NOVEMBER 2016 FORBES ASIA | 39tuan hotels and casinos Cordish was building for the tribe
in Tampa and Hollywood. It was down to a choice between
Jimmy Bufett’s Margaritaville and the Hard Rock Cafe. Billie
chose the latter because, he says, Bufett once dissed him dur-
ing a chance airport meeting. “I waved to him, and he didn’t
wave back,” says Billie, who walks with a cane after a stroke
but still brims with the machismo that led him to lose his
right ring finger while wrestling an alligator at age 55.
But around the time the Seminoles were breaking ground
on their Hard Rock properties in Hollywood and Tampa, Bil-
lie was forced out amid tribal turmoil. He spent the next de-
cade building traditional thatch-roofed chickee huts and help-
ing raise his two young children, whom he had with his third
wife, Maria, never dreaming that his Hard Rock deal would
bear such fruit. “Back then I thought Hard Rock was gonna be
good, not great,” he says. But then again, he had only just begun
to deal with casino manager extraordinaire Jim Allen.ONE GLANCE AT James Francis Allen in his tieless blue
suit and his slicked-back gray hair and you know he was born
to be a big-time casino boss. He is the product of a work-
ing-class family from Atlantic City, New Jersey. When he
was 13 years old, he persuaded the pizzeria owner at the end
of his street to give him a job even though he wasn’t hiring.
The owner took a liking to him and enlisted him to wash his
Mercedes-Benz every day—a job Allen took so seriously that
he meticulously applied mink oil to the leather interior and
spent an hour polishing each wheel on Saturdays. He then
got a job as a cook at Bally’s Park Place casino to help out his
family, which was struggling financially. When Allen’s dad
died from cancer in 1979, he recalls, bill collectors phoned
the house so often that friends and family were advised to let
the phone ring twice, hang up and call again if they wantedsomeone to answer. “I was committed 100% at the youngest
of ages to say that will never be me,” Allen says.
Allen never accomplished much in terms of formal
schooling, but he worked harder than anyone else. At Bally’s
he was promoted to cook and drew management’s attention
when he helped figure out how to use a kitchen cost-manage-
ment software program that proved diicult to master. After
he was promoted to the oice job of menu analyst, the execu-
tive chef demanded that he return to the kitchen. Allen man-
aged to do both jobs, earning double-time pay.
In 1985 he moved down the boardwalk to Hilton as a pur-
chasing man ager. Donald Trump took over the property after
Hilton was denied a gaming license, and Donald’s then-wife,
Ivana, deeply impressed by Allen, personally urged him to
stay with the company. Over the course of eight years, until
1993, Allen held various management positions in the Trump
organization and eventually helped oversee the operations of
Trump’s three Atlantic City casinos. From there Allen went
on to open and manage casinos in New Orleans for Hemme-
ter Enterprises, and for South African real estate magnate Sol
Kerzner he opened Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and Atlan-
tis in the Bahamas.
Allen was hired by the Seminoles in 2001. Under his di-
rection, the beautiful new $400 million properties in Holly-
wood and Tampa opened in 2004. There was one big prob-
lem, though. Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the
casinos couldn’t have blackjack, baccarat, slot machines or
any other lucrative “Class III” games until they got permis-
sion from the state.
Bingo, which is considered Class II because players are
pitted against each other rather than the house, was already
well established on the Seminole reservations in Florida,
but then-governor Jeb Bush had no interest in allowing full-Lady Gaga’s vinyl dress and
headpiece will be on display at
a Hard Rock in Shenzhen.Madonna’s bustier from
her Blonde Ambition tour,
at the Boston Hard Rock.
Elvis Presley’s gold piano,
bought for $610,000 and
destined for Tampa.Jimi Hendrix’ Gibson
Flying V guitar.Beyoncé’s crown from the
“Haunted” music video.