Glasses. You wear the glasses. I try to make you look at the glasses guy I don't like. It it's horrible. I think it's such a bad idea. What do you think? Be. Honest. You can be honest. No, if you're comfortable. I never understand. It's good. I mean, it does not my thing. But if you're comfortable, then you like it. The eyes don't lie, man. The eyes don't lie. You gotta. I wear different glasses every episode. Oh, really? Yeah. That's also his thing.
Should I get a brand deal with the? Glasses. Yeah, that's cool. That's fine. Got a special guest today. I'm off though if you like. Not at all. If you're right, do. You like that? I, I feel like I'm a maybe it's like a poker match, just where you're like staring me down and I can't see what's going on behind the glasses. But I'm good if you're good. Very special guest CEO of the Plaza Las Vegas, Jonathan Jossel. Great to be with you.
Thank you. Thank you for taking time out of. The We're live. Oh, we're live. We just jumped straight into it. Right. Nice. I want to tell people this guy just jumped, right? In You Started with the Glasses is that when you push the glasses on the episode, That's how we know that's like the we've begun. You ever seen Big Daddy, the Adam Sandler movie? I think I have, yes. Well, he, the little kid puts on the glasses and he turns invisible. That's basically this guy.
OK, all right. Fair enough. Hey, listen, whatever works for you, man. You look good. You are sure you guys dressing up? I'm sorry I didn't dress up today. No, no, no, Totally fine. We are honored to have any time out of your day. Honestly. Thank you, busy man. Some people call you the next Steve Wynn, one of our good buddies. Yeah. So where does it all start? Because you're a credible individual, youngest to ever have a gaming license here in
Nevada, right? Yeah, First, I love the the reference. I appreciate when somebody says I'm the next Steve Wynn because he is someone that I look up to and think is an incredible is not. I think he is the most incredible visionary the city's ever had. Some people say that was Jay Sano for me is Steve Wynn. What he accomplished here is just second to none. If I can be a fraction of him, I'd be very honest. So I'm just a small time guy in
downtown. I'm not in any way likening myself to Steven, but if I could be, that's that's the goal. He's he's the he's the highest standard for the city of Las Vegas and understanding about casinos and and, and human nature, how it plays into casinos. So thank you for that reference. How does it start? And and yes, I was the youngest licensee in the state of I was 29 when I got approved by the game and Control Board. I think there was other younger people that were key employees.
And so they were approved by the game and control ward, but to be unaffiliated with the family. So meaning like my father didn't own the place or it wasn't like a family member that I was getting licensed through to be an independent owner operative casino 29 and approved by the game and Control Board was the youngest at the time, the youngest in the state. I don't think anyone's younger at this point, but I could be wrong. Was very cool.
And your question was how did I, how did I get you? Basically, how did I? How did I end up there? Born in South Africa, right? Born in South Africa, grew up in London, always loved the gaming industry. How loved gaming. Didn't mean to cut you up. How old were you when you moved away from South Africa? I was six, OK, young, my parents moved us, six years old, moved from South Africa to London, don't even remember much of it.
I was just back in South Africa, an amazing country, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me was leaving there and growing up in London where I, I, I love, I love gambling, whether it's playing snooker or pool as Americans called it, snooker for money, where there was betting on dogs, whether it
was any form of gambling. We were interested in there as young kids in England. And there's a big gambling culture everywhere in the world where people think it's just here in Las Vegas. But wherever you go in the world, people gamble in some some capacity. And so I was gambling in London on dogs, horses, different things and really took an interest in the industry.
And then I did my thesis at university on what would be the socio economic impacts of casino Las Vegas style casinos opening up in the UK in the early 2000s. They were talking about potentially that happening. And so that's where I sort of studied and it was a business degree, but it was the business of casinos opening up in London and the impacts of that. And one day at lunch with some family friends, a gentleman
says, what are you doing? I told him and he said out of the blue, oh I just bought 6 casinos in downtown Las Vegas and I was like holy shit. Like can you can say shit? Yeah, you're good of. Course, Yes, yes, yes. Holy shit on this is crazy. Who who who says such a thing? So I begged him for work experience day after day after day. I wasn't even 21 yet I asked to come out to Vegas. I lived here in the Plaza 2000 and four 2005 for about 6 weeks. How old were you?
20. That's crazy most people are trying to figure out. Well, I, I, I had no idea what I was doing there. I mean, I was a 20 year old living in downtown Las Vegas and you, you, you may not even be I'm 28. I'm 28. OK. And and so. You got baby fees? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I'm like living in this building and thinking downtown is a dump. I mean, it was bad. You you again, you were too young. I'm not sure if you were. Here, yeah, I've been in. I was in Vegas since O2 so.
