BITAC Casino Resorts 2025 Panel: Rolling the Dice: Navigating Tariffs, Sourcing Challenges, and Flexible Design in Casino Resorts

By Jim Nelson | August 29, 2025

At the recent BITAC executive event that focused on casino resorts, Tonya Almallah, the founding principal of AIDT Designs, Inc., led a discussion that covered a lot of ground.

Her panelists were Randy Beck, the strategic sourcing director for facilities and horticulture at MGM Resorts; Beth Campbell, an architect/interior designer and CEO of Campbell House; Michael Grisar, senior director, resort operations for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; and Carl Long, the president/CEO of Purchasing Management International and PMI Tribal Services, and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Almallah began by asking about the impact to recent casino resort projects by current sourcing and procurement challenges, especially those related to tariffs or trade shifts.

RANDY BECK: Well, first, it was an opportunity for some suppliers to immediately raise their prices. At MGM Resorts, any time we get a tariff on invoice, that first thing I ask is if they have their CBP form 7501 5/22, can they attach it so we can see what the true tariffs were, so we can validate that.

MICHAEL GRISAR: We’ve had to really take a unique approach. We do RFPs for every aspect of our business within the tribe, and we recently concluded the RFP for linen and terry providers for our organization, and it was easily one of the most difficult RFP processes. We’re very fortunate that the vendor that’s going to be providing for us is very forthcoming, takes it very personally, does not want to see the relationship that we have together impact us negatively with costs that we may not be able to overcome, and vice versa: we don’t expect them to take it all in the seat altogether. So, that collaboration together really has made a huge impact. We go live with all this in November, and there’s still the unknown because they have manufacturing plants in China and in India, but they also have one in Colombia, which happens to be a tariff-free location. Talking to them about, “How can we help you perhaps move some of your production facilities in an area where it will benefit us both?” So, a lot of unknowns that we’re trying to find our way through right now.

CARL LONG: We had to look at it in two ways: One is short term, where product that had to ship during the high window of tariffs: How do you deal with that? Where are those immediate impacts? And what ways can we shift away from that? A lot of that goes to what Randy said in terms of transparency and relationships we have with the vendors. The other is more long term, what and where you’re sourcing from, the relationships you have with vendors, and where you can, on the design and construction side, focus relationships with manufacturers that have opportunities to produce in low-potential-tariff environments, and really be flexible and nimble.

BETH CAMPBELL: From the design standpoint, it’s about having pure, crystallized goals from the client about where the project needs to be, and then getting that communicated to everybody, and then within our design team, having inherent flexibility so that we can meld and blend as we move forward with the project. And then as we’re starting design, procurement and art, we try to have them in while we’re doing schematic design so that we can make sure that nimble approach is happening real time, so we don’t run into issues down the road. So, it’s just that planning.

TA: Beth, from a design perspective, what makes sourcing more complex than, say, five years ago?

BC: There’s the obvious. You had COVID, you had supply chain, then interest rates went up, and then insurance rates — all these things messing with the ROI. Now we have tariffs, and let’s not forget about AI; that’s going to be the biggest disruptor we’re all going to encounter. To me, it’s having a strong team around you that is — and I was in a panel last week, and the chairman of Deloitte mentioned “pattern recognition experts.” I’ve met half of you today, and I would say everybody I’ve met are pattern recognition experts. What I mean by that is that you’ve been through COVID, you know how to handle this stuff, so don’t panic. Take a breath. It’s okay. Surrounding yourself with these people that wake up each morning and go, “Okay, what fresh hell are we walking into today?” Pull on your boots, strap in for problem solving — that’s really how I see the design solutions coming together and working in partner and collaboration with the collective team.

TA: That’s one of the things that Tony Robbins talks about, recognizing patterns and being able to….

BC: He stole that from me. [laughter]

TA: How are you responding to current, anticipated tariffs today, and how have you changed your sourcing regions or product categories as a result?

CL: In the short term, it’s just an economic reality; to get your product, you have to be able to pay for it. In the long term, what we’re telling clients is, “Design the product that you want.” Product in the FF&E space and the OS&E space is efficiently priced if it’s well designed and well documented. So, you can actually buy and specify what you want for your hotel or casino, or whatever venue you’re trying to design. And then when you’re doing that, as Beth was talking about, all the way through, you collaborate on where you’re buying that product. What is the owner’s sourcing risk? What is their risk tolerance to enter into high-tariff environments? Or do you want to focus on something that is maybe at potentially a higher cost, but a potentially lower-risk tariff environment? It’s starting that conversation early, while the design process is going on; if you do it at the end you may not be able to get what you want.

