NEVADA - Gaming: Nugget insists it is safe; PR experts question casino's post-shooting response

OFF THE WIRE
Bill O'Driscoll
 rgj.com
When bad news hits a business, experts say how that business responds through public relations channels is always debatable.
Did a local icon, John Ascuaga's Nugget, manage the Sept. 23 biker gang shooting inside its casino, on one of the busiest weekends of the year, sufficiently?
Nugget officials say their response, while muted, was appropriate. Public relations experts wonder in hindsight whether more should have been said, especially to the issue of safety.
One and done?
In the two months since gunfire left one dead and two injured during the annual Street Vibrations event, one Nugget news release pertaining to the incident has been issued.
In a statement the next day, the Nugget stressed that safety was the No. 1 priority but distanced the property from the incident insofar as "no employees or guests of the Nugget were injured."
The Nugget reopened within 24 hours (as did Harrah's Laughlin in 2002 after a biker gang shooting left three dead), and since the incident was a criminal matter, the release stated, all inquiries should go directly to Sparks police.
Earlier this month, Nugget officials downplayed questions on post-shooting safety in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal, stressing instead the coincidental tie of the incident to its location.
"We have a safe environment here," said Beth Cooney, Nugget executive director of marketing. "Unfortunately, it happened to happen here. Once the gangs left the facility, the threat went away."
Experts say that from a public relations standpoint, the Nugget's approach was standard: The less said, the better.
"It's a judgment call," said Bob Felten, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. "By communicating aggressively, you keep the story alive. So there's some potential negative in something that (can) be reported once or twice as opposed to something that has a regularity that can be repetitious."
Staying in the news
The story line, though, grew beyond the Nugget's control.
The day after, Sparks officials declared a 24-hour state of emergency and canceled the rest of the Street Vibrations celebration within their city.
Three weeks later, a man was fatally shot in San Jose, Calif., during the funeral for Jeffrey Pettigrew, president of the San Jose chapter of Hells Angels, who was killed in the Nugget shooting.
On Nov. 9, the state reported a 3.5 percent drop in September gaming revenues in Sparks, and officials cited the early end to Street Vibrations tied to the shooting as a factor.
And 10 days ago, Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, a member of the San Jose Vagos motorcycle club, pleaded not guilty in Washoe District Court to an indictment charging him with murder and conspiring to fight with his rivals in the Nugget shooting.
Cooney was asked how the Nugget, in the wake of the shooting, has been made safer for its tourist base as well as the Reno-Sparks community.
"It's difficult," she said. "We're not going out and saying we're safe. It implies we weren't safe before. It was between two groups. They were here for Street Vibrations, not on any given day but for that event."
The Nugget's response so far is noteworthy, Felten said.
"The general rule in crisis communication is you want to be as open with the public, particularly your customers, as possible," he said. "The case often cited is the (1982) Tylenol poisoning case. Even though the maker had no direct connection to the poisoning, it responded in an open fashion with a massive recall.
"Many people say that over-response is an example of how (Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson) built a perception of responsibility to the customers," Felten said.
'Memory'
for violence
Michael Fineman, owner of Fineman PR in San Francisco and an expert in crisis communications, questioned the Nugget's reluctance to openly address the safety issue.
"I don't think there's any reason to clam up and put your head into the sand and not talk," Fineman said. "It seems to me there is a better way to respond than the initial statement. They should be a little more demonstrative to the issue of public safety and how this put so many patrons in jeopardy. It could have been handled better."
Fineman said the public "has a memory" for violence, adding, "A large segment will stay away if they think it only attracts a violent sort of group."
"The question remains, what are they going to do to ensure better security and make sure it doesn't happen again?"
In the Gazette-Journal interview, Cooney said Nugget officials met after the shooting to discuss their public relations response, including "how we would deal with it and what message we wanted to put out."
"Our focus is on gang-related activities and how to best handle it as we go into next year's (Street Vibrations) event," she said.
She also said a "no-color" policy was enacted this month, which means signage in the Nugget during future Street Vibrations events will proclaim it off-limits to anyone wearing gang colors or symbols.
"It will be, 'Take it off or be asked to leave by our security force,'" Cooney said.
Beyond Street Vibrations, Cooney said only that Nugget in-house security is "very adequate, very visible and it's served us well."
Nugget public affairs spokeswoman Missy Hinton said the property will "continue to put out positive messages not specific to the incident."
Brand reliance
Felten said he expects the Nugget has privately assured its clientele present at the time of the shooting that the hotel-casino is safe.
"The Nugget is known for their personal service. My expectation is they were proactive with those impacted," he said.
Cooney confirmed, saying, "We've contacted all the customers, we offered them, depending in some cases, some comps, things that would make them come back and have a better time."
To the Reno-Sparks community, where John Ascuaga's Nugget has been a fixture since it opened in 1955, Felten suggested that the hotel-casino is banking on its good name.
"They've got a strong credit line, if you will, they built over years and years with the community," he said. "So the assumption is, they handled (the shooting) as best they could."
At least two area residents said they had no problem going back into the Nugget.
"Of course, we went back," said Mike Lander. "It was a one-time incident created by biker gangs, not the casino. It was a biker deal. People die driving on I-80. I still drive there, too."
Added Jon F. Krause, "I was actually excited to see Gordon Lightfoot, so I really did not think too much about the shooting. I noticed security guards and felt safe being at the Nugget."
Fineman said his bottom-line advice in crisis communications is for businesses to do their best to tell their side of the story.
"In some way, you have to be able to say, 'We're instituting security measures, showing some sort of goodwill to the public and the community,'" he said. "They always need to be able to say something."
Felten said how a business handles bad news is always open to debate.
"It's a judgment call, and a difficult one, as to whether it's best to more publicly address the situation or let it play out as a police/court story," he said of the Nugget shooting.
"What do you want to tell everyone? It's business as usual? It was an extreme event. To make it seem less than extreme, you don't want to convey that. You look at the weight of that and make a judgment."