Robert A. Berman (born December 8, 1959) is an American businessman known for his contributions to the casino industry in the US. He has owned and directed several prominent organizations and companies including

Empire Resorts Empire Resorts is a gaming company that owns and operates Resorts World Catskills and Monticello Raceway in the Catskill Mountains, from New York City. Headquartered in Monticello, New York, Empire Resorts is owned by affiliates of the Genting Gr ...

and

Monticello Raceway Monticello Gaming and Raceway is a harness racing track and racino in Monticello, Sullivan County, New York. It is off Exit 104 of Route 17 (future Interstate 86), on New York State Route 17B. The racetrack is nicknamed "The Mighty M" and race ...

. He has also formed partnerships with numerous institutional investors, which led to the acquisition of hotel properties across the US. Berman's plans to develop a casino 90 miles from New York City led to a contentious battle with

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

that later led to Trump receiving the largest fine in the history of New York State's lobbying commission. He was involved in several projects concerning the development of

Native American gaming Native American gaming comprises casinos, bingo halls, and other gambling operations on Indian reservations or other tribal lands in the United States. Because these areas have tribal sovereignty, states have limited ability to forbid gambling ...

in the New York and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

area. Now working as GP of Avon Road Partners, LP. Leading daughter JB Berman into the family business.

Early life

Robert A. Berman's father, Pip Berman, was a

building contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

known for expanding the

Concord Resort Hotel The Concord Resort Hotel (pronounced KAHN-cord, ()) was a resort in the Borscht Belt of the Catskills, known for its large resort industry in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Located in Kiamesha Lake, New York, United States, the Concord was the larges ...

and the

Imperial Room The 500-seat Imperial Room is a major events venue at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The hall is located on the lobby level of the hotel and has hosted major events, such as addresses to the Empire Club of Canada, but was more ...

nightclub where Milton Berle,

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950� ...

Buddy Hackett Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American actor, comedian and singer. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in ''The Music Man'' (1962), Benjy Benjamin in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wo ...

Joan Rivers Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavi ...

and Jerry Seinfeld performed. At 19 years of age, Robert A. Berman received the first mass gathering permit to operate an outdoor music festival in

Sullivan County, New York Sullivan County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,624. The county seat is Monticello. The county's name honors Major General John Sullivan, who was labeled at the time as a hero in the A ...

where a decade earlier the 1969

Woodstock Music Festival Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquari ...

was held. Collaborating with music impresario Sid Bernstein on the site of the former Avon Lodge Hotel in Woodridge, New York, Berman opened Music Mountain hosting artists including

the Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in 1970 in San Jose, California, known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies. Active for five decades, with their greatest success in the 1970s, ...

, members of the Grateful Dead as the

Jerry Garcia Band The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly tour ...

and Bobby and the Midnites,

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guita ...

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer Boats * Santana 20, an American sailboat design by W. D. Sch ...

and various others.

Career

From 1995 to 2000, Berman co-founded and served as chairman and chief executive officer of Hospitality Worldwide Services (HWS), a publicly traded platform that became one of the most prominent service providers in the

Hospitality Industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks, travel and tourism. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars. Sect ...

. By 1998, HWS had several thousand employees with offices around the world. From 1995 to 2000, Berman formed partnerships with institutional investors including

ING Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...

and Apollo Global Management, which led to the acquisition of more than $100M worth of hotel properties including the Warwick Hotel in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and the Radisson Hotel at Chicago's O’Hare International Airport, amongst others. In 1996 he formed Catskill Development, LLC and purchased Monticello Racetrack. During this time Berman worked towards building a Casino in partnership with the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation Tribe of New York. In 2002 Stanley Tollman, founder of The Travel Corporation, assigned Berman to manage Alpha Hospitality, a public company directed by Tollman that aimed at administering a Casino for the

Mohawk tribe The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...

. In 2003 he merged Catskill Development with Alpha Hospitality, creating

. From 2002 to 2005, Berman served as chairman and chief executive officer for

, a publicly traded NASDAQ ("NYNY") gaming company. Berman is also General Partner of Avon Road Partners, LP a private entity that owns Real Estate and broadcast assets, including WVOS (AM) & FM. Berman is now working with partner and daughter JB Berman (Jena Berman) as of 2019 making her partner, with an objective of deploying capitol into multi family real estate with an emphasis on the northeast corridor and the development of Glenwild Land Co. Where Robert and JB Berman are principals in the development of 2m sq ft of e-commerce space. In March 2016, Berman and James (Jim) McCarthy founded KeyStone Solutions, Inc. which later Robert led into a public offering under the new company established: Rekor (REKR NASDAQ)

Donald Trump controversy

In 1993 Berman began a project involving an Internet lottery venture in collaboration with the

Coeur d'Alene people The Coeur d'Alene (also ''Skitswish''; natively ''Schi̲tsu'umsh'') are a Native American nation and one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene have sovereign control of their Coeur d'Alene Reservation, ...

tribe in

. The project campaigned towards bringing Native American gaming to the Catskill area. This led to federal approval to build the St. Regis Mohawk casino at

in 2000, which caused rivalry with other regional casino owners, particularly

. Trump funded an ad campaign to block the casino from being built by targeting the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

tribe. Anti-Mohawk ads appeared in various newspapers suggesting the negative impact a Native American casino would have on the region. This resulted in

receiving an unprecedented fine of $250,000 for secretly funding a lobbying campaign against Native American casinos.

Native American gaming

In 1994 Berman worked with the

to device the National Indian Lottery via the

Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (, ''et seq.'') is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the ac ...

. The project led to the creation of the Coeur d’Alene Casino in

on land donated in trust to the tribe for the project. Berman also worked with the Mohawk people to develop a casino in the Catskill region, New York. In 1998 the

National Indian Gaming Commission The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC; ) is a United States federal regulatory agency within the Department of the Interior. Congress established the agency pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. The commission is the only ...

approved the project to develop and operate a gaming facility on tribal lands. In 1999 the Mohawk people signed the deal with Caesars Entertainment Corporation instead. This led to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that was eventually dismissed.

Personal life

Robert Berman has been married to Valerie J. Berman since 2011. His previous spouse is Debbie N. Berman, with whom he had two children, Alan Michael Berman and Jena Beth Berman. He and his family currently reside in Washington D.C.

References