RB: I absolutely agree. I think the biggest thing, too, is have sourcing involved the entire time. Nothing worse than the last hour they come to you and say, “We want this” — and it comes out of China. Having that collaboration all the way through is critical to mitigate, as much as you can, those costs and make sure that you get the right design for the right price.

TA: Do you foresee these tariffs and trade instability issues becoming a long-term reality or temporary situation?

RB: I think it’s temporary. I think we need to work through it, just like COVID. We’ve worked through how we’re going to navigate it and work as a team.

BC: It’s like that maybe late 20s, cheap-tequila hangover. You had the hangover, but it lingers for a little while. I think that’s what this is going to be.

CL: I believe we’re in a longer-term shift in where product will be made, and that, frankly, it’ll be moving centers of gravity. And if you have a large supply chain, like MGM, Choctaw, you guys command a massive supply chain on specific products. Independent purchasing companies, we’re a niche. We need a lounge chair made; we need a wall sconce made; that has to be able to be dispersed to the best sources worldwide.

TA: From a design perspective and an operator perspective, can you share an example where flexibility in design, such as modularity or spec agility, has really helped you in this situation.

BC: Yeah, pretty much every project. An example right now is I have the great fortune of working with Lisa Vanderpump on the renovation of The Cromwell hotel on The Strip, to become the first Vanderpump — she has another hotel nobody knows about, but this will be the Vanderpump hotel. We are shipping from China, furniture that she has designed, so it’s been very intriguing. It was just this flexibility about how we get the schedule done. We were able to say, “We’re stacking the schedule differently and how we’re renovating,” because we have the rooms and we have the casino floor, the whole property. And, of course, all of it has to be done by November 15; very Vegas. So, we just sit down and roll up our sleeves and say, “Okay, what is it we have to have? What do we not have?” At the end of the day, it turned out not to be the furniture, it ended up to be the carpet; it didn’t get designed fast enough. So, we had to pivot very quickly. It was this collaborative, everybody-around-the-table, a lot of expletives. We came to a decision on exactly what we were going to do. We will have construction of 188 keys, entire casino floor, a new lobby bar called The Gigolo, which is the name of her dog, and a sculpture that’s 15 feet tall. It’s really fun, but at the same time, it’s frenetic and hectic.

TA: Michael, from an operational perspective, how do you ensure that the flexible solutions don’t dilute the guest experience or design intent?

MG: I think the key is the guest experience, and we have such high expectations. The visual of what we’re trying to portray, because everything we’re doing, being part of a tribal nation, is the long history that we’ve both had for 200-plus years before us, and will go for hundreds, if not thousands, of years into the future when I’m long gone. What’s the integrity factor of what we’re building? We have a look, we have a feel, we have a culture. We have every opportunity to turn what would just be deemed a hotel into a museum experience to celebrate the history of our Choctaw tribal members. We just recently opened two different hotels, one brand new with 100 rooms. We went way overboard, but the history of the tribe, where we were building it — it’s an area called Hochatown — try to imagine a 100-room building for $250 million. It is a museum-caliber property, showing everything that the tribal members have to offer. But how do we use local area, regionally based products? We could have called vendor X, Y, Z, but we have a program called the “Choctaw-preneurs”; we don’t physically pay our tribal members every single month, we teach them. We teach them how to fish, they eat forever; we teach them the skills that they need to be able to go into business for themselves and sustain their family forever. We found a woodworking expert, a tribal member, and we wanted to make an ice bucket, a coffee tray, a shampoo amenity tray, and coasters for a table; we overpaid him to do the work, but I know he is physically taking care of his family. He has two young kids. He’s going to be able to grow that family in ways that our tribe was built on, and it allows us to know that we’re never going to be short when it comes to product. We’re never going to take away the integrity of the tribe.

TA: Randy, what strategies have you implemented with your team to diversify your vendor base and to avoid the disruptions?

RB: I think the most important thing we’ve done is lean in on our good partners. A lot of the partners, as soon as we started seeing these issues with the tariffs, started looking for different sources for their products. Those long-term relationships are critical. That’s something we preach at MGM; when we sign a contract with somebody it’s not a one-and-done, it’s a lifelong commitment. We’ve had a lot of really good partners come to the table, so we were very fortunate.

TA: Today’s conversation reminds us, in an industry known for high stakes and bold experiences, adaptability is the ultimate asset, whether it’s navigating tariffs, sourcing matter, or designing with flexibility in mind, the future of casino resort design and development will be shaped by those who can pivot essentially without losing sight of quality and vision.