OK, so. I seen downtown when it was I. Mean O four O 5 in downtown there was nothing you couldn't you walked down Fremont Street there was that was it like you couldn't go to E Fremont. There was no arts district. I went last night to this new cocktail lounge in the arts district, walked to a French restaurant like where am I? This is a proper city now. But this wasn't here in 2004. And so it was bad. And I lived here for about it
was meant to be 6 weeks. And after three weeks, I called up the guy in England who had sent me here and gave me the opportunity. And I said cool vision you got here, but not for me. And he had, he had to his credit, he had bought a building in Times Square in 2000 and sorry in 1989. And Times Square was a similar story. It was bad crime, drugs,
rundown. I need a vision for cleaning up Times Square similar to what his vision was for downtown Las Vegas, but office buildings very different to casinos and hotels. And he had six casinos here and a bunch of land. So I left in 2005, not expected to come back, but I ended up working for him out after university. And two years later, I'm working for him and he says, hey, downtown Vegas is starting to change. I was like, I was just there two years ago.
It was terrible. And he's like, no, I need someone on the ground. It's all gone bad. All my partners are bad. I need someone on the ground to watch out for my interests. And I was the only person who was not married, didn't have commitments to England or in any other way. And I was like, I'll go out there for three months and look at what's happened, if it's really changed. Came back out, landed here 2007, July 2007 and went down to the down E Fremont.
And all of a sudden it was still pretty shit. But there was a downtown cocktail room, there was a beauty bar and I met these two young guys at the cocktail bar and one open owned the lounge, the bar and the other one was building a high rise. I was like, wow, there's two normal young guys trying to make a difference in downtown. Like maybe there is something happening here. And that was it. I just fell in love with
downtown and saw a path forward. It was also the huge recession of O7O8O9 and all these casinos started losing money. So the vision that they had for like developing downtown was put on hold and it was just like shit, can we survive? Can we make these places work? And that's when I learned the business, and that's how it evolved. Before we jump too far ahead, what What was that connection with the men that ended up employing you?
Still today, still today, he owns the real estate at the Plaza. I own the gaming license and the operation. He's an amazing guy. His name is Poyu Zablodovic, and he's the one who gave me the opportunity to come out here and supported me. And, and frankly, he's the one who carried these properties
through the recession, right? They needed a lot of money and someone like myself when I was 23 who didn't have the vision at that time for what these places could become, he stuck with it and ultimately gave me the opportunity in 2014 to go ahead and get licensed and take on the role as CEO here. But it was all with his support and to this day, we're still very close and he still still the landowner here. He used to own Las Vegas club that's now soccer.
We sold the Western and the Gold spike to Tony Hsieh. He owned the buildings out in East Fremont that are like Commonwealth, La Comit la Mona Rosa. That's my favorite area. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was all me, man. When I, when I were not, the whole area wasn't me, but those buildings were all were ours and they were all like, there's a Philly cheese steak that were rundown and nothing. And we put in the Thai, we put in beauty bar, we put in Don Tomama.
Commonwealth at the time was La Comida, now it's Mona La, Mona Rosa, all those bars, we all. Scream is there. We all scream. I I'm always at, I'm always at. We all scream. People love that place. That's great. Yeah. Good. Yeah. So that was that was like my first project in town with those buildings. How did he get connected to your family? What would your father and or mother do for? They were just friends. They weren't like business associates.
They just knew each other as more acquaintances, friends in London. I'm not sure exactly how they met. I was young when we moved from South Africa to London. They became friends maybe through the neighborhoods, I don't know. I, I that's a good question. I should probably ask my parents how they knew him but they just met his friends and we were just. I don't think they were super close but we were friendly and I was just happened to be there.
Were you always just a? Prominent definition of luck and good fortune and opportunity is understanding that every day you meet somebody, you never know what that can lead to and and and being open to all conversations. Just so happens to own 6 properties in downtown Las Vegas Yeah, that's incredible. You kind of alluded to it, but you're one of the most pivotal individuals in the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas. Thank you. Why does?
I think there's a lot of people. I mean, and it all begins with the man whose restaurant we're sitting in right now, Oscar Goodman, if he hadn't been the champion of downtown in 1999. There's an article on the wall over there where he's like Oscar Goodman becomes mayor and sets his sights on downtown. And it was a wasteland in many ways, and he was the champion.
He was the first one, as he said, when he got out of office, it was a 12 year overnight success because everyone thinks it just happened and it was easy. But he put a, he put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it. It was him and then his mate and then his wife who became the mayor. But I, but without them and the Goodmans and their legacy, I'm not sure that a lot of the people that ended up down here would have ended up down here. So it it it all begins with them.
So how did that even come together with getting him the restaurant we're in now? It's a great story. He he was the mayor and we were renovating the Plaza. We shut down in 2010. We were putting an all new furniture that we bought from the Fountain Blue when it went bankrupt in 2007. The old fountain. We definitely need to get into that story. It's one of my favorite stories of all time. The old fountain. Was like this tile came out of the fountain the original? Fountain.
It was vacant for a long, long time, you know. Exactly. Yeah. So we we had bought all that furniture in like 2010. Could you blend those two stories together for us the the actual acquisition of that because how old were you at that time It's. Not. I mean, I was 20, 8625, and we had decided we're going to remodel the Plaza because it was doing really badly. It was in the middle of the recession and we needed to do something to bring this place back to life.
