
Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2007, Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida and was headquartered in Orlando, Florida, until April 2018, when the corporate offices were relocated to Davie, Florida. As of July 2018, Hard Rock International has venues in 74 countries, including 172 bar or cafe-restaurants, 37 hotels, and 11 casinos.
Solomon 'Sol' Kerzner, was a South African accountant and business magnate. He has founded both of South Africa's largest hotel groups, the Southern Sun Hotel Group and Sun International. He was also the founder, chairman, and CEO of Kerzner International. During his career in the resort industry, he was involved in various political and business controversies.
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. was a gambling and hospitality company. The company previously owned and operated the now-demolished Trump Plaza and Trump World's Fair, the now-closed Trump Marina, Trump Casino & Hotel in Gary, Indiana, Trump 29 in Coachella, California, and Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. It was founded in 1995 as Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts by Donald Trump, who after 2004 held only a minority ownership. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, 2009 and 2014. It became a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises in 2016. Since then, all of the company's properties have been closed and sold.
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, formerly Trump Taj Mahal, is a casino and hotel on the Boardwalk, owned by Hard Rock International, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States.
Hard Rock Live, formerly known as Etess Arena, is a multi-purpose arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey located at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. Originally opening in April 1990 as a part of the Trump Taj Mahal, the arena seats over 5,000 for music and sporting events.
Golden Nugget Atlantic City is a hotel, casino, and marina located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Having been opened in 1985 as Trump's Castle, it was renamed Trump Marina in 1997. Landry's, Inc. purchased the casino from Trump Entertainment Resorts in February 2011, and the sale was approved in late May. Landry's took control of the property on May 23, 2011 and renamed it the Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
The Seminole Casino Immokalee is a Class III tribal gaming casino and hotel in the town of Immokalee, Florida, United States, 35 miles from Naples. The Seminole Casino is owned and operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Originally opened in February 1994, and recently expanded the property in February 2009; the Seminole Casino offers Vegas Style Slot machines.
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa is a gaming complex and hotel that opened in 2004. It is located on the Tampa Reservation off of Interstate 4, just east of Tampa, Florida. The 190,000 square foot casino has been expanded multiple times since its opening. It is a 24-hour venue that permits smoking indoors.
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is a hotel and/or casino franchise.
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, also known as The Guitar Hotel, due to its tower constructed to resemble a Gibson Les Paul guitar, is a hotel and casino resort near Hollywood, Florida, United States, located on 100 acres (40 ha) of the Hollywood Reservation of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The property currently has three hotel towers, a 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) casino, large poker room, a 4-acre (1.6 ha) lagoon-style pool facility with a center bar and many private restaurants, shops, spa, cabanas, bars and nightclubs, and the Hard Rock Event Center. A large expansion was completed in October 2019.
The Council Oak Tree is an historic oak tree on the Hollywood Seminole Indian Reservation in Hollywood, Florida, at the intersection between U.S. 441 and Stirling Rd. It has been the site for many important events in the history of the Seminole Tribe of Florida since at least 1957. Some of the events in the early 21st century include the 25th Anniversary celebration for the birthplace of Indian gaming (2004), the Tribe's 50th Anniversary celebration (2007), and the signing of the Seminole Gaming Compact (2010). The tree's image serves as a tribal logo. A restaurant at both the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa is named for the Council Oak. The documents for the purchase of the hotel, casino and contents were signed under the Council Oak Tree. On December 4, 2012, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Council Oak Tree Site on the Hollywood Seminole Indian Reservation.
The Tampa Reservation is one of six Seminole Indian reservations governed by the federally recognized Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is located in Hillsborough County, Florida.
The Camelot Hotel/Casino was a proposed hotel and casino that was to be built in the early 1980s in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The site of the proposed project was located in the marina district, adjacent to Harrahs Resort, and was to consist of 990 hotel rooms and a 60,000 sq ft casino. Entertainer Merv Griffin was appointed as entertainment director of the company and planned to broadcast his television show from the hotel. However, because of financial, political and legal difficulties, construction of the hotel/casino was never completed and a casino license was never issued.
Brad Henry Friedmutter, A.I.A. is an architect and founder of Friedmutter Group, a design, architecture, master planning and interior design firm. Friedmutter Group has designed dozens of integrated resorts including The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the fifth-most expensive building in the world. Friedmutter is a registered architect in 43 states. Friedmutter Group has offices in Las Vegas, Nevada, Newport Beach, California, and Macau, China.
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