BAR: CLUB 243
Club 243 Bar, at Fortune Valley Hotel and Casino, has 10 seats facing 10 video-poker monitors — not exactly Cheers. A Formica top, drinks, cards and TVs. A band plays weekends on an adjacent stage — the same setting used for daily bingo games. Fortune Valley opened in 1994 as Harrah’s, then became Harvey’s, then took on its current moniker. The hotel, 321 Gregory St. in Central City, has 118 rooms, two floors of gambling that include two craps tables, two roulette wheels, 21 blackjack tables and 900 slots.
GRILLED: RON SLINGER
Ron Slinger, 40, is mayor of Central City and a nonstop booster of the burg. These days, he’s extra-excited that new $100-a-bet gambling limits and extended hours come to his town starting today. He grew up and went to college in Ohio, moved to Colorado 13 years ago and to historic Central City five years ago after he married Karen Slinger, a nurse with Denver Hospice. Mayoring doesn’t pay much ($8,400 a year), so he’s involved with the family business, selling urethane products. He has three children. A former college football offensive lineman, he’s a big fella. He orders a Coke, which looks dark and fizzy next to the elegant translucence of my martini.
BH: Coke?
Slinger: I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I have family members who have battled alcohol. So I just stopped.
BH: Do you gamble?
Slinger: No. My wife likes roulette.
BH: Ron Slinger is a great name for the mayor of a gun-totin’ gambling town.
Slinger: Sounds like gunslinger, right? A perfect fit.
BH: What’s it like, being mayor?
Slinger: Well, some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug. Sometimes casinos and historic buildings don’t mesh.
BH: What about the long rivalry between Central City and nearby Black Hawk?
Slinger: We get along now. Black Hawk took a different route than we took. They don’t have the opera house, the historical museum, Main Street, the face on the barroom floor, the Teller House. But they want and need us to succeed. And we want them to succeed.
BH: Do you see this as a destination resort?
Slinger: Oh yes. Two, three, four days. And the people are not just going to gamble and eat the whole time. They need to see a show. They need to shop. I think we need a golf course up here. Hiking trails. We’re a destination. No doubt in my mind.
BH: A golf course?
Slinger: It would be fantastic. I love golf. My goal is to someday play golf every day.
BH: How will Central City change with the $100 gaming limits, open 24 hours a day?
Slinger: It’s going to be a younger crowd. Grandma who comes up here — God love her — and plays bingo and the penny slots and drags her oxygen tank along, is going to find it different.
BH: Are you an optimist?
Slinger: Oh yes. I am also a realist. I know that everyone in this town is not going to like everything we do. But I also realize that these are the things that we have to do.
BH: Do you think prostitution will start here?
Slinger: Absolutely not.
BH: Strip clubs?
Slinger: Never happen.
BH: What’s the biggest bet you ever made?
Slinger: Probably $20 at roulette on a Princess Cruise.
BH: How’d you do?
Slinger: I lost it.
BH: Sports?
Slinger: I grew up in Ohio, near Cleveland, so I have a love/hate thing with the Broncos. Watching John Elway come to town and beat the Browns was pretty tough.
BH: Music?
Slinger: I am a huge James Taylor fan. But I also like Matchbox Twenty, Sinatra, Maroon 5, Counting Crows. I have the most eclectic CD case in my car.
BH: No iPod?
Slinger: No. But I got a BlackBerry this year.
BH: What’s your favorite gambling movie?
Slinger: “The Sting.”
BH: Favorite Las Vegas movie?
Slinger: “Ocean’s 11.”
BH: The original?
Slinger: I’m not that old.
BH: Personal defect?
Slinger: I’m fat.
BH: Is that a fight?
Slinger: Oh, God yes. I’m always hungry, and I’m always trying to lose weight. I try not to make it an obsession, but it’s always in the back of my mind.
BH: What’s your perfect day?
Slinger: A 6 a.m. tee time with my buddies. Finish in time for me to meet my wife and family at Chili’s. I love Chili’s; it’s my favorite restaurant. Have lunch and then play a par-3 hole with them.
BH: What do you hate?
Slinger: I hate people who are unwilling to try new things.
BH: What do you fear?
Slinger: I fear that 18 months from now, we’re staring at each other going “Well, that didn’t work.” That keeps me up at night.
BH: Reading?
Slinger: I just read “Brothers,” about RFK and JFK.
BH: Do you feel conflicted about people who get in trouble gambling?
Slinger: No. I’m a big personal- responsibility person. I’m not going to lose a minute of sleep worrying about Joe X making a bad decision.
BH: Are you going to make a $100 bet on opening day?
Slinger: I will if you will.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Bill Husted: 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com.