And the Las Vegas Club was across the street that was doing really badly. And we would discuss like doing a room remodel. It wasn't a big project. It was a big project, but it wasn't what it ended up being. And, and this designer lady called me and said, hey, I know you're thinking of doing a room remodel. I'm in the basement of the Fountain Blue, which has gone bankrupt. And it's exactly the same
building that's there right now. That building was built the shell, not the inside, but the shell. And she's like, you won't believe what's in the garage. And I was like, what is she like pilots of tile and wallpaper and lights, everything that's going to go into this building. And she's like, yeah, they're selling it for like $0.12 on the dollar. So I went over there.
I drove there again. It wasn't like you could see samples of the cockpits and the tile and the wallpaper, but it wasn't like you understood the scale of it. And I called the guy in England, I was like, hey, they're selling all the stuff for cheap and it's really good looking stuff. And to his credit, he was like, buy it. And we just agreed on the spot to buy 1100 rooms worth of tile
carpet. But then what happened was like we're like, wow, with these nice rooms, you're going to need new elevators, new escalators, new casino carpet, new banquets, new. Everything started evolving from there. I was like, well we need a restaurant, we need a steakhouse, we need to redo the front desk. So we ended up buying way more tile, way more wallpaper. Right now in the lobby when you go down says that's the same tile from the fountain blue that
was meant to go in there. This right here sitting here is the same tile that was in the fountain blue garage. We didn't buy it all because a few other hotels ended up getting like the scraps or the leftover excess stuff because they had like 3000 rooms and we only needed 1000 ish. So we ended up buying it on the spot, bought it in and that's what was the catalyst for the big remodel. And this used to be Firefly. Do you know, do you know Firefly, the Spanish restaurant in town?
So this used to be Firefly and we realized we needed a steakhouse for our higher end customers as part of the remodel. So we were coming up, we were sitting in a meeting thinking of names for a steakhouse and you know, you think of it the one main and different names of
potential steakhouse. And we had to deal with this guy to open a Speakeasy. And about a couple of weeks before the opening, maybe a couple of months before the opening, I got a little nervous that a Speakeasy was maybe not ready for downtown, like downtown wasn't quite there yet. And so I told him I was like, hey, what if we instead of partnering with you to do the Speakeasy, what if we partner with you to do the steakhouse? And he was like, OK, that's fair
enough. And we'll put a nice bar within the steakhouse so you don't have to. But I had a whole new Speakeasy. And he was like, OK. And he was like, well, what's the idea? And we was thinking about it. And he was like, well, Oscar really wants to do a bar. What if we do a bar in the restaurant after Oscar? And I was like, what if we just do the whole restaurant as Oscar? And he was like, I don't know. So we went to Oscar. He was like, his last couple of days as mayor.
And all I did was I bought him a piece of piece of paper with a picture of the Dome in the front there with his name and lights overlooking Fremont Street. I was like, how would you like to do this? And I don't even think he asked me what it was. Could have been a brothel. He didn't even ask me what is that? He just said, I'm in, let's do it. And and then we discussed the steakhouse. We discussed the bar. We discussed the whole idea.
And he was in day one when he got out of office, we signed the deal and he said to me when we signed the deals, like, I don't know what this document says. He had a lawyer look at he's like, but I'm not going to refer to this. You do what you say you're going to do and I'll do what I say I'm going to do. Otherwise we're going to have a problem. And I was like, I was like a 25 year old kid. And the mob attorneys telling me this. I was like, yeah.
And to this day, and it just came up the other day because we needed some bank. We have never referred to our document. We pay him, he does his things he's obligated to. And we have the most beautiful relationship now going to be almost 14 years old. And we've never referred back to that document. It's always been on a handshake the way it should be. He's a great partner. Who was the woman that informed you of the materials being sold? My name is Nancy.
She's an interior designer, contractor and I had another contractor, interior designer, really great lady. She's still in town, but she was the one who who was in the fountain blue and got that access to that. What did? How she got it? What did that total deal ended up being worth that your purchase from the what was it from the Fontainebleau or because they had. Nose Carl Icon, Big business, big businessman in in the country.
He's huge and he had bought the Fountain Blue, I think out of bankruptcy and decided to sell all the old furniture. I don't remember what it ended up costing us, but I remember the number 12 cents on the dollar. So whatever we paid, it was worth a lot more than that at the time. We're talking multi $1,000,000. Deal a big number. 26 years old. That's a big deal to. Close. Yeah, that was a big deal.
