Butera, who worked for UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Smith Barney and Bear Stearns, got his first taste of the gaming industry in 2002 working with Donald Trump. Butera was president, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Trump Entertainment Resorts.

With Trump, Butera was acknowledged as the principal architect of the company's successful restructuring.

He moved to Nevada in January 2007 as chief operating officer of Cosmopolitan Resort, but stayed there only long enough to take on another industry challenge - the Tropicana.

Butera became president and chief executive of Tropicana Entertainment LLC, which took over operations of the Tropicana and four other Nevada properties from Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex and its chief executive, William Yung.

Butera is part of a four-man board of managers that oversees the Tropicana. Because Yung is out of the picture and it was imperative to Nevada's gaming industry for the Tropicana to move forward, state gaming regulators took the unprecedented step of licensing the board members before completing a suitability investigation.

Butera and his team are picking off one challenge at a time to restore credibility at the Trop, starting with a contract settlement with the Culinary Union, which occurred Aug. 20, just after this interview with In Business Las Vegas was conducted.

Scott Butera STEVE MARCUS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Answer: The bankruptcy filing was the start of a lot of very positive events for the Tropicana. It was the first signal that we were on our way to becoming a new company. And it was our first effort to try and restructure the financial side of the house, although I'll tell you there's an equal challenge if not a greater challenge in restructuring the operational side of the house.

The plan is to do something comprehensive. I think there have been a lot of things that have been either ignored or done wrong at the Tropicana that we're in the process of fixing because we think the Tropicana can be a great company and has a terrific brand and is well-suited for the challenges that we have in the economy going forward.

Some of the bigger things we've done are that we've set up a whole new board of governance and management team. We currently have four members on our board of directors, of which I'm one.

We've also addressed some of the operational issues in the company. Each of the properties, when Columbia Sussex was running them, were set up as two minicompanies. You had a hotel company and a gaming company. We thought there were a lot of inefficiencies that we thought were created by that so what we've done is just combine the operations.

We're in the process of moving our headquarters to Las Vegas. Our board actually decided to move our headquarters to Las Vegas, so we're very excited about that. So we're unwinding some of the things that were happening in Kentucky and not only bringing them to Las Vegas, but decentralizing them so the property-level people have the resources they need to succeed.

So quite a lot has been done in the short time - since the beginning of May.

The board of managers who we as management report to really have a couple of things. One, they need to make sure that value is being maximized for the constituents and that the company is being operated appropriately in the regulatory committee and also appropriately from an operating standpoint. So it's not only getting through the bankruptcy, it's ... getting through the bankruptcy and helping the company put together a capital structure that will be sustainable over the long haul and putting together an operating team and an operating plan that will be sustainable over the long haul. Management and the board of managers work together on that, but these are people that are meant to be around permanently.

When I came to Trump, we had a company that had a heavy debt load. So the immediate focus was: How do we recapitalize the company? I think we had a lot of significant positive financial events that took place. We reduced our debt from $2.5 billion to $1.2 billion. We cut our interest payments in half. We raised a $500 million credit facility to invest back in the properties. It was really an enjoyable time. The Trump brand was extremely strong, certainly at that time with what was going on with "The Apprentice" and there was a lot of excitement around that brand. So being able to come into that company - really the thing that was the biggest problem there was the financial structure and the debt and being able to get that restructure and set them up to do well really at the time was really interesting and exciting. When I left the company, it had over $1 billion in its equity market cap. I got to work with Donald almost on a daily basis. He's a very interesting person to work with. I have a lot of respect for him. We had a great relationship, and I think very highly of Donald. So it was obviously a very rewarding experience. It was a lot of the same types of things here that we had there. We had properties that were in need of capital, we had a financial structure that needed to be fixed and we had operations that needed to be fixed.

Oh yeah. As a matter of fact, I didn't come here because I was upset about what was going on at the Cosmopolitan. I think the Cosmopolitan is going to be a great property. I was very happy there, and I think they're making good progress. I haven't been there in some time, so I don't know what's going on recently. But I think it's a very viable property, I'm sure it will find a home. And I really enjoyed my time at Cosmo and, if not for this opportunity, I would still be there.

The commission sees the many benefits of having the individuals who we have involved with the company. All of us have certainly filed our gaming applications and have done so for some time, so they've had some ability to consider the materials that have been put forth. In my case, I actually have a license in New Jersey and have been licensed in Indiana. And not only, by the way, have we submitted our applications in Nevada, we've submitted our applications in all five states in which we operate. So the strong benefits of having these individuals involved and the fact that they had some data points to look at helped in that decision. And there's a one-year period where this will get revisited, so if anything were to come up - we don't expect anything - they have the ability to do something about it. But I think you have prominent people - people who have been in the public eye that have worked with public companies who are not afraid to have their information shared. And certainly in the case of Bradford Smith, you have an ex-regulator. So I think they had a comfort level that based on the information they had, and based on the types of individuals who were being put forth and based on the need of the company to have a new direction and a new oversight swayed that decision.

