Chief Operating Officer, Comanche Nation Entertainment
Jack Crane serves as Comanche Nation Entertainment’s Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for all operations at all CNE properties, including six casinos, multiple F&B venues, a hotel, a travel plaza and multiple smoke shops. Jack has spent his entire 40-year career in the gaming industry, and is a third-generation casino executive.
Jack works directly with each property’s managers, Food & Beverage teams and marketing managers to direct all facets of operations, from parking lots to profits. He also works with CNE’s executive leadership team to develop and implement future opportunities for the company.
Jack’s deep experience has led him to become one of the industry’s top experts in slot performance. In his first 10 months at CNE in 2017, in his previous role as Director of Gaming Operations, he devised and implemented a plan to replace over 600 slot machines the company was paying 20% revenues to a route vendor with games purchased and owned by CNE. Replacing the 600 games with company-owned games has saved the tribe over $4 million annually.
Prior to re-joining CNE as its COO in September 2020, Jack worked with Soboba Casino in California. He created and implemented a redesign of the slot floor for social distancing during Covid-19, which produced a record slot win for 3 months straight. He has worked with tribal casino entities for more than seven years of his career and has held positions in some of the industry’s most profitable properties.
Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, Jack started his gaming career in 1980 at the El Cortez hotel, working for the legendary Jackie Gaughan himself. At just 15 years old, he landed a position in the coin room and spent the summer before his freshman year in high school counting coins the old-fashioned way!
Four years later, Jack joined the Cummins-Allison corporation, which at the time was a service company with about 70 percent of the gaming industry’s coin and cash handling equipment in Nevada. During his eight years with the company, he helped his branch earn Branch of the Year for four years and was the youngest service manager in the company to ever receive its Service Manager of the Year award.
In 1992, he was recruited to work on all the Cummins equipment at all of the Gold Strike properties in Nevada. He stayed with the company, which eventually became Mandalay Resort Group, for 15 years.
Jack’s deep experience with slot operations from both the provider and the operator sides have made him one of the most sought-after slot operations executives in the country, bringing tremendous value to increase slot profitability at every property he has managed. He has been involved in some of Nevada’s top-producing properties including Boulder Station, Pahrump Nugget Hotel & Casino, Excalibur Hotel & Casino, Gold Strike Hotel, Nevada Landing and Saddle West Hotel & Casino. He opened both the Grand Victoria River Boat in Elgin, IL in 1992 and Motor City Casino in Detroit in 1999. At Motor City, he was responsible for all slot operations for 2,600 machines with work including floor layout and new machine purchases as well as hiring managers and slot personnel.
