“Park it next to the Bentley, but let’s form a V,” yells Joe Maloof as his brother Gavin backs up the yellow Lamborghini Murciélago gingerly, hitting the mark perfectly. With all 12 cylinders rumbling, Gavin handled the 540-horsepower, wild Italian bull like it was a tame beast. The door swings up, and he gets out of the car yelling, “I love this car! Can you see the colors change when the sunlight hits the paint? It’s like a chameleon.”

As the sun began to set on a spring afternoon in Las Vegas, Joe and Gavin Maloof took a short respite from the four-hour photo shoot. It was odd to see the owners of the Palms Casino Resort eat burgers from Carl’s Jr. and drink sodas brought by friends who came to check out the shoot. The brothers looked perfectly comfortable sitting on the cement ground, eating fast food with a bunch of their friends. Despite their millions, they are just regular guys, but in the limelight they are the kings of Las Vegas.

Joe and Gavin Maloof belong to a third-generation success story. What their grandfather Joe Sr. started more than a hundred years ago in New Mexico at a small general store has grown in to a diversified group of companies that extends from beer distribution to professional sports franchises, hotels, film, television and music. It seems like anything they touch turns to gold.

Is there a secret to their Midas touch? During dinner with the Maloof Brothers at N9NE Steakhouse, Joe said that the real secret to success in running a business is taking care of your customers better than your competition, and taking care of your employees like they are your best assets. “When it comes to taking care of people, you really have to believe it in your soul,” Joe explains further. “My brother George runs the Palms and believes in customer service to the nth degree. That’s a philosophy we live by. If we have a complaint, we get on it before the sun sets; my brother George gets on it. One unsatisfied customer will do more harm than a satisfied one will help you.”

Gavin echoes the same idea as his brother. “You have to have the product, No. 1. And, No. 2, what goes with the product is service. At the end of the day, that’s all you have. If one of those two isn’t there, you’re not going to be successful. That’s just the way it is.” These may seem like simple philosophies, but they have worked for the Maloof family for more than a century, passed down from their grandfather to their father to Joe, Gavin and their brothers.

It’s no wonder both celebrities and non-celebrities, alike, love to stay at the Palms. Joe and Gavin’s down-to-earth, friendly demeanor coupled with the their hotel staff’s top-shelf customer service attitude and first-class amenities make every Palms hotel guest feel at home, important and like a rock star. “We’ve always wanted to fuse Hollywood and the casino together,” Gavin proudly describes. “We have so many stars that come to the Palms and a lot of them are our friends. So, we have relationships with celebrities, sports stars, rock stars and rap stars. We deveoped relationships with them, and people like to follow celebrities. Other casinos pay the celebrities to make appearances; after they are done with their appearances they come to the Palms and hang out with us.”

The Palms, Sacramento Kings, Sacramento Monarchs, Arco Arena, Maloof Sports & Entertainment...what’s next? Joe and Gavin are diving head first into the action sports scene with the Maloof Money Cup, which comes to Orange County, California on July 11-13, 2008. According to Joe, it will be the biggest, baddest and richest skateboarding festival and competition in the world, and will feature the best skaters, contending for $500,000 in cash prizes.