ROLAND, Okla. -- Just a 5-minute jaunt along Interstate 40 into Oklahoma from the Arkansas state line, the Cherokee Nation's newest casino hotel is now fully open for business.
While the Cherokee Casino and Hotel Roland has been luring gamblers since the early summer, the hotel began a soft open, one floor at a time, in mid-November. Now five of the six floors of hotel rooms are filling with guests and the final floor is expected to open later this month.
The hotel has been at capacity since it began taking reservations, said General Manager Chad McReynolds, and he expects it to stay busy even when the last few rooms become available.
"It's a great problem to have," he said.
The hotel's 120 rooms include six executive suites and a "chief" suite, said Laura Caulk, the hotel manager. Room rates during the week run from $89 to $99 a night. During the weekend, rates go up, at $99 to $109.
The rooms feature 47-inch flat-panel televisions, refrigerators and electronic safes. Each is decorated with prints and original paintings produced by Cherokee artists. Signs also have a Cherokee flair. For example, a warning on a door for "Authorized Personnel Only" is written in English, braille and Cherokee.
Caulk explained that the hotel isn't a stand-alone operation. Instead, it is one more reason for gamblers to visit the casino and perhaps stay longer while they're there.
"It's an amenity for our guests," she explained.
The $80 million state-of-the-art gambling complex opened in May after beginning construction in the spring of 2014. The new casino includes 850 electronic games along with table games and a poker room. The facility includes a nine-story building which houses the hotel and a convention center. It employs 300.
The new casino-hotel replaces the tribe's older 50,000-square-foot Cherokee Casino Roland operation, where the tribe opened its first Cherokee Nation Bingo Outpost in 1990. The old casino and hotel was demolished to make way for a huge parking lot still under construction.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said the site had come a long way, morphing from a sewing machine factory, to the bingo parlor and now a casino hotel.
"I never get tired of saying, it's a great day in the Cherokee Nation," he said during a grand opening ceremony late last week.
Five of Oklahoma's Indian tribes, including the Cherokee Nation, have large-scale casino operations close to the Arkansas line. Many have added new or updated casinos and nongambling amenities including hotels, restaurants and spas over the past few years.
In Arkansas, Southland Park in West Memphis allows betting on greyhound races and at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs folks can wager on thoroughbred races. State law allows gambling on electronic devices at the racetracks similar to those offered at out-of-state casinos.
The lack of real casino gambling in Arkansas makes the American Indian operations just across the border all the more attractive, said Kelly Way, associate professor of hospitality innovation at the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences in Fayetteville.
She said by adding hotels along the border, the tribes are not only making moves to hang on to their primary customers -- gamblers -- they also are reaching into the secondary market of tourism. Way said while hotels and other amenities make the operations more attractive and can diversify a tribe's income, in the end they exist to support the casinos and the profits they bring in through gambling.
"Hotels are great, but the money is in the casino," she said. "The odds are with the house."
American Indian-owned casinos in Oklahoma had revenue increases well above industry trends in 2013, according to Casino City's Indian Gaming Industry Report. Oklahoma ranked second for revenue with $3.7 billion for 2013, trailing California's take of $7 billion. Together, the two states made up almost 40 percent of all revenue generated by Indian-owned casinos in the U.S. that year.
Nearby competition for the Cherokee Roland operation includes the Choctaw Casino Hotel in Pocola, Okla., just across the border from Fort Smith, the second-largest city in Arkansas. The Choctaw Nation expanded and enhanced the gambling floor at its Pocola casino on Interstate 540 in 2012 and added a six-story, 118-room hotel in 2013.
"When new lodging and entertainment options come to the Fort Smith area, it helps drive economic development to the region and makes us more attractive to travelers," Leslie Lumley, director of marketing for Choctaw Casino Hotel - Pocola, said in response to email questions. "Our recent multi-million dollar hotel renovation and the addition of the new Cherokee facility helps us remain competitive with other gaming destinations."
Steve Bourie, author of the American Casino Guide and owner of americancasinoguide.com said local competition is good for players and travelers. He noted with two, similarly matched casino-hotels in close proximity players and visitors can expect better promotional offers, better prices on food and hotel rooms, and sometimes better payouts.
He notes nowadays Las Vegas is the best place for gamblers simply because there is so much competition. Since players can always get up and go next door to a competitor, customer service and other perks and amenities becomes key in a competitive