Page 6 - BusinessWest March 18, 2024

One of Louis Theros’s challenges will be to build on MGM Springfield’s newest gaming option: sports betting.
everything from the path he took to Springfield to what he wants to do with this opportunity to oversee his own casino.
Odds Are...
Theros is certainly no stranger to Springfield and its casino. Indeed, he came here during the pandemic to help prepare the facil- ity for its reopening and was also part of the large team that opened the facility five and half years ago.
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“I spent two weeks here then,” he said, gaining during that brief stint an appreciation for the property, what it meant to Springfield and the region, and the role it would play in helping to transform that section of the city.
“I’ve always loved this building,” he said, adding that his affection reflects both what the property is and what it isn’t. “When we designed this ... we didn’t design a glass, Vegas-like place; this fits into the commu- nity. Corporate-wise, we really felt the vibe of Springfield, and we really paid a lot of atten- tion to this fitting into the community.”
Overall, his role is to continually improve that ‘fit,’ and to build on a general sense of momentum at both the casino and the area surrounding it, punctuated by everything
from solid GGR numbers to the recent nam- ing of a preferred developer — Chicago-based McCaffrey Interests Inc. — for three proper- ties across Main Street from the casino that have long been vacant or mostly vacant and in most ways eyesores.
Theros, who officially took the helm on Jan. 2, navigated a winding and somewhat unusual path to casino
management.
He graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1989,
returned to Michigan, where he grew up, and soon thereafter began practicing civil-rights law on the defense side, handling human- resources and labor issues for clients of all sizes, including, eventu- ally, MGM Resorts, which had opened a casino in Detroit in July 1999.
He handled work for the company for several years before join- ing MGM as one of its in-house lawyers in 2015, eventually becom- ing vice president, legal counsel, and assistant secretary, first for the Detroit casino and then for the Midwest Group.
Prior to joining MGM, though, he served on the board of the
“People have
put their trust in me to lead this organization and lead this property into the future, and I really feel privileged to do this.”
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MARCH 18, 2024
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