Top Ten Casinos and Racinos in the Southeast: Part 2

5. Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, Cherokee, North Carolina

This was our 4^th place pick for 2014.  We still love the magnificent complex with its beautiful architecture and campus-like grounds. It’s a great atmosphere. Plus, the facility is imbued with the rich Cherokee history throughout their amenities on site and in the Cherokee area. The hotel and meeting room areas provide Cherokee art work paintings and sculptures throughout.  The hotel has 1,108 rooms and a top-rated spa. The gaming area houses over 3,300 slots, 100+ table games including an Asian gaming area, and a 20-table poker room. The 10 restaurant and food and bar areas include Ruth Chris Steak House, Brie Restaurant and a Noodle Bar restaurant along with bar and lounge areas adjacent to the gaming floor. The complex includes a retail store area and 3,000 seat event area hosting top-name entertainment. This magnificent complex is all seated on a beautiful campus-style land with a river flowing through. The Cherokee area provides numerous activities including brook trout fishing and white water rafting and offers fun for all ages.

4. Island View Casino Resort, Gulfport, Mississippi

Island View has jumped up to number 4 this year from 8^th place in 2014. The privately owned complex opened their beautiful 18-story beachfront tower hotel with an additional 405 rooms in April 2015.  The new structure includes a new Gulf-front pool area, restaurant and bar. This brings the number of Island View rooms to 976, and 10 food service areas including their award winning Carter Green Steakhouse featuring steaks and Gulf Coast Seafood, Island View Buffet (one of the best of the 74 casinos and racinos we visited), and the new Beach Grill. The casino area has 2,000 slots and 45 table games with extensive choices of games. They provide top area entertainment at their 550 seat “View” showroom and at their “Sunset Bar and Deck.”

3. TIE - Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida/Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Tampa, Florida

Hard Rock, Hollywood – up from number 5 in 2014. This impressive casino and hotel complex includes a 4.5 acre water park, 400-room AAA 4-diamond hotel and spa, 130,000 square feet of gaming area.  The gaming space housed 2,200 slots, 135 tables and a 40+ table poker room.  The hotel and casino area is just the beginning. There are numerous restaurants and lounges within the complex. Their entertainment district includes additional food and entertainment areas plus a Hard Rock Live arena which provides top entertainment. The complex is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and operated by Hard Rock International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Tampa, Florida – Came in 3^rd on our Top Ten list last year. This complex has the largest gaming area in the southeast with 4,500 slots, over 200 table games and a world-class poker room. Their 214 room hotel and spa has achieved a AAA Four Diamond rating each year for the past 9 years. Eight restaurants include the Seminoles’ signature Council Oaks Restaurant, Hard Rock Café, their award-winning buffet and a large sushi area. This is topped off with five lounges located throughout the gaming areas. Other amenities include live entertainment at the Hard Rock Café, Council Oaks Bar and in the lounge areas. This too is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and operated by Hard Rock, International.

2. The Golden Nugget, Lake Charles, Louisiana

When an entity is established that positively and significantly affects markets in the local area, the state and even the region, it has to be considered for one of the top spots. This grand complex features a 740-room hotel including luxury suites with private balconies, coupled with a world-class spa and fitness center, an upper-end retail shopping area, and a large outdoor pool area with a lazy-river. It also includes a 30,000 square foot meeting space and event center entertainment. The grounds surrounding the hotel and casino complex have a 7,000 yard championship golf course, tennis courts and marina.  The Landry restaurants areas include their Saltgrass Steak House, Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse, Landry’s Seafood, the Grotto Restaurant, Lillie’s Asian Cuisine, Cadillac Bar, the Claim Jumper, the Buffet and the Blur Martini.  The gaming area houses 1,600 slots, 72 table games, a 6-table poker room plus a high-limit area with 13 blackjack tables plus roulette and slots. We featured the Golden Nugget, Lake Charles prior to its opening on our blog in December 2014. The 2015 numbers are impressive with $240 + million in gaming revenues, a 139% jump from 2014 to 2015. What a great 2015 and what a fantastic facility!

1. The MGM Beau Rivage, Biloxi, Mississippi

Our #1 pick the second year in a row is an amazing facility with gorgeous rooms, excellent restaurants, a large casino area with a 16-table poker room hosting significant tournaments, and entertainment facilities and calendar of events among the best in the southeast. Their pool area overlooking the Gulf of Mexico is our favorite in the Southeast. To top it off, they added the new MGM park in mid-2015 – a 5,000 seat facility located directly across the street that hosts the Biloxi Shuckers AA baseball team plus a number of school and university baseball tournaments each year. A great addition for MGM and Biloxi.

