"Basically I started the operation from ground zero," he said. Within a few years, he says, he had helped build a $1.6 billion company that pumped millions into provincial coffers.
Then, in 2003, he met Frank Stronach, head of now-bankrupt Magna Entertainment Corp., who hired him to get slots going in Oklahoma, Florida and Pennsylvania. Micucci left Magna shortly after slots debuted in November 2006 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
Micucci, 43, says the launches were successful, with big initial numbers. But Gulfstream did not fare well for long. During one three-month stretch in 2007, it generated just $74 per machine a day, while two other South Florida facilities took in $167 and $214. Magna officials have conceded that the company failed to mount a major marketing campaign until at least six months after the casino opened.
For his part, Micucci blames subsequent managers for leaving slots in the hands of horse racing executives after he left. "They had a whole year of horse management in the deal," he said, "and they didn't do a very great job of marketing it."
Finding Baltimore partners
After leaving Magna and abandoning a bid to become a professional triathlete, Micucci in 2008 formed a casino operations firm called Gaming Entertainment Management. His co-founder was Alex Lawryk, a fellow Canadian and avid sailor who lives part-time in Florida.
Lawryk, 61, once owned an advertising and public relations firm and lobbied the Ontario government. With Micucci, he has been involved in the marketing side of gaming dating to the late '90s.
Last summer, Micucci began consulting for Moldenhauer on the New Mexico project. By September 2008, the two began seriously considering a slots bid in Maryland if voters approved the referendum, as happened by a wide margin.
So in December, the trio - Moldenhauer, Micucci and Lawryk - began scrambling. The request for proposals came out Dec. 19. Applications were due Feb. 2, giving them barely six weeks to draw up a bid and assemble a Baltimore-flavored team.
Among the first people they turned to was Cryor, a 63-year-old political veteran with salt-and-pepper hair. Cryor worked briefly as a consultant for Magna in 2004, when Micucci was at the company. The two men had stayed in touch.
Cryor joined the team in January and helped find others who became principals in the Baltimore City Entertainment Group: food and beverage manager James Britton; contractor Kevin Johnson and event planner in LaRian Finney. Also, the group hired Paul Shelton as its lawyer.