And then and then to figure out how to shut this place down and remodel it. Great life experience. Yeah. What kind of cojones did that take at that time? I don't know. Because I, I, I never really thought about failure. That's the thing. Like if you think about failure, then it scares you. I never really thought about failure. And the truth was I was insulated by some really good operators, some good people that
were, they were good people. Whether they did a good job running the place was a different question, but they were good people. They had good intentions. We had our owner in England who was backing us. So it's like I felt pretty good about what we're doing. And it's almost like I was stupid. And so like, if you don't know the downside, then there is no risk because I wasn't even aware that they could be major
downside. And it only dawned on me once we did the big remodel and we reopened and we were still doing even worse. That's when I realized, wow, OK, this is this is a problem. It's all positive thoughts Positive. Yeah. Positive thoughts, positive outcome, right? If you don't know the downside, then you don't have to worry about it. So what was it like digging out
of the recession? Well, there was the recession and then there was just the bad management of these places and, and the misconception about it and learning what it was about the Plaza that made it special. Back in the day in the 70s when it was built, it was the place to go to. It was the biggest hotel casino in the world. It was, it was just a real icon and what had gone so wrong from the 70s to the early 2000s in those like 30 years.
And the cool thing for me was walking around here as a 25 year old, it was people that worked here and I talked to them to this day that had worked here longer than I'd been alive. It I wasn't here on opening night to 19711973, the second tower, I wasn't here in the 70s, early 80s. So for me to talk to these people that were here and saw this place go from nothing, go go from being everything to just nothing. First hand experience.
You know, was to learn from them was the key and and and I understood what it was and it was a the original founder of the Plaza was a guy called Jackie Gorn, who's an icon in gaming and history of downtown Las Vegas. He's really like the first, not the first, but one of the biggest names in all of downtown. His father, his son is Michael go on, who owns the South Point, one of the best operators in town and and understanding from him and the people that worked for him.
What he did that made this place special was a lot of what I took on board to be like, I need to learn this and and understand how to bring back the Plaza. So that was that was a big part of it as well. What was your question? Just the revitalization like kind of what went into that because it I, I imagined getting out of the recession and even surviving it was. Yeah, I mean, listen, surviving
it was tough. And then and then just thinking about a lot of people said you should knock the Plaza down and restart. It's like so bad. It's rundown. And I took a different approach of how can we improve it every day? And it's still my mentality today is what can I do each day bit by bit to improve the Plaza and the perception of the Plaza that brings people down here. And so it was just kind of like the metaphor, the nudge of how do you eat an elephant one bite
at a time. It's like you got to start from somewhere. And so we did that remodel, but didn't work. So what were the things I was going to do each day, whether it was the the culture, the training, the cleanliness, the music, little details along the way, just keep improving the place. And that's how we we dug out of it. Have you ever heard that saying the elephant thing? I've never heard that. I thought it was like a South African thing too. You eat an elephant one bite at
a time. Never heard of it. But I think that's what like one of the biggest things when you watch like old school casino movies is the culture of the early casinos, right? Everybody knew. They knew customers names and everybody that walked in shook hands. Right, that classic Vegas feel, right, Like how do you balance that that, that that classic Vegas feel and modernizing all the amenities and the services?
You know, it's kind of easy because the modernizing the services and improving the property is obvious. And everyone does that and everyone wants to improve. Put new restaurants, keep upgrading, keep upgrading. But just taking care of people and explaining to your team members that like, relationships is what people are looking for. Relationships are more important than, you know, fancy things.
People will go where they feel comfortable, and what it makes them comfortable is. Yeah, it has to be clean and safe, obviously, but what really differentiates you is how your kids doing, how was your travel, how are things back home, what's happening and understanding them and their relationships. And that's what I've explained to our dealers, our security, our casino hosts. Those personal relationships are way more valuable than fancy tile and fancy carpet.
As long as it's clean, it's safe, it's nice. That's the basic threshold you'll win on relationships. That's the way it works for me. So repetitive because I live by South Point, so when you go to South Point it's the same people in their gambling every day. Yeah, Yeah. By the way, if you work at the South Point, you never leave. Yeah, because the guy's a good guy. He takes care of you. And if you never leave, then
you're happy. Your job, you'll take care of the customers because you take ownership of that place. So you're exactly right. The people go back to where they feel comfortable. And South Point is not the nicest place in town. It's clean, it's safe, it's good. They got greater restaurants, good amenities, good programming. But it's not, it's not the fanciest place in town. It's just. But you run into the same people all the time when you're in there.
Yeah, I like going. There at the tables at the everywhere machines. What do you play do? You gambling? I stopped gambling, actually. But I'm with my cousin's like a chronic gambler, so I'm with him all the time. I haven't gambled in eight years. Oh. Good for you. But he gambles a lot and I just go with him and keep him company, yeah. Live vicariously through him. Yeah, table games. Table games, anything actually OK, Probably something like you.
He'll bet. We went to the, what is it the, the All Blacks, the rugby. Oh, yeah, yeah. And we're betting on rugby teams and we don't even know what the teams are. We're betting by like, oh, who comes out that time or who comes out that time? Like he'll bet on anything. OK, fair. Enough. Are you still a big time gambler? I was never a big time gambler, just more frequent. I enjoy it. I don't gamble a lot, but I enjoy it. I think it's, I see it definitely as entertainment.