Top Ten Casinos and Racinos in the Southeast: Part 1

We visited all 74 casinos and racinos in the southeastern states during calendar year 2015.  Our Top Ten listing is again based on our observations, the patrons, food and beverage areas and service, mood, professional appearance actions of the casino staff members, and the operations from a patron point of view. Overall, it is just how did we feel about the place, the excitement factor, the size and excitement of the crowd factor – were they enjoying their visit, the entertainment factor, the “will I, and will the other patrons come back here” factor. 

10. L’Auberge, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In spite of increased competition from the Lake Charles Region, this complex had another outstanding year with gaming revenues up 19% and market share up 42% over 2014. The facility’s fabulous architecture and structure and Mississippi River shore location combine to give it a huge “wow” factor. The 205-story hotel has a top floor open pool area and fitness center overlooking fabulous sunsets on the Mississippi River. They have a huge gaming area, 5 restaurants and live entertainment in their music bar and at their 1,400 seat entertainment center, “Live.”

9. Gulfstream Park, Hallandale/Fort Lauderdale, Florida

We featured Gulfstream Park here last year. This is one of the best thoroughbred racetrack in the United States coupled with a great little casino.  Each year this one gets better and more exciting. While there are no table games, the 2-story casino has 850 slots and numerous simulcast areas. The fabulous paddock and racetrack design is woven into an exceptional and significant upper-end retail shopping area with more than 20 restaurants and bars. It’s a great day of south Florida entertainment. 

8. Margaritaville Resort and Casino, Bossier City, Louisiana

We first featured this facility on our blog in 2014. The complex has been a winner since its opening in 2013, and last year the success continued with gaming revenues up 12%. The complex includes a hotel, large spa and gaming floor housing 1,300 slots and 46 table games all integrating the Margaritaville theme. Their second floor open-air pool bar area overlooking the Red River with loads of room for live entertainment. The complex also includes a 900-seat Performance Hall featuring an outstanding calendar of top named entertainment.

7. Oaklawn Racetrack and Casino, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Oaklawn is new to our Top Ten list, although it has been one of the premier thoroughbred racetracks in the US since 1904. Located in Hot Springs National Park, it is best known as the home of the $1 Million Arkansas Derby. Trainers, jockeys and betters alike know that Oaklawn host a disproportionate number of champions and horses of the year including one of the greatest 3 year olds to race at Oaklawn in 2015, Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah. In addition to this great racetrack facility, Oaklawn houses a casino with a variety of gaming terminals. The gaming area was expanded by 50% in 2015 and now includes a high limits area as well as hundreds of new games, live blackjack and poker plus video poker, roulette and craps. The food services now include the new Silks Bar and Pop’s Lounge along with several other eating areas and bars. It is a great place to visit, even better if it’s a race day.

6. The IP Casino Resort and Spa, Biloxi, Mississippi

The IP complex is new to our top ten list. It’s owned and operated by Boyd Gaming (BYD), one of the top rated U.S. casino and resort companies. The IP Hotel and Spa is a winner of the AAA Four-Diamond award. The 32-story tower facility has over 1,000 hotel rooms and suites and a roof-top pool and lounge available to hotel guests. The gaming area houses 1,900 slots, 60+ table games and a 14-table non-smoking poker room. Their restaurants include two AAA Four-Diamond award winners Thirty-Two with prime steaks and seafood plus Tien with upscale Asian cuisine. Their Costa Cucina Italian restaurant has earned the AAA Three-Diamond award. IP also provides a 1,400-seat theater offering regular headline entertainment and 73,000 square feet of meeting and conference space. We’re pleased to add the IP to our Top Ten 2015 list.  

Next week, we'll reveal our top 5 for 2015, stay tuned! 

New Jersey Hearing Tomorrow Could Affect the Future of DFS

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) sites allow punters to wager on the success of teams they’ve created. Simple, right? Not so fast. DFS sites have been confronted with a miasma of issues over their basic legality. Is DFS sports betting? Or perhaps para-mutuel betting? Is it based on skill or luck? Who decides, the state or federal government? And then who governs it? The root of the problem goes back to decades-old laws established before the emergence of the internet, and the insufficiency of those laws is glaringly evident in the DFS question. 

