Meet the Seminoles, owners of Hard Rock Café and its cornucopia of casino and hotel properties

Big brands know that having a story to tell is sometimes just as important as what one sells. Hard Rock, a corporation that according to Forbes racks up $5.9 billion a year and employs 40,000 people, was founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two shaggy haired U.S. citizens who were looking for a good hamburger on a stay in London. They opened up an American-style establishment in an abandoned Rolls-Royce dealer that soon became popular among the British public — two years after its opening, Paul McCartney would play there, just after The Beatles broke up.

The duo opened a second Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto, and from there, made the leap to the United States, where in the 1980s their eateries established themselves as music memorabilia meccas. A guitar donated by Erica Clapton was the first treasure in an 86,000-piece collection the corporation now exhibits throughout its restaurants, casinos and hotels, a trove that it expands each year with new pieces of celebrity detritus.

But today’s Hard Rock is barely recognizable compared to that first locale that served hamburgers to the beat of AC/DC’s Shot in the Dark. After its founders’ exit and various turns in its corporate road, the company was acquired by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in 2007 to the tune of $965 million in exchange for the iconic brand’s 124 cafés (really, they’re restaurants), six hotels and two casinos. The tribe set in motion an international expansion process that has brought that total up to 309 locations in 70 countries, including nearly 50 hotels and casinos.

With seven casinos in Florida alone, the Seminoles own one of the biggest gaming companies in the United States. Their success is in part thanks to Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International and chief executive of Seminole Gaming since 2001. “It was my idea. I went to the tribe and said, ‘I think we can buy Hard Rock.’ For the tribe to be the owner of Hard Rock on a global level is quite surprising, it’s been a tremendous journey,” said Allen six months ago in an interview with a gaming publication.

To understand what lies behind the Hard Rock brand today, one look at the history of tribes in the United States and their long tradition in the country’s gaming industry. Initially, their offerings were limited to dice, shell and archery games, then expanded into bingo, slot machines and casinos. The Seminoles opened the first high-stakes bingo hall in 1979 and their seemingly limitless growth was consecrated with a 1988 law enacted by Ronald Reagan’s presidential administration that established corresponding legal framework and promoted gaming as a way for tribes to bolster their economic autonomy.

Taking maximum advantage of that law, in 2021 Hard Rock signed a contract with Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that granted it exclusive rights to administer online sports betting in the third most populous U.S. state in exchange for a revenue-based payment that has already netted the Florida government over $700 million, according to a recent statement by Allen himself. Competitors challenged the deal on the grounds that existing regulation required such gambling to be conducted on tribal lands, in light of the fact that only Hard Rock’s computer servers are in Seminole territory. But this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the tribe’s favor, and it was able to resume operations that had been halted by an injunction while courts were considering the lawsuits.

During the 17 years that it has spent in the hands of the Seminoles, the Hard Rock corporation has seemed less interested in opening restaurants as growing through new casinos and tourist complexes throughout the world. It has hotel franchises in Ibiza, Tenerife and Marbella and an establishment in Madrid, whose 161 rooms and souvenir shop were inaugurated in 2021.

Jan Vanhaelewyn, who was recently named general manager at Hard Rock’s Madrid location, says that the brand sees a lot of potential in Spain. “Madrid is a growing market, a destination that is still being discovered in Europe,” he says on a video call.

With 100 employees, an occupancy rate over 75% and an average price of $218 per night, he rejects the idea that the brand only appeals to a certain age group of fans of a particular kind of music. “We always look to provide an attractive offer. For brands like these, the big task is creativity, because people expect innovation, to find new things to discover. We have a clear connection to rock, but we support all styles of music, including emerging artists.”

The company just launched a new line of hotels and has plans to open in Tokyo, New York and Athens. Its loyalty program offers customer discounts and promotions, and it’s sought to update its image via advertising campaigns featuring such well-known faces as soccer player Lionel Messi, singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, artist and producer John Legend and singer Shakira.

Lack of transparency

But the corporation declines to supply details when it comes to its finances or to comment on the construction of the sprawling lodging and gaming complex it plans to build in the Spanish towns of Vila-seca and Salou, featuring a 246-foot-tall hotel, 100 betting tables and 1,200 slot machines. The plan has been at the center of a political debate regarding the regional budget of Catalonia that has raged throughout the last two years. The complex’s success or failure relies in good part on whether the 10% local gambling tax will be enacted. Political parties in Catalonia have struck a deal to raise the tax to 55%. If this agreement goes ahead, it could put the viability of the project in danger. The tax hike is opposed by the Aturem Hard Rock platform, but backed by more than 50 organizations including Greenpeace, the National Youth Council of Catalonia and various associations against gambling addictions.

These political travails aside, the corporation’s CEO sees the future is as bright as the neon lights that decorate Hard Rock’s locations. “I think that one thing we have in our favor is the global brand: it’s in 70 countries, and that allows us to have recognition in some markets that for other U.S. companies would have been difficult. It’s very useful that our brand has so much relevancy around the world,” said Allen in an interview with CNN. Gambling, to the rhythm of rock ‘n’ roll.