Longtime Casino Executive Steve Thayer Ousted as Palms G.M.

By Scott Roeben, on June 26 2025
3 min read 11 comments
Las Vegas

Longtime casino executive and all-around cool guy Steve Thayer is out as General Manager of Palms.

An official notification of Thayer’s departure was sent to Palms staff on June 25, 2025. Thayer was previously G.M. of Strat.

We were all set to demonize Palms, because anything related to Native American tribe-owned casinos has drama involved, but in this case, it’s a bit more complicated. Due to the state of local journalism, we’re stuck doing the reporting on this inside baseball and that’s a sad statement about the world, but let’s have it, anyway, shan’t we?

Bygones.

The internal communication announcing Thayer’s departure was short and sweet. Here’s the missive in its entirety.

“Please be aware that as of today, Wednesday, June 25, Stephen Thayer, General Manager of Palms, is no longer with the organization. Until a replacement is named, please continue to take direction from your Palms Executive Leadership Team.”

We shared this unfortunate news first, as is our way.

Thayer’s tenure at Palms was less than a year. He was named the replacement for Cynthia Kiser Murphey in Sep. 2024.

We also broke the story when Thayer parted ways with Strat.

We also broke the story Cynthia Kiser Murphey was leaving Palms.

We also broke the story about how we always have to make things about us.

Anyway, these are complicated times for the people who run casinos. There has been a shit-ton of shit-storm up and down The Strip with casinos being reamed by the feds and Nevada gaming regulators for letting the wrong people play in casinos.

CEOs, Presidents and General Managers often make decisions about things like how much credit is extended and to whom. From what we can tell, this is what came up at Palms.

Thayer’s bosses didn’t care for a decision he made, so Thayer’s termination was the result.

Don’t hate the Thayer, hate the game.

Palms is owned by the San Manuel Gaming & Hospitality Authority Board (SMGHA), “a governmental instrumentality of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.”

Does that sound funky? That’s because it is. This entity was created to avoid gaming scrutiny of the tribe’s entire tribal council.

The San Manuel tribe is now Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. There will be a quiz.

The tribe’s wildly successful California casino, San Manuel Casino, was rebranded to Yaamava Resort & Casino at San Manuel in 2021.

The upshot is everyone’s jumpy right now, and the tribe is exercising extraordinary caution.

It’s doubtful Thayer did anything unsavory, but casino management is complicated and missteps can have unexpected fallout. The tribe understandably doesn’t want to invite any undue attention to its policies or players.

Steve Thayer is universally beloved among his colleagues, and we have spoken to many of them. One reached out to us today to say, “He was one of the best I ever worked for.” We trust Thayer will land on his feet and find another gig quickly.

Palms is an odd bird in Las Vegas. It has modest revenue goals and mainly serves as a perk for its California players. It’s a mix of locals and tourists, and was recently in the news for making its games more player-friendly.

There was also something about a wedding chapel and an Uno Social Suite.

We are most appreciative to Steve Thayer for resolving a long-standing feud between us and the Palms Twitter account.

Palms confirmed Thayer’s departure, but has not issued a statement yet, so we’ll save them some time: “After careful consideration, we have mutually agreed to part ways with [Executive Name], who has made valuable contributions to [Casino Name] during their time with the company. We thank them for their dedication and wish them the best in their future endeavors, confident that they will find continued success and fulfillment in their next chapter.”

This isn’t our first executive-firing P.R. statement rodeo.

The internal Palms communication didn’t include any thanks or wishes for Thayer’s well-being or future success. That has to hurt.

There’s always more to the story in Las Vegas.