People like, oh, it's so dumb. I understand the culture, the psyche of the gambler, why they gamble. It's different from many people, but I I definitely appreciate the entertainment. I'm going to love it. I love sports betting. I think like putting a bet on some kind of sporting events and watching it. It's really fun. So for me, I enjoy that. But entertainment I, I, I don't necessarily go play a ton of
slots or sort of table games. There's not the patience for it, but I enjoy it from out with friends. Yeah, yeah. It is a lot of patience. Yeah, yeah. If you want to be successful like poker, I don't have any patience for poker. It just takes too long. Yeah, that's true. You were one of the first guys that kind of get with the social media and having the the streamers and the guys doing their videos come into the casino and play games and whatnot. Yeah, what?
How did you know that that was going to be a thing? I, I didn't know it, but I was watching some of these guys, especially Brian Christopher was the first one in my opinion to do it. And we, we realized like 20/17/2018 like there's something here. And I remember doing a deal with Bryant to like pay him to come down here. We were like, you're nuts. And then we did bigger deal with him.
It was all in the newspaper. And like the guys from Golden Nugget or South Point MG, I'm like, what are you doing? Why you wasting your time with these influences? Like it's just a bunch of kids. And I was like, I don't think they get it. Like there's a 65 year old lady watching this guy play slots. He's a kid. He's young, not a kid, but he's young. But the people watching him are not. And there's people watch on YouTube and I was like, yeah,
you guys keep thinking that now. Now everybody's doing it. Everyone's paying them down the street. They're paying smaller influences. It's it's amazing what it's taken onto a whole new life and it's amazing how popular they become. I mean, like Vegas, Matt, you walk down the street with him. I did the other day. He's getting stopped by everyone. The guys like he's, you know, he's the, he's The Rolling Stones of today is the they're
just huge. So I I embraced it, realized that just because they were young doesn't mean that their fans are young. And now it's just a massive part of the industry and everyone seems to be getting involved in some degree. It was almost like taboo before being able to record in a casino, right? Like even take pictures or. Yeah, it's still is in some places, but you got to find the balance. I understand that people want privacy.
If your friend's gambling and he's betting a lot, he doesn't necessarily want his friends or his family or somebody else's wife to see him playing what he's gambling. So I, I understand that you need to have special on table games, but but what is weird to me is like they've got all these rules, but yet people can walk through the casinos and film, you know, you walk into the Bellagio, you can film the Conservatory people have their phones out.
Phones to people are like extensions of their hands at this point, right? It's not even, you don't even have a hand. You just have your phone. Everyone's got their phone right next to them. So you hit a jackpot. The first thing you're doing is taking out your phone to film it, right? So it's like it's just finding the right balance between those two things. Oh, was I going to ask you the being a father in the casino industry time?
How do you split it up? Because I imagine being the CEO you're sound like a massive numbers freak to me. Numbers freak. Yeah. Not at all. No, I really I like numbers, but I'm not a no, no, I'm not that actually that good at math. The, the answer your question is it's not easy because in the early days and I and I, I'll give you another good quote. I think I said this at my gaming Control Board hearing.
I was like 29. I can't believe I said this to them, but they asked me like, what's your work ethic kind of thing? I was like, the best, best fertilizer in the field are the farmer's footsteps. And what that means is basically the best way to run a business is to be hands on and to be there. And I used to stand here every single night and watch people come into the Plaza and which way did they turn? What was the first thing that they saw?
I would spend 18 hours a day easily in this building because I, I loved it and it wasn't that hard for me to be here. But you're both looking at me like I'm crazy with that weird quote. It was it was good at the gaming control. No. No, I like it. I like it. I like it. It was good at the gaming Control Board anyway. So time is everything into a business, right? Like there's that there's that saying about 10,000 hours and something makes you an expert.
I've done my 10,000 hours plus in this building and, and so very hard to deal with kids. I was lucky just to to start down here at 23. I didn't have kids till I was I think 31 or 32. So I had those years to earn my time. And so, so now I found a much better balance. I, I, I definitely realized that, you know, my kids are already not one of them is 9. I want to get home and do with my kids see them when they come
home from school sometimes. Otherwise, if I have a late night, like last night, I don't see my kids the whole day and then I may not see them till they go to school the next day. And so like I can go 2 days without seeing my kids at some point, which is not good. So having a good team is the key. And, and in this town, it's not easy, but once you build it, you keep it and you got a good foundation. And I've been able to do that now where I've got a great nucleus of a team around me.
And so like if I'm, I take my kids to South Africa like I did last week, I trust my team. They know, they know me. We've worked together. Some of them have grown up here, as you know, my, my vice president of operations was a poker dealer. I met him 12 years ago. My head of casino marketing was a front desk agent. And so I've, I've worked with them to, you know, and I was a kid, they were kids. We all grew up together. But they know what, how I think about things.
