Jossel also hired a “bingo ambassador” - that’s what he’s called on his business card - Reynz Ungos. When Russell grew weary of his frequent travel to Texas to get to the Oklahoma casinos, he signed on with Plaza. He hired Weldon Russell, “the best bingo guy in the state of Nevada,” Jossel said, an 18-year Station Casinos bingo manager who left the company to set up similar operations at tribal casinos in Oklahoma. “You have to treat the customer right, make them feel appreciated - and we do,” Jossel said. But the Plaza is the only one with the game downtown. Jonathan Jossel, the Plaza’s hands-on CEO since being licensed in 2014, saw the potential for making bingo succeed even while other downtown properties have failed.īingo is played in about 30 Southern Nevada locations, most of them in the city’s locals casinos, primarily the Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming properties. Every tournament date for 2017 already has been scheduled so players can make plans to be here. In December, the company is pulling out all the stops, featuring a $150,000 tournament Dec.

The Plaza management has discovered a gold mine in bingo and doubled the number of Super Bingo tournaments from three to six a year. On Tuesday, Shifflett, dressed in a white long-sleeved bingo sweatshirt, and hundreds of his friends with similar game attire make regular visits to the Plaza so that they can scream the name of the game they love when they win: bingo!Ībout 800 people wrapped up two days and 64 games of the Plaza’s Super Bingo event Tuesday afternoon.įor the players who come from as far away as Hawaii and Canada, Super Bingo is an opportunity to play as well as to socialize with people they’ve known for years or a chance to make new friends. In the hotel rooms, there are pictures of that opening on the walls, and I look at them and say, ‘Yeah, I was here for that.’” “There was a big park downtown, right near the train station,” said Shifflett, a retired Marine from Oceanside, California. Tom Shifflett will never forget the first time he visited downtown Las Vegas’ Plaza. Plaza hotel-casino employees, Jonathan Jossel, CEO, left, Reynz Ungos, bingo ambassador, center, and Weldon Russell, bingo manager, speak with a reporter during the Super Bingo tournament at the Plaza in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Oct.

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