Casino Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award

Casino Marketing Conference established the Casino Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the area of casino marketing, promotions and customer service.

2010 Winner - Virginia McDowell

Watch the video tribute to Virginia prepared by Isle of Capri Casinos

Virginia McDowell is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc.

A true casino marketer, Virginia cut her marketing teeth in the Atlantic City market, holding a variety of executive positions over a sixteen year period. From there, she joined Argosy Gaming Company as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, ultimately holding the position of Senior Vice President of Operations. Before becoming President and COO for Isle of Capri, she was the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Trump Entertainment Resorts.

Virginia has received many gaming and community honors. She has been recognized as one of the Great Women of Gaming and last year was named Casino Journal's Gaming Executive of the Year. She is being honored with the Casino Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award not only for her numerous gaming industry marketing achievements, but her lifelong appreciation of the casino customer, the casino employee and “marketing” as more than a department, but an important, integrated way of doing business.  

Previous Winners

2009: Lyle Berman, Chief Executive Officer, Lakes Entertainment

Berman was first a casino customer, as a world class poker player who now sits in the World Poker Hall of Fame. Then he was a casino company founder and CEO (twice) with Grand Casinos and Lakes Entertainment, Inc. Along the way he found time to help launch the World Poker Tour and become Chairman of the Board of PokerTek. Through it all, Berman has found success through an integrated marketing strategy that recognizes the importance of the three main constituencies of customers, employees, and communities. He is being honored for his vision, his formula and his results, which truly define his skill as the ultimate casino marketer.

2008: Ginny Shanks, Senior Vice President of Brand Management, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.

In Shanks’ 25-year career at Harrah’s, she progressed from a junior executive with Harrah’s Reno’s in-house advertising agency (when Harrah’s operated four casinos) to the most senior corporate marketing executive responsible for maximizing value of Harrah’s key strategic brands (when Harrah’s operated 49 casinos). She was the key linchpin in Harrah’s transition from the original operations and service culture of Bill Harrah to the modern day international gaming company and marketing juggernaut.

2007: John Acres, Chief Executive Officer, Acres Concepts

With his Acres Player Tracking System, John Acres arguably became the “Father” of the modern day player management system and the force behind a more powerful and more efficient way of executing casino marketing. Now the CEO of Acres Concepts and still the consummate innovator and inventor, John Acres continues to challenge the gaming industry to be simpler, better and more mindful of what our gaming customers really want. He is being honored for a lifetime of thinking outside the casino box and bringing us the tools and better ways of doing business that are now standard in the gaming industry.

2006: Bill Harrah, founder, Harrah’s Entertainment (posthumously)
Phil Satre, former Chief Executive Officer, Harrah’s Entertaiment

Both Bill Harrah and Phil Satre stand out as shining beacons for their lifetime of service around the powerful notions that customers and employees matter most, and that effective casino marketing can indeed be strategically scientific. From the early days of Bill Harrah walking his casino floor, building the first rudimentary player reward program and pioneering casino entertainment, to the modern day Phil Satre planting the seeds and framing the vision for the marketing wizardry that would catapult Harrah’s into the 21st century as an industry leader, these two gaming giants from different eras have changed the face of casino entertainment forever. They are being honored for their significant contributions to the casino marketing field and for their passion for their customers, their employees and their communities.

2005: Jack Binion, Horseshoe Casinos

Growing up with the family-owned Binion’s Horseshoe, Jack Binion became one of the country’s most successful gaming operators by developing Horseshoe Casinos, with properties in Mississippi, Louisiana and Illinois. He is being honored for having the most powerful marketing strategy in the gaming industry today. Horseshoe Casinos are known for being places where “real gamblers” like to play; Binion understands it’s all about giving players a good gamble. In addition, he uses quality food as a real marketing tool, understands the value of employees and customer service, and he knows his customers.

2004: John Romero

John Romero is a renowned casino marketing consultant, writer and lecturer specializing in direct mail, direct response advertising, casino promotions and database building, and he is being honored with the very first Casino Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award for his invaluable contributions to the field. He spent 19 years as marketing director of the Sahara Las Vegas, and then formed his own Las Vegas advertising company. He is also a co-founder and principal owner in World Championship of Blackjack, Inc., which became International Gaming Promotions, Inc., and he also cofounded Player’s International, Inc.