They can execute my vision, my ideas, and if they need me, they call me. But generally they're a great team which allows me to go be with my kids more. How was that trip to South Africa? How often do you guys get to go back? Oh no, So I was far. I don't go back often. I go back to England a lot more, but South Africa is I go, I my kids have been twice in their whole lives, which is still a lot for most people, but like it's, it's far. It was a great trip though. We had a great time.
Safari Cape Town. Amazing place. That's awesome. Yeah, it's good. How what's the like the I guess the realistic, how realistic it is. They're talking about things like comments on social media in England right now and people being arrested for their comments online against what I hear on social media when I hear on podcast. But I didn't know if you knew anyone around those type of issues in England now like. The whole freedom of speech thing. Right, you're arrested.
For what? Their comments on Facebook posts. Oh, I. Don't know anything about. Trying to restrict like freedom of speech or something, something like that along those lines. Sorry, I don't think about that. Heading up for the because we're out of the winter time. Are we going back to the the fireworks? Yeah. OK. Yeah, no. So tomorrow night, when does this ad podcast go out? It's actually go out tomorrow. Oh. Great, I love fireworks.
I love fireworks too, so I'll tell you a great story and ties back to South Africa again, I'm just dropping wisdom on you guys. This is great. So, so about 2016 we opened up pull deck and I decided to do a firework show. I'd never done a firework show. I was so nervous. I was nervous of all the different things that could go wrong. I was just nervous about doing a fireworks show and it was amazing. And so I was like, what if I did fireworks for like that was July because it was July 4th.
So I was like, let's do fireworks for July 4th. I was like, I had to wait till New Year's Eve to do another fireworks show. So I started trying to find a reason to do a firework show and it was expensive and like you can't do it and it's just too hard. You got to get permits, all these things.
So I waited for New Year's Eve and we did it again on New Year's Eve. I was like, I'll never forget the one casino owner down the street, all the way down on like 4th St. said to me, God, that's loud. Everyone's asking where that noise is coming from. They're like, oh, it's the Plaza doing fireworks. And a light bulb went on from my head. I was like, they're talking about me. My competitors are all talking about me all the way down the
street. So then I was like, OK, it's March Madness and not much as Saint Patrick's Day. I'm going to do a fireworks show in March. So I started doing a fireworks show for any big event I could think of. Like I had a guy's birthday, a casino guest birthday. I just do a fireworks show even though it's expensive. I knew everyone was talking about me. And then they built soca and they're like, well, you can't do fireworks on this tower.
You got to do on that tower. And like, it became a bit more complicated and we're just doing July 4th and, and New Year's Eve. And then the pandemic happened and I did fireworks even in the pandemic of July, and people were mad at me that I was doing an event, like a super spreader event. And I was like, it's just fireworks, guys. You don't have to come stand in the street. But it was packed. Everyone was doubted to watch the fireworks in the pandemic.
Like people love fireworks, Everyone with their phone now. So finally we were doing it during the day. And then I said, you know, I was in Disneyland with my kids last year and they did a great fireworks show every night. How do they do this every night? Everyone comes out all over Disney comes to watch the fireworks.
So that was it. I was like, you know what, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it every Friday night until we get make enough money and I'm going to do it every night, but I'm going to start with every Friday as a commitment to welcome to the weekend. Everyone in Downtown Circle, Golden Nugget, Fremont Street Experience all got behind it.
And so I was like every Friday night we're going to do fireworks, make it a party, make it a part of the downtown culture where everyone just knows it. Friday, 9:15 PM, you can come downtown, free fireworks show. And to bring it back to the South African thing with, you know, the animals in South Africa, when they're walking in the jungle, they make they roar or they make different noises to let their other neighbors know that they're there.
That's their territory. And in the old days, the Plaza was like this forgotten place in downtown. No one was talking about the Plaza. It was rundown. They built the zip line here. You couldn't see. I like, I'm going to shoot fireworks every night to make sure everyone in downtown knows the Plaza is still here. And looking at us and cameras, the Instagram, the social media, everyone's talking about us. So come down tomorrow night, 9:15, we'll have fireworks.
Have you ever heard about the firework culture in Hawaii? No. Like we go off and we love fireworks. Really. Yeah. It's insane. Yeah. Flav Flav told me that he loves everyone loves fireworks. I mean flavors. I can do a bigger fireworks show. I think he does an illegal show. We do. We do on every New Year's at my house and it's like a show pretty much. Really. 45 minutes? Oh wow, it's really long. 45 minutes.
Yeah, we have. Everybody brings their fireworks, like hundred of us. We bring it, we line it up. That's kind of fun 'cause you're doing it yourself. Yeah, to me, the, the someone was at a game, an Aviators game, the baseball team, and they did a fireworks show. It was like 45 minutes. And who wants to sit for 45 minutes and watch? What they do is they have the same amount of product as I do, but they go and then it comes in
and it's like really slow. And I was like, I'd rather do 7 minutes but blow shit up, go big just everywhere. And then it's done. As opposed to like kind of wasting everyone's time like so. So our show on New Year's Eve, July 4th is 8 minutes and it's, it's power. Like a lot of false minds, you got to come to one. But the Friday show we condense into 4 1/2 minutes because we want to get people, you know, watch the show and then go and listen to music or get drinks, whatever it is.