Legislators across the U.S. struggle with the concepts and legalities of the convergence of sports betting, daily fantasy sports, skill-based gaming and I-gaming. And New Jersey’s hearing on February 17^th is likely to have an effect beyond state borders. Here’s the lowdown on the current state of DFS:

Sports Betting – Is currently controlled by PASBA, the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act passed by U.S. Congress in 1992. The Act effectively outlaws all sports betting with an exception of licensed sports pools in Nevada and sports lotteries in Oregon, Montana and Delaware. Congress provided a one-year window of opportunity (until January 1, 1993) for states that had operated licensed casino gaming for the previous ten year period to pass laws permitting sports wagering.  This exception was clearly crafted with New Jersey in mind; New Jersey failed to take advantage of the opportunity.  Now, 23 years later they have taken their case to court to re-gain sports betting licensing. Their case is scheduled for hearing February 17^th of this year.  The case is against the professional sports leagues that want to stop New Jersey from allowing sports betting. 

The ruling on this case will likely set the future path for legislation on sports betting and fantasy sports betting throughout the US. A win by New Jersey would also be a win for Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the US Virgin Islands, all three in the same court jurisdiction as New Jersey. Other states including California have also expressed an interest by beginning public hearings on legalizing sports betting. A loss by New Jersey can be a damaging blow to fantasy sports.

Fantasy Sports – Beginning with the basics, participants in daily fantasy sports and sports-season long gaming.  Participants in fantasy sports assemble teams of athletes from a range of clubs in a given sport – with football being the most popular – and earn points based on the athletes’ subsequent games. They pay entry fees and can earn cash. Last year illegal insider activities between two major companies, FanDuel and DraftKing brought the concept of fantasy sports to the attention of regulators and lawmakers. Now lawmakers throughout the US have been handed this “hot potato” to determine whether it is legal or not.

To add to the complexity, each state must decide on the legality of DFS within their state. And each state’s laws define gambling differently. But New Jersey's decision could affect other states' decisions. 

So a number of questions arise:  Does fantasy sports betting violate state gaming laws?  Does it violate PASPA federal law?   Is season long legal and daily fantasy sports illegal?  If it is legal how does each state regulate it, or is the need to have a consumer protection oversight versus extensive regulatory oversight?

Skill-Based Games and Gaming:

Skill-based gaming is at the forefront of discussions among legislators, state gaming commissioners and control boards, casino operators and owners, and gaming equipment regulators.   As we have discussed, the concept of skill-based is at the heart of fantasy sports. It is equally discussed as a concept for casino equipment play.  With skill-based casino games, electronic gambling machines that offer players an element of skill are seen as important to capturing the next generation of casino players who have grown up playing sophisticated games. The discussion is at the heart of tapping into the Millennial- age group. 

What will New Jersey decide tomorrow, and will it affect the outcome nationally? We'll look into these issues in more depth in the coming weeks. 

The Coushatta Tribe Traditions: Interview with Cultural Consultant Leland Thomson

Leland Thompson is a cultural consultant for the Tribe’s social services department. Thompson recalls being taught disciplinary sayings about proper ways to behave, including how to treat others and the natural world. He never learned the specific reasons for their importance, but adhered to many during his wife’s first pregnancy. Watching movies with violent content and walking across wires, for instance, was prohibited. “Our elders told us what we can’t do, but they wouldn’t tell us why. And then I started going back and asking, and they said, ‘Well it’s just discipline.’ Questioning an elder would be questioning an authority figure, so it would be disrespectful. But I explained to them why we need to know, because so many of the reasons are being lost.”

Whether or not the reasons are clear, Thompson, like most of the Tribal members, still honors the Tribe’s traditions. When his daughter, Gwyneth, was four months old, the family held a predawn hair shaving ceremony. “It’s the last rite of cleansing from the mother’s womb,” he explains. The baby’s hair is “the last part of the mother on the child,” and the ceremony is “the time you decide what you want your baby to be interested in. Whatever you think will help your baby in the future is placed under the child, and it’s also a gift to the child.” Thompson placed under Gwyneth a Bible, a dictionary and a river-cane basket he had just learned to make.  Other gifts included eagle feathers for dancing. Though tradition holds that the child’s uncle should perform the shaving, Gweneth has no uncles. His grandmother shaved Gwyneth just as she had shaved Leland when he was four months old but had no uncles. “The hair is taken up and kept,” he says. “It came from the baby.  You put it somewhere in your house.  You can’t throw it away because the baby still needs it. In its own way, it gets lost. It makes its way out.”