Actually, a couple of things. The history of the company is that Bill Yung started buying hotels. He very successfully grew his business from 1970 to the present and now has a company in Columbia Sussex that has over 73 assets. He started buying gaming assets in the early '90s and then became enamored with Aztar (Corp., former owner of the Tropicana) for a lot of good reasons. I think this is a great property and Atlantic City's a great property and Indiana. But he bought the property at the height of the market after essentially what was a bidding war with three or four players and he put substantial leverage on the property to do that. Almost immediately after making that acquisition, the market started to turn and turn fairly dramatically. To service that debt, he needed to somehow create cash flow and the most immediate way to do that was ... layoffs. Whenever you buy something at a high price, there's always a vision that you'll reduce costs and create value that way, but I think the layoffs got to be pretty dramatic as the situation worsened.

There was a lot of pressure in New Jersey against Columbia Sussex because of the amount of layoffs that were taking place. And there was a lot of pressure from the unions because, obviously, they didn't like what was going on. All of that led up to a situation where Columbia Sussex was not actually able to obtain a license - it was not so much that it was revoked. When the property was bought, the license was put into a trust and usually that trust goes away. Well, that didn't happen. It was a draconian event for the company because, at the time, the Tropicana Atlantic City represented more than 40 percent of the company's cash flow. So it was tough enough servicing the debt with what they had, and when they lost that property, it was very hard to imagine anything other than what ended up being. Since then, we have done a lot of things to address those issues. We certainly are not laying off. Like I said, we're one of the few that are out hiring in this market. We've had very positive meetings with our unions and I feel very comfortable that we'll have our union situations resolved in a very short period of time. So we're addressing those things, but those were the events that led up to not getting that license, the pressure of the broad-scale layoffs.

Well, I think he probably had a strategy to employ cost savings. I think that was exacerbated by what happened in the market. Again, I wasn't a part of that decision-making team so it's probably not fair for me to comment. But I think, given the downturn in the market and given the pressure on trying to make debt-service payments, I think it exacerbated the whole cost-saving issue, which included the layoffs.

We've had preliminary discussions with the Casino Control Commission. We are still the owner of that asset, although it's in a trust and a conservator is running a sales process. We've basically gone to the commission and tried to explain what we've done as a company and that we're supportive of whatever direction they'd like to take. We support Justice (Gary) Stein in the sales process, but in the event that it doesn't result in a successful outcome, we'd like to be prepared to come in and provide support for the asset, either in the long term or the short term. Financial support or managerial support are things that we can do to help the situation down there. So really what we've been doing in New Jersey is just giving them all of the information of the changes that are taking place with the company, so hopefully they can start to build some comfort level with who we are and hopefully we can work our way toward reobtaining some credibility there.

Getting back to what we did as a company, we tried to say, "What are the things that regulators are concerned about?" And not just regulators, but financiers, customers, employees. What are the things that are problematic here and let's go in and address them, one by one, systematically. And that's what we've done. So I think if you're a regulatory authority, hopefully looking at who we are now, you'd be comfortable that we're suitable operators.

Mr. Yung's status, either from a management or oversight standpoint, he's not involved in any of the management or any of the operations or any of the oversight of management or operations. He is an equity holder. He did sign an irrevocable proxy from his entity, which is Tropicana Casinos and Resorts, that he would not look to replace the board, vote a board member off, add a board member. So his role as an equity holder during the course of this Chapter 11 proceeding is really limited. So really for Mr. Yung, his interest is financial. What is the result going to be, what am I going to get or not get as a result of my having this equity stake? The valuations of companies have gotten pretty tough recently, so I'm not sure what that will result in for Mr. Yung, but really that's his only interest at this point.

No.

No, not at all.

No, the Westin is still owned by Columbia Sussex.

None.

Not that I know of. I don't run that business and am not involved in that business. That Westin is owned by Columbia Sussex and is a Westin franchise.

Our Culinary workers have been working without a contract for over a year and it was very important for me to make sure that was rectified, and they had an environment in which they felt they were respected and rewarded. As part of not having negotiated a contract, their salary increases had never gone into effect. So the biggest thing is they'll all be brought up to current industry standards in terms of what their hourly wages would be. We'll also be restoring their lost wages, or wages they didn't get because of the increase over the last couple of years. So economically, they're brought up to the current level, and there are retroactive payments for what they had missed out on. I think we also did a lot to create an environment that will be a lot more efficient, both for the workers and for the company, and their benefit packages have been fully restored. The biggest news is that economically, they're going to be where they should be and better off, even in a time where people are kind of cutting back and laying off. We're not laying off; we're adding to our staff and increasing their pay. It's very appropriate and we're appreciative that they hung in there for the time that they did, and it's time that we corrected the situation.

