Robert A. Berman (born December 8, 1959) is an American businessman known for his contributions to the

casino industry A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

in the US. He has owned and directed several prominent organizations and companies including Empire Resorts and

Monticello Raceway Monticello Raceway is a harness racing track and former casino in Monticello, New York. It is owned and operated by Empire Resorts. The racetrack is nicknamed "The Mighty M" and races standardbred horse races during the afternoons year-round. ...

. 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 is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

that later led to Trump receiving the largest fine in the history of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

State's lobbying commission. He was involved in several projects concerning the development of

Native American gaming Native American gaming comprises casinos, bingo halls, slots 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 fo ...

in the

and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

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 contractor (North American English) or builder (British English), 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 c ...

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 (state), New York, United States, the Co ...

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 Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and ...

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) ...

Buddy Hackett Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American comedian and comic actor. Known for his raunchy material, heavy appearance, and thick New York accent, his best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in ...

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

and

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version ...

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 th ...

where a decade earlier the 1969

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

was held. Collaborating with music impresario Sid Bernstein on the site of the former Avon Lodge Hotel in Woodridge,

, Berman opened Music Mountain hosting artists including

the Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five decades, with their greate ...

, members of the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

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 Bobby and the Midnites was a rock group led by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. The band was Weir's main side project during the first half of the 1980s. They released two albums, but were better known for their live concerts than for their wor ...

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

The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969. Its founding members were brothers Duane Allman (slide guitar, lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards), as well as Dickey Betts ( ...

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

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 beverage services, event planning, theme parks, travel agency, tourism, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Sector ...

. 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' 199 ...

and

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. , the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capita ...

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

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and the Radisson Hotel at Chicago's

O’Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the primary international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop business district. The airport is operated by the ...

, 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

. In 2002 Stanley Tollman, founder of

The Travel Corporation The Travel Corporation is an international travel company based in Cypress, California and Bermuda. Its businesses including Contiki, Uniworld and Trafalgar Tours. History The company was founded in Cape Town, South Africa, in the early 1900s ...

, assigned Berman to manage Alpha Hospitality, a public company directed by Tollman that aimed at administering a Casino for the

Mohawk tribe The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the Six Nations). Mohawk are an Iroquoi ...

. In 2003 he merged Catskill Development with Alpha Hospitality, creating Empire Resorts. From 2002 to 2005, Berman served as chairman and chief executive officer for Empire Resorts, a publicly traded

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

("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) WVOS (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a news/talk format. Licensed to Liberty, New York, United States, the station is owned by Vince Benedetto, through licensee Bold Gold Media Group, L.P. One of the station's biggest news scoops wa ...

& FM. Berman is now working with partner and daughter JB Berman (Jena Berman) as of 2019. Avon's objective of deploying capitol into development, the home building business, Commercial Real Estate. Currently, the development of Glenwild Land Co. 560k Sq ft of approved warehouse space, plans included 2M sq ft of e-commerce space and mixed residential for the remaining 450 acres. 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 Tribe ( ; also Skitswish; ) are a Native American tribe 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, which includes a significa ...

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 (Kanien’kehá:ka), an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language (Kanien’kéha), the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a ...

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 ...

. 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 The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the ...

to develop a casino in the Catskill region,

. 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

signed the deal with

Caesars Entertainment Corporation Harrah's Entertainment (later named Caesars Entertainment Corporation, previously The Promus Companies) was an American casino and hotel company founded in Reno, Nevada, and based in Paradise, Nevada, that operated over 50 properties and seven g ...

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