Station Casinos is rolling out a series of neighborhood sports pubs. By Ryan Slattery
With the opening of its first Seventy Six Tavern in early October, Las Vegas gambling giant Station Casinos took the first small step in a very big project. Namely, to compete in the extremely lucrative tavern business.
Having already conquered the local casino market with neighborhood properties like Red Rock Resort, Green Valley Ranch and the year-old Durango Casino & Resort, sporting Strip-style amenities, the company is diving into a smaller pool. It has plans to launch dozens of sports bars and gambling taverns across the Las Vegas Valley in the next couple of years.
Locally, it’s seen as the opening salvo from Station Casinos to directly compete with the region’s largest tavern operator Golden Gaming (owner of 71 taverns – mostly under its PT’s brand). It’s also entering into contention with the dozens of Dotty’s dotting the valley and the many other independent tavern operators in Las Vegas.
It’s also likely to launch a family feud of sorts, as Golden Gaming CEO Blake Sartini is the brother-in-law of Station’s CEO Frank Fertitta III and Vice Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta. Sartini and his wife Delise even named one of their sons Lorenzo, presumably after her brother. Now, tensions could heat up as the two companies begin battling over the local, small-scale gaming market.
Station executives have downplayed any intentional effort to go after Golden Gaming’s stranglehold on the business, saying they simply “want to strategically reach more locals,” according to Bobbie Rihel, the company’s vice president of small properties. That is without erecting another pricey resort-casino with all the bells and whistles that come with it.
“I think we’re absolutely similar in that the taverns have 15 machines and there are other similarities, but we’re not necessarily building right across from [a PT’s],” she says of competing with Golden Gaming. “Station has been in town since 1976 and it just it seemed like a natural thing to grow more around the valley. We want people to come in, and we want to get to know them and be the local spot in the neighborhoods.”
In Nevada, tavern licenses are given to companies for designated bars and restaurants, ones that are restricted to only allow a maximum of 15 gaming devices – machines featuring keno, slots and video poker. Live table games are not allowed.
Comparing these bars to the first Seventy Six Tavern in North Las Vegas (named after the year Station Casinos was founded, 1976), it’s clear the Seventy Six brand is positioning to be a more-upscale version of the
city’s current sports bars. It aims to make inroads into attracting local video poker and keno players to a new playground with more menu options.
Scott Kreeger, president of Station Casinos, calls Seventy Six “the next generation of neighborhood taverns,” saying the bars will be high-end, sports-viewing hangouts with an elevated restaurant menu. Station tabbed Chef Danny Wilkins to create the unique menu.
Here at the first Seventy Six Tavern on Lamb Boulevard at Centennial Parkway in North Las Vegas, pub favorites like wings, chicken quesadillas and Philly cheesesteaks live alongside more creative offerings such as ahi tuna nachos, fried chicken street tacos and grilled salmon served with jasmine rice. Even the burgers and pizzas (called flatbreads) get special treatment from Wilkins.
The Cowboy is his take on the Juicy Lucy – a short-rib patty stuffed with cheddar cheese and lathered in a house-made BBQ aioli. Then there’s the PB&J Smash Burger, two burger patties with American cheese, smeared with creamy peanut butter and a hot pepper raspberry jam.
“Whether you just want something simple or crave something more elevated, we have it for you. It just depends on what you’re looking for,” says Rihel. “We took months and months and months, and had a lot of oversight to develop this menu. I think we hit the mark.”
To sweeten the pot and draw in customers, Seventy Six has eight hours of happy-hour food and drink pricing each day, from 3-7 p.m. and from 3-7 a.m. The menu includes items like loaded tots, pretzel bites and a ham-and-cheese panini that purposely aren’t on the regular menu.
On the gambling side, the tavern has 15 bar-top gaming systems with the latest poker, blackjack, slot and keno games, powered by Konami Gaming’s Synkros casino-management system. Seventy Six also has its own players club separate from its Station Boarding Pass program. Called the VIP Club, it offers hourly in-game bonuses, with monthly promotions tied to the card when a player is logged in. New members will receive a one-time, $20 match play for signing up.
With the first Seventy Six Tavern up and running, Station is planning for rapid expansion of the brand in 2025. A second location is expected to open in early 2025 across the street from Boyd Gaming’s Aliante Casino + Hotel + Spa, with construction of five more ground-up builds starting soon. The expectation is to open towards the end of 2025, Rihel says. All of the locations will be roughly 6,000 square feet in size.
“We plan to place them strategically throughout the valley to be able to get more of the Station hospitality we’re known for out to the valley,” says Rihel. “The next location will be in Aliante, in an area where there’s not a big Station property.” (Ironically, Aliante Casino began life as a Station project, passing through various hands before falling into Boyd’s.) “Our goal is to reach the local neighborhoods and bring an atmosphere that when you walk in it has a warm feeling,” Rihel says, “like it’s your home away from home.” seventysixtaverns.com
***This exclusive feature interview was originally published in Casino Life Magazines January 2025 edition Issue 173***