You know, I don't know what the real proposals were from the previous management. All I can tell you is that our approach was materially different from what had been put forth in the past, certainly in terms of what was proposed for benefits and comp and the types of business practices and labor practices. So I don't know what the other management team proposed, but what our team proposed was justifiable and fair and was as good for the company as it was for the employees.

Could be. Again, I wasn't involved with that.

Well, I think he probably had a strategy to employ cost savings. I think that was exacerbated by what happened in the market. Again, I wasn't a part of that decision-making team so it's probably not fair for me to comment. But I think, given the downturn in the market and given the pressure on trying to make debt-service payments, I think it exacerbated the whole cost-saving issue, which included the layoffs.

I think clearly this property and this company had suffered from a lack of capital and a lack in number of employees. To provide very good customer service, to provide a good quality product, we need more people. And we need a new direction. You know, a lot of the hiring we've been doing has been at the senior level or the executive level because I think we want to reposition this company to be a lot more successful than it has been in the past. You know, companies don't get into financial difficulty just because of their capital structure. A lot of time it has to do with the operations too, right? I came here to employ a very comprehensive restructuring, both financially and operationally and hiring is a part of that.

I can't comment on that. I can only comment that we've made a number of significant hires in the senior executive level, including a new (chief financial officer), a chief operating officer, a new general counsel, a new head of (information technology), a new head of (human resources). So all of those senior levels have been put in and at the staff level, we are adding people. We're developing our business plan, so I don't want to comment on any specific numbers, but we are starting to add people on a daily basis.

I'm certain that former employees that have been let go have been brought back or we're bringing them back so, yes, at certain levels, we are doing that.

Not unlike other situations we were in, the Park Cattle settlement was done when we had a very different set of circumstances than we have in the company now, so that was sort of prior to the new board and the new management team coming on board and getting involved in the operations. And I'll tell you that I've had a lot of good conversations with Park Cattle since then as to how we may be able to work in a cooperative way ... so that we can both do well. But the ramifications of the Park Cattle settlement really aren't in any way, shape or form significant to our company. We're obligated to operate those properties. Park Cattle does have an option to pursue closing the Horizon property in three years. There are options to extend that beyond the three years. If that were to happen, I think that it would be under a circumstance where we would look to consolidate a lot of that operation into MontBleau. So other than losing a physical building, I don't think it would change the way we operate up there in any significant way.

That having been said, it's something that's yet to be figured out. But all that's really required going forward is that we invest the appropriate amount of capital in the properties if we're going to run them. That was really the focus of the settlement. People want to make sure that if we're going to be continuing to operate those that some of the deferred maintenance and things that had taken place in the past didn't continue.

There are other ramifications to Mr. Yung and to Columbia Sussex that don't affect us. There are still remaining payments that need to be made in the settlement agreement and that comes from Sussex and Mr. Yung. But really, the only way it affects our company, Tropicana Entertainment, is that we commit to running those properties appropriately and that we commit to spending the appropriate amount of capital each year on those properties.

Yeah, that's on the table. But like I said, if it were to go that way, I don't think it would have material impact up there. I think we'd consolidate the operations into the one property we'd have and just invest more money in that property. So I don't think that would change our operations at Lake Tahoe materially. And as we sit here today, there are no plans for that. The plans are to operate both of them as well as we can. We're investing money in both properties. And, like I said, I think there's an opportunity to revisit some of this stuff with Park Cattle now that the governance and oversight and management of the company have changed.

There's really no plans to vacate MontBleau. That's the property we're going to invest a lot of money in and operate. I think it's a real gem in the system. They do have an option to acquire the property in 10 years if they so desire, but I think that's very far in the distance and the real focus on MontBleau is to make sure that it's an A-plus property.

You know, we've got our team together and we're in the process of doing that. We're doing a lot of experimenting. I think the plan is, obviously, to operate this property for the foreseeable future, but I think we want to do things to make the product nicer, make the room product more in line and create a great guest experience from a room standpoint. I think you'll see us renovate restaurants, bars. We've added a whole new pool experience out at our pool, which we think is a fabulous element of this property. We're running pool parties on Monday called Mint Mondays, which have been very well received. So I think you're going to see a fairly comprehensive repositioning of the property over time. We're not going to do everything Day 1, obviously. We have to get our finances together. But the idea is to restore Tropicana to what it was: to have that very traditional brand, to have something that may be a little more gaming-centric and cater a little more to gamers and have something where you can come to the Strip and have an affordable yet very enjoyable experience.