Just as their language and their culture are important aspect of Coushatta are important to them, so is their heritage of agriculture. The Koasati were traditionally agriculturists growing a variety of maize, beans, squash and other vegetables. The tribe carries on the tradition with extensive farming and ranching including the farming of rice, soybeans and crawfish plus horse and cattle ranching and a Christmas tree farm.

Their heritage is shown too through their community structure. Their community of today reflects the older forms of building of culture by maintaining their traditional disbursed forms as the Koasati-Creek have done. Their church ball field complex became the center of their disbursed population, which later gave way in part to a tribal center-ball field complex. This center clearly corresponds to the traditional hothouses of the Creeks and their neighbors. The Coushatta have maintained their traditional values while modifying the architectural forms. The symbolic value of socio-religious center with a public building and a ball field to the west has persisted.

Their value of entrepreneurship has been a core strength of their existence. Their modern-day enterprise beginning with the 1965 tribal arts and crafts business followed by their successful efforts to achieve state then federal recognition in 1973, their drive toward independence through farming and ranching all laid groundwork for the 1995 establishment of their casino gaming and resort. Today they own and operate The Grand Casino Coushatta Resort, one of the largest gaming and resort complexes in east of the Mississippi River. This successful enterprise has enabled the Tribe to expand its farming and cultural programs and assist in providing significant housing, health care and cultural projects for their citizens. 

The Coushatta Tribe: Heritage and Origin

Historically the Coushatta Tribe was known as Koasati. The tribe was part of the Creek alliance known to have been established in villages near the junction of the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa Rivers near the present-day Wetumpka, in northwest Alabama. They were gradually pushed off their land by colonial expansion and migrated to Louisiana in the 1760s. Many members continued on to Texas, but a small group remained behind inhabiting Indian Village near the town now known as Kinder in Allen Parish, Louisiana. Some other Koasati who did not move to Louisiana and Texas were taken to Oklahoma during the Indian Removal of the 1830s.  The Koasati or Coushatta now consists of three federally recognized tribes, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town in Wetumpka, Oklahoma.

By 1861 the Louisiana tribe was living along the Calcasieu River near Kinder. As land-hungry settlers forged into that area, the tribe purchased land near Elton in Allen Parish and moved there in 1884. Tribal members live in both locations today, continuing to follow their matriarchal clan system like their Creek ancestors.  The clans are family units among the tribe in which each clan has its own speaker who in turn works with the chief.  The seven large Coushatta clans still in existence are those of the Deer, the Panther, the Beaver, the Daddy Long Legs Spider, the Bear, the Turkey, and the Bobcat.

The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana boasts of maintaining its culture and heritage. Their emphasis on the maintenance of the Koasati language, emphasis on the clan system, their heritage and culture, and agriculture are inherent in their present day lives. Many of today’s Coushatta still craft baskets, use medicinal plants to supplement modern medicine and supplement their strong Christian faith with traditional beliefs. Today’s Louisiana Coushatta still speak the Koasati language of their ancestors. Remarkably, of the 175 indigenous languages remaining on the entire North American continent, only 20 are spoken by people of all ages as vigorously as the Coushatta. Koasati language is taught to all ages in their language school and is spoken in offices, homes and at social gatherings. The Koasati Language Center Training Program is among the most prominent of all North American Tribes.

Losing their Land and their Recognition: The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana

The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana was formally recognized by the United States Congress as a sovereign nation on June 27, 1973.

A form of federal recognition first came in 1868, when 160 acres of land was placed in trust for the tribe. Federal educational and medical assistance programs and an elementary school were received by 1930, but in 1953 the Bureau of Indian Affairs termination policy halted services to the tribe and removed the land from trust. Legally this meant the Coushatta Tribe no longer officially existed. 

In 1965 members of the tribe formed the Coushatta Indians of Allen Parish, Inc., a tribal arts and craft business. They made baskets and other crafts, sold them to the business and in turn, they were sold to the public. “That was their living,” recalls tribal elder Florine Pitre. They had lost their services. This venture also provided a gathering place for tribal members, and in so doing laid the groundwork for the push to regain federal recognition.

Coushatta members appealed to the Louisiana state legislature for recognition and received it in 1972. That same year federal officials agreed to resume medical services to the tribe. The tribe then formed Coushatta Alliance, Inc., which drafted a tribal constitution and sought funding for governmental development and a tribal office. Their federal recognition was granted in 1973. Two years later by federal proclamation the tribe received fifteen acres of land as their tribal reservation. The Coushatta were once again rooted to an area by soil.

Revenue Increases Across the Southeast

SOUTHEASTERN REGION

A healthy 6+% increase in gaming revenues for both periods.