It's 4 1/2 minutes. But it's it's jam packed. You love it? Yeah. Like in in Hawaii we have every Friday. They do it in Waikiki. Oh yeah, Every Friday. Everybody goes out there, watches it, then you look for any. Have a luau and then fireworks. We look for any excuse to pop. Down tomorrow night. Tell me what you think I'll. Come down. I'd love to what? Why was that? What's the whole story of the Fremont Experience cutting off right before the Plaza and then the zip lines going up right
there? It's almost like they blocked off the Plaza. Yeah, there was a lot of history between the Plaza and the other casinos. The Fremont Street's owned by the casinos. It's it's governed by the casinos, I should say. And basically the Plaza wasn't a member of the street then, it was a member of the street, then they had a dispute affording how
this was before my time. And then right when I got here, they started building the zip line as basically AFU to the Plaza to to block it. But now there's a good relationship with friends with everyone and it is what it is. There's some people landing there. It's kind of ugly, but it does well for the street, brings a lot of people downtown, the zip line. So at this point, it's it's water under the bridge. Would it would it have been better in the old days?
Sure. Would it have been great if the zip if the if the zip line landed at the Plaza? And you get out the. Canopy had extended all the way to the Plaza that would have been called but. To the street or something like that up front. Yeah, it would be nice. Yeah. Are we out of time? But I think we are out of time. Yeah, I'd be the we're out of time. 11:50 right now. Yeah, whatever. We have a few more minutes. Yeah, sure. Do you have anything? There my favorite part of town of Vegas.
Honestly I love downtown. I've been living in Vegas back and forth since 2002, but downtown it really is my favorite. This is 1 mainstream man. This is where it began. This was the first address in Vegas right here. So yeah. And I love that like the art district is is growing and you feel safe when you're down there now. Yeah, it's great. We used to come down here as a family and then like 2000 and five, 2000 and six, 2008 and like it was nothing. Yeah, Yeah, it was really
grinding back then. Yeah, now it's now it's great part of town and I think it's only going to get better. You know, I was at a groundbreaking for a high rise opening behind us on Symphony Park. I think when you see the new Art Museum coming, there's just so much happening here that's got potential just to make this really a great downtown like many other cities have so.
It's weird to like how people come to Vegas, but then they don't want to. I feel like they're kind of going away from the big business of the like the middle of the strip you're trying to stay on the outskirts of. It just this year alone, right? Like Vegas overall is down, if I'm not mistaken, right? And downtown has been up the last couple of months, right? It's it's hard to say. I mean, the calendar is different. Like we had the Super Bowl in February.
We didn't have the Super Bowl this year. You have certain events that are good. We just said WrestleMania, which is great. That's really, yeah. I mean, some of you were saying Canadian tourism is way down. It's hard to judge things like in a short window of time. I think MGM just released their numbers yesterday and they they have good occupancy and good
business. So we're ahead of last year, we're up. So we're in good shape and you got to continue I think as ebbs and flows to business patterns. But it's generally Vegas head in the right direction. Yes, it's probably getting a little expensive and they should, especially on the strip, some of the things that maybe we were talking about, but. The minimums in. Yeah, the minimums and some of the service charges, but you know, people are still coming so.
You are out if we're allowed to go into this you. Guys need to come see our show. Have you seen the show? The fireworks show or no? Mavericks the the the show. I haven't seen it, no. Well, tomorrow if you come down for the fireworks, we'll see the show 1st and then it's 21 plus obviously. So you're just about able to go. Justin just makes it. But go see the show and then see the. Probably ID is. Great. Yeah, exactly. The show's great. Mavericks What time is it the
The Mavericks? 3:00 Yeah, I'm in like perfect. 7 till about 8:45 and then and then fireworks. Shows I'm I'm definitely here for the I love my fireworks, I'm telling you. Perfect. Yeah. Do you guys kind of do you at all cater to the Hawaiian audience out here just because like so heavy downtown? Hawaiian audience, I wish, I wish we could get. I tried for the longest time to get zippies to come down. Here.
Really. Which I think would give me credibility with the Hawaiians when I went to Hawaii. They love Zippy's and they love Trader Joe's. Yeah, I have people that hit me up every week. Can you go to Trader Joe's and get me this and send it home? It's the weirdest thing. I'm in Hawaiian like Trader Joe's like. A guy just hit one of my friends just texted me yesterday. He is. Hey, can you get these tote bags from Trader Joe's?
