Vegas Reimagined: The Story Behind Circa's High-Tech Casino (BONUS)

Greg Stevens, Co-owner of the Circa Resort and Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, shares how he and his brother created the ultimate Vegas experience and built Circa from the ground up.

Learn more about this topic:
The Future of Tourism: A Conversation with Circa’s Greg Stevens
5 Advanced Technology Innovations in Las Vegas

Featured on Tomorrow's World Today:
Season 6 Episode 5

Watch more:
Inside Circa Resort’s Green Hotel Rooms
What Happens In Vegas Pools, Stays in Vegas Filters

Transcript

Circa Podcast Transcript - Tomorrow’s World Today

0:01

Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.

0:04

We sit down with experts, world changing innovators, creators and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts and more.

0:21

And now this week's episode, in this episode of the Tomorrow's World Today podcast, George Davison, who is also the host of Tomorrow's World Today on science interviews Greg Stevens partner and co-owner of Circa resorts, an immersive culinary entertainment and gaming experience in downtown Las Vegas.

0:43

Greg discusses his role as a partner and co-owner of circa emphasizing their union business structure, the critical role of stem in their operations and the complex engineering behind their facilities, especially the technology used to keep their 3000 person pool clean and safe.

1:02

Now, here's George, welcome Greg.

1:05

Thank you.

1:05

Glad to be here.

1:06

Well, let's start with Circa.

1:08

Can you give us a little background?

1:10

How was that created?

1:11

So circa was kind of a the invention.

1:14

My brother and I owned a couple other casinos and we kind of worked our way up and we finally had a chance to build something from the ground up.

1:19

And so we kinda took all the lessons learned that we've had and we're able to kind of embody all that in one new design and give us all the tools and bells and whistles that we wish for.

1:28

Nice.

1:29

So you saw places where you could improve your guest experience and decided to start from a clean sheet of paper and redo the whole idea.

1:40

That's exactly it.

1:41

We tried to take everything that we could to create the best guest experience, the best environment.

1:45

And,, we got to start from literally a clean sheet of paper and say, OK, what do we want?

1:49

Let's go ahead and,, build it.

1:51

Oh, that's great.

1:52

All right.

1:53

So you are, your position, your formal position is listed as partner and co-owner.

1:59

Well, it's a partner because of the structure of the business.

2:01

So, technically, I'm a partner, which means,, sometimes you can have many partners.

2:05

In this case, there's two, there's my brother and I, so legally speaking, I'm the,, the partner of an LLC,, which is same thing as the co-owner.

2:13

So,, there's two of us and,, that's it.

2:15

Do you like owning your own business?

2:17

I love owning my own business.

2:19

Yeah, it's a great experience, isn't it?

2:21

All right.

2:22

So there had to be, some experiences in your background that led you to this, current position you have in life.

2:31

For sure.

2:32

For sure.

2:32

I've been interested, very interested in engineering my whole life.

2:35

, I've just kind of taken advantage wherever I could,, whether it was cutting lawns or, you know, plowing snow or doing something and kind of weaseling it in with a little bit of business and trying to save some money, make some money to make some more money.

2:47

And,, that's kind of led from one thing to the other.

2:49

We have an automotive business in the Detroit area.

2:51

, that kind of gave us the seeds to, to get going.

2:53

And then,, next thing, you know, we're in Las Vegas and,, we had one little casino and then another casino and we've just,, I guess that the biggest thing is we've always just reinvested in whatever we're doing.

3:03

, my brother and I have been partners ever since the start.

3:06

So, we've always just reinvested and reinvigorated and put all our effort into whatever's next.

3:11

You know, it's interesting, you know, as a young entrepreneur, you know, at a, at a really young age when you started and you're mowing lawns and shoveling snow and whatnot, you know, it's, there's always that thing that you hear about, you know, from some folks, it's like, well, you know, you're chasing money and, but really, yeah, we like making money, but at the same time, we also like helping people and when we can help people and we are,, and, and they're willing to pay us for something it's a double win.

3:41

Right.

3:42

Yeah, that's what I did.

3:43

My, my first,, kind of solo job was to make enough money to buy a little small snow plow and,, plow on my neighbor's yards and they, they got a discount.

3:51

I made some money.

3:52

I got a new toy out of the mix and it was just a win, win, win all the way around.

3:56

I had a little bit more money to roll it over into the next year.

3:58

Well done.

3:59

All right.

3:59

So let's, let's like move forward real fast here all the way up to where we are today with circa how many employees are we talking?

4:07

We're talking about 2500 employees just in Las Vegas alone.

4:11

Wow, 2500 and they're, they're all focused on that guest experience.

4:16

Is that right?

4:17

Pretty much.

4:17

It's a broad range.

4:18

So we have everything from security to engineering, guest experience, people that touch everybody at the front desk.

4:23

So the guys moving the stuff around, we've got a lot of products that we have to receive and ship every day to bring in and out and making sure the mattresses are there and that the linen comes and goes as it needs to.

4:33

So there's all kinds of different opportunities there.

4:36

Ok.

4:37

So lots of different jobs.

4:39

What about the field of, let's say, stem this science, technology, engineering and math.

4:45

Does that play a role anywhere in the world?

4:48

Of your form of entertainment and hospitality.

4:50

Absolutely.

4:51

You don't always necessarily see it because it's not out front and center.

4:54

We've got all the hospitality people, front and center.

4:56

But behind the scenes, there's a lot of stuff going on.

4:59

There's a lot of math that goes on when it comes to moving things around shipping, analyzing, operating the building.

5:05

I mean, there's a lot of science going on in our, in our H V AC systems and how to manage that and, and be as green and ecological as we can.

5:14

There's plenty of science going on behind the scenes.

5:17

Yeah, a lot of technology.

5:18

I, I, I've heard about this like pool that you can put 3000 people, they have a pool that you can put 3000 people in and have a big 3000 person party.

5:27

Doesn't that sound exciting?

5:28

And, but there's a lot of technology and how they clean that water.

5:31

There's so do you wanna talk a little bit, just a little bit about that for sure.

5:34

Just the chemistry alone, you know, you gotta make sure water is all about having the right chemistry in there, right?

5:38

You gotta have a little bit of chlorine in there to keep it sanitized.

5:40

You've gotta filter that water, you've got to move that water around.

5:43

So you've got mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, all that stuff's involved and just making that pool water clean especially when you get into a load.

5:51

When you've got thousands of people in a pool, then you've really gotta get it moving.

5:54

So, it take, requires all that expertise for sure.

5:57

And they turn that water over that water in less than an hour.

6:01

It's like brand new water every hour.

6:04

It's amazing.

6:05

It is.

6:06

All right.

6:06

Let's, let's keep moving on.

6:07

How about mentors?

6:08

Did you have any mentors when you were younger?

6:10

I sure did.

6:11

I was lucky and probably my first mentor was my own father.

6:13

So my dad was an architect.

6:15

He kind of got me the, the engineering bug a little bit.

6:18

Then I had a great a great internship for a couple of years during college with another engineer who was really took me under his wing and, and kind of got me started.

6:26

And then after that, I, I kind of became my own mentor a little bit.

6:29

I, you know, I just kind of believed in myself and I would kind of dig into projects and figure things out.

6:33

So, but you've got to work hard because that's, that's something you can't ever take away, for sure, for sure.

6:40

All right.

6:40

So I wanna thank you for coming in today and sharing some of this knowledge with us.

6:47

Thank you so much for having me.

6:48

It's been a pleasure.

6:49

All right, everybody.

6:51

That's another edition of Tomorrow's World Today.

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Have a great day.

6:55

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7:00

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