Total SE States Q3

	2014	2015	YoY Change	YoY %Change
Arkansas	$57,436,325	$74,144,124	$16,707,799	29.1%
Florida	$117,410,536	$123,249,113	$5,838,577	4.9%
Louisiana	$613,539,203	$668,485,712	$54,946,509	8.9%
Mississippi	$515,454,977	$527,344,744	$11,889,767	2.3%
Total	$1,303,841,041	$1,393,223,693	$89,382,652	6.9%

Total SE States YTD

	2014	2015	YoY Change	YoY %Change
Arkansas	$153,143,317	$196,599,885	$43,456,568	28.3%
Florida	$381,744,767	$403,713,222	$21,968,455	5.7%
Louisiana	$1,846,966,230	$2,016,013,943	$169,047,713	9.1%
Mississippi	$1,597,021,786	$1,606,408,402	$9,386,915	0.6%
YTD SE States Total	$3,978,876,100	$4,222,735,452	$243,859,352	6.1%

ARKANSAS

Continued significant year-over-year increase in both 3-month and three quarter gaming revenues resulting from increase in the gaming devices.

Arkansas	2014	2015	YoY Change	YoY %Change
Oaklawn Q3	$20,996,222	$29,269,531	$8,273,309	39.4%
Oaklawn YTD	$54,789,119	$76,363,854	$21,574,735	39.3%
Southland Park Q3	$36,440,103	$44,874,593	$8,434,490	23.1%
Southland Park YTD	$98,354,198	$120,236,031	$21,881,833	22.2%
Arkansas Q3 Total	$57,436,325	$74,144,124	$16,707,799	29.1%
Arkansas YTD Total	$153,143,317	$196,599,885	$43,456,568	28.3%

    Source: Electronic Games of Skill Revenues, Arkansas Racing Commission    

FLORIDA

Florida Racinos showed healthy increases in gaming revenues for both 3-month and three quarter periods. 

Florida	2014	2015	YoY Change	YoY %Change
7 Racinos Q3	$117,410,536	$123,249,113	$5,838,577	4.9%
7 Racinos YTD	$381,744,767	$403,713,222	$21,968,455	5.7%

     Source:  Florida Racino Monthly Slot Revenues, UNLV Center for Gaming Research

LOUISIANA

The Lake Charles Region carried all of the increases in gaming revenues for year-over year and most of the three-month totals.  The Baton Rouge Region was steady, Bossier City/Shreveport down for both periods and New Orleans mixed with positive numbers for the 3-month period and negative for the three quarters.

Louisiana	2014	2015	YoY Change	YoY % Change
Baton Rouge Region Q3	$91,135,042	$91,750,847	$615,799	0.7%
Baton Rouge Region YTD	$280,335,623	$289,130,912	$8,795,289	3.1%
Bossier/Shreveport Q3	$189,677,613	$183,841,304	-$5,835,309	-3.1%
Bossier/Shreveport YTD	$560,431,636	$557,342,167	-$3,089,469	-0.6%
Lake Charles Region Q3	$178,661,149	$231,425,648	$52,764,499	29.5%
Lake Charles Region YTD	$518,709,856	$691,166,665	$172,456,809	33.2%
Louisiana Q3 Total	$613,539,203	$668,485,712	$54,946,509	8.9%
Louisiana YTD Total	$1,846,966,230	$2,016,013,943	$169,047,713	9.1%

     Source:  Louisiana Gaming Control Board, Monthly Revenue Reports

MISSISSIPPI

Continued healthy growth in gaming revenues for the 3-month period and the first three quarters, continued negative numbers for the Mississippi River Region for both periods. Losses were modest for the 3-months. Overall Mississippi up slightly for the 3-month and three quarter periods.

Mississippi	2014	2015	YoY Change	YoY % Change
Gulf Coast Region Q3	$278,082,526	$293,408,522	$15,325,997	5.5%
Gulf Coast Region YTD	$821,081,635	$873,050,102	$51,968,467	6.3%
Mississippi River Region Q3	$237,372,445	$233,936,222	-$3,436,223	-1.4%
Mississippi River Region YTD	$775,940,151	$733,358,299	-$42,581,852	-5.5%
Mississippi Q3 Total	$515,454,977	$527,344,744	$11,889,767	2.3%
Mississippi YTD Total	$1,597,021,786	$1,606,408,402	$9,386,615	0.6%

     Source:  Mississippi Gaming Commission Monthly Revenue Reports