I was like, just the tote bags. Yeah, just the tote bags and send it back in all the colours and I'm just like weird, I guess I. Don't get it? I love the Hawaiian business. The California does a great job of catering to the Hawaiians and they don't even do that much to become a Hawaiian place. It just is what it is and they've got a great a great. Brand couple of dishes in the buffet that's about. It our bingo's really popular with Hawaiian. We have the Las Vegas Jerky
store. That's our Hawaiian partners there. Yeah, it's a great demographic for Vegas and especially downtown. Would you guys still be open to doing a Zippy's location? I would love to or any other I I try to do the Rainbow Cafe drive. Rainbows, rainbow driving. I love that. Oh my, I went there. I went to, I wanted to do that. I would do anything I could to to, to become more credible in the Hawaiian community. So yes, yeah. And they're moving here in. Droves. Huge wave they're.
Moving Their first grand opening was massive. Second restaurant. I'll do it. We'll do some work on that. Zippy Zippy's wasn't ready for downtown, apparently. They're opening their, then they opened it already. They're open your. Second, they're open your. 3rd their third, yeah. Yeah, they just weren't ready for downtown, I feel. That they might be way. Too busy down here for you? We've got to read up, Justin. I think we might be ready.
Yeah, right. Before we get out of here, are you willing to talk anything about kind of like the Jewish or what do you call it anti-Semitism online and what not? Because I I don't understand it at all. We don't have many Jewish people in Hawaii. I guess you could say that. So it's just like a foreign subject. I mean, I've never understood. I don't. It seems to almost be like a like a dominating sentiment online. It's crazy.
Not sure what I would say other than I, I, I'm Jewish and I find it amazing. Like I was really sheltered I guess as a kid. So I hadn't really experienced anti-Semitism. And then coming to America, I started hearing things. I was like, Oh my God, people actually say that stuff. And then after October the 7th when the attack on Israel happened, you started seeing a lot more stuff. And yeah, I don't get it.
I, I don't like it. I don't, I don't like the people that do it. And very proud to be Jewish. Amazing people, amazing community. And hopefully, hopefully it stops. Why do you guys get blamed for everything though?
I don't. Know I know like from coming from Hawaii, we're like mixed culture so we get along with everybody but yeah all I know is like when they bring it up is like oh they're really good at finances and I'm just like why is. Why is, Yeah, I don't know why people say it. And there's a lot of Jewish people that aren't successful and there's a lot of Jewish people that struggle. And so it's like, I feel bad for them, especially because, like, they're like, yeah.
They went to this court. Or they or they all are this or it's like, no, there's a lot of Jewish people that are not and and it's really unfair to label everyone in the same way. Don't know the answer. It's a really small, tiny, tiny population of people. And clearly they've had success in industries, but doesn't seem like a never understood the the anti-Semitism. And you look at Kanye West, fucking crazy guy. Yeah. That's even gone worse and worse.
Right, exactly. So I can't explain it, but obviously not not not a fan. Yeah, yeah. Of anyone who is anti-Semitic. Yeah. But thank you for asking that question. Yeah, I I shedding a spotlight on that and make sure that if
you educate people. Yeah, policy was the one that kind of like when I had asked him because I just didn't understand that on, he said he's just done so much business with Jewish people growing up that they just work hard, they're focused, they're family oriented, they go to work, they come home, read the Bible and then good. People. Yeah, I don't get it. Is he Jewish? Someone asked him. No. He's not. He's not. He's like speaks Yiddish.
I don't understand. He's like Italian and something else. Yeah, Somebody was saying, is he Jewish? I was like, I don't know. He says he is, but I I'm not sure that he is. I don't know. Is Jew, is that a like a a slur? Is that a offensive at all? Jew. Yes. No. OK, so. Make sure to call someone a Jew. I mean, it depends on the context I guess. That's right. Good point. Very good point. Great people. Said you dirty whatever, that's not good.
But just to say, are you a Jew? That's not a RAID. All right, just want to make sure because I've used it not obviously not an anti-Semitic way, but like just call him my buddy. Oh my buddy's a Jew, but like. Yeah, I think that's OK. I've never got to even ask him if it was a offensive at all. So good. Perfect. Appreciate you bringing that up. Most people don't talk about that on podcast, so thank. You. Yeah, No, I just again, like we don't have, I didn't grow up around racism.
I didn't experience it until I went off to College in North Dakota, so. I was racing dirt bikes and I ended up on the East Coast. And then there was talking about racism and I was like, what? What is that? I didn't even know what, I didn't even know what it was. You know, I grew up in South Africa where there's apartheid, so I understand, you know, racism, but I was never, like, exposed. Exposed to it. Yeah. Yeah.
That's awesome. We'll look forward to getting together on Friday for Mavericks, the fireworks show and appreciate you so much. Good. Luck with the podcast Keep. Thank you. Same to you everybody. Anything to plug other than the Plaza? Obviously the podcast. Come on down, coming down to coming down to Oscars. Have drinks, hang out, check out the new table games. Very proud of Downtown in the Plaza and what it's becoming. The one and only is Jonathan Jossel.
Thank you so much for your time. See you guys next time. Appreciate you, Jonathan. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jonathan. It's awesome.