New casino GM brings years of experience

Patrick Bassney isn’t a stranger to the North Country, nor to Indian gaming. The new general manager of the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino brings years of gaming experience to his new position, including several years helping the Oneida Indian Nation open Turning Stone.

Bassney has taken the reins at the AMC at a time when strong directive is most needed. The casino is at a point where growth is the obvious next step despite the North American economic crisis.

Bassney is stepping in amid the ongoing expansion plans for the AMC and he is also stepping in at one of the AMC’s low points - the month-long bridge closure heavily impacted the casino’s business and put a complete halt to the construction of a food court.

Bassney has been settling in to his new position in the past few weeks, relieving Acting GM Darlene Dilcox who stepped in temporarily following the resignation of longtime GM Dianna Tarbell for personal reasons. Tarbell had been with the casino since pre-construction.

“Over the last ten years there’s been a solid foundation built,” said Bassney. “My predecessor did a great job building the casino up…I’m taking over where (she) left off and (I want) to keep the momentum going.”

Bassney worked with the Oneidas when they too were in the predevelopment phase. He learned the ins and outs of Indian law, traditions and experienced the success with them when Turning Stone opened its doors. “It was a real exciting time,” Bassney said, and anything but easy.

The casino had just table games in its early days and the tribe and developers had many challenges getting Turning Stone to what it is now.

Bassney had to work closely with the Oneidas, ensuring that their needs and wants were being addressed. He was also taken to their tiny reservation to see firsthand who the Oneidas were.

“It was a very rewarding experience because the profits weren’t going back to some Wall Street Corporation,” Bassney said.

After leaving Turning Stone and working in Atlantic City and Reno, Bassney finds himself back in the North Country where he is very familiar. He was raised in Rochester, NY and attended school at Paul Smith’s College near Saranac Lake. Bassney is also learning what a small world it is, seeing familiar faces at the casino of people who worked on other projects with him.

Maintaining a positive workforce is one of the missions Bassney has at the AMC. He wants to see the casino’s strong Native program continue to grow and the casino is already at it’s highest Native employment rate, at 30 percent. Bassney wants to make working at the casino good for everyone.

“We want to be the employer of choice in our region,” Bassney said. “We’re going to make sure our employee experience is just as nice as our guest experience.”

One of Bassney’s first tasks was taking over direction of the casino expansion. His predecessor had outlined a few phases of expansion which would eventually lead to construction of a hotel. Bassney said that while the hotel and possible multi-purpose venue are still long-term goals, he wants to take it one step at a time given the economic downturn. He has changed some of the current plans and while the food court construction is continuing, Bassney has altered the plans somewhat and those changes as well as plans for the near future are still being developed.

“We’re going to take care of what we have here today and we’ll certainly be looking at a hotel down the road,” he said.

Bassney is also looking at new marketing techniques to draw in more people. Though the casino might seem crowded as it is, Bassney said nationwide numbers of guests are up but the amount of money they’re spending has dropped. He wants to help change that at the AMC with new and exciting promotions to make a visit to the AMC more enjoyable.

Bassney is confident that the casino is located in a strategic area, with a large Canadian customer base to draw from that Turning Stone doesn’t have, despite it being located just off the thruway. Bassney said getting more and more guests in isn’t going to be easy but plans are underway to attract them.

The bridge reopening has improved things already at the casino and Bassney said they recovered quite quickly from the month-long ordeal, at the end of which Bassney was preparing to come on board. He has nothing but optimism for the growth of the AMC.

“I’m excited to be here, I’ve got a great team of people, they’ve been very welcoming,” he said. “ Our goal is to make the casino more profitable than it already is for the Mohawk people. Stay tuned. There’s more to come.”