We're going to have to see how the economy goes. I think there's a lot of supply to be absorbed. This building was built in 1957, so I think at some point there will be a redevelopment of this property, but I don't see it certainly for the next five or six years.

I think we're going to do two things. We're going to see what the economy is doing and we're going to see what Las Vegas is doing. We're going to look at what is working and doesn't work at that point. There's a lot of product coming on line, a lot of locational issues for people. We like our location, being so close to the airport, and we're going to see what are the things that happen over the next three of four years that work and what are the things that don't and hopefully develop a plan that makes sense. But that's really way out in the future as we sit here today.

Yeah, we're looking at all of that. I think we'll have some new dining establishments. In terms of entertainment, I think we have a great show and a great brand in the "Folies Bergere." It's been around and will have its 50th anniversary this year, so I think supporting that brand and supporting that show will always be a part of the Tropicana, at least for the foreseeable future. But we're certainly going to look to complement that. We're going to bring in other forms of entertainment. We started with this pool party, that's a form of entertainment, but clearly we're going to want to bring new venues to our property. I do think that we have some very good restaurants and experiences as we sit here today, so part of it's just getting the word out there that you can come here and have a really great meal at the Legends steak house or at the Tuscany. So I think we're going to create some awareness, but we're certainly going to upgrade.

This is the first one we've done in some time, we have the venue for it. We're excited to see how it turns out. We'll see how the results are. If it's something that works for us, given that we have the venue and given that other people have kind of gotten away from boxing, maybe there's a little niche for us. It also kind of fits our theme of trying to go more traditional Vegas. So, yeah, if it's something that works, you'll see more of it here.

I think right now, you get great value. A lot of that may not be immediately recognizable, but we do have a really good staff. In this business, it's never just about the building. I've gone to a lot of beautiful restaurants where the food stinks. If you have a beautiful restaurant and bad food, guess what? You're not going to be in business for very long. I think if you come here, you get great value. I think we have quality dining, a quality beverage experience. I think our pool is extremely fun. We've had bands out there, and it's been very successful. And you just get a lot for the money. If you're somebody who is happy to come to the Strip at a price point that you can afford and have that kind of experience, it's a great place to be. Our location is great. Usually to get what we're offering on the Strip, you have to go on the outskirts of town. That's not the case. You can be two miles from the airport and get a really good, old-time quality Vegas experience. I think the "Folies" is a great show. Dirk Arthur does a great magic show during the day. So what you get for the money, it's hard to imagine replicating that anywhere else on the Strip right now.

We like our assets in both Laughlin and Lake Tahoe. The Tropicana Express is one of our nicer assets physically, it's a very strong asset. And the River Palms has one of the best views of the river I've seen. What we may look to do is do some rebranding and get the Tropicana brand out a little bit more and let customers know that we are a part of a system. So if you're a Laughlin customer and you want to come to Vegas, there's encouragement to do that and if you're a Vegas customer who wants to go to Tahoe, there's encouragement to do that. A lot of that hadn't been done, which is silly. If you have a portfolio, you should use it. I love the properties in Laughlin and in Lake Tahoe, we have two very good properties. Montbleau is, I think, the nicest property in Lake Tahoe. It's got beautiful views of the lake. And we've got Horizon, which also has beautiful views of the lake. It's actually the only place where Elvis Presley ever performed up there and there's an Elvis Presley suite that we opened up there. So I think it's a lot of the same. Looking at our assets and investing back in them and making sure that management has the resources they need. I feel very strongly about all five of our assets in Nevada. I think they can all be very viable and I think if we support each other a little bit more and do it under this Tropicana umbrella, we'll have success at each of the properties.

I spend a lot of time with the employees, as much time as I can. I see them down in the employee cafeteria and every time I'm down there, I see there's a whole new change of direction and they feel like things are finally going to start turning around. Even before Columbia Sussex, Aztar, for a long time, was looking at redeveloping the property. So this property has been in that kind of a mode for many years. So now, I think for the first time, the labor force sees relief. I think of the employees like I think of the customer. They're one and the same, they're equally important. That's our front line of interaction with the customer, so we need to make sure that they're treated well. If you come to a Mint Monday and see some of the things that are going on, these are somewhat baby steps, but they're important because they show that we really are starting to do things. Some of the things I do - like back on Wall Street trying to restructure or working with the people through bankruptcy proceedings - the everyday employees and customers don't see that so it's important that we do things that demonstrate that we're changing pretty comprehensively. At the staff level and the senior staff level, I think there's a lot of enthusiasm because, finally, they think they can operate in a way that they can succeed and they don't have all kinds of these internal pressures and internal competitions and we can operate as one. If somebody's in Baton Rouge or Mississippi or Laughlin or they do something very good for the property in Lake Tahoe, they should be rewarded for that and those are the kinds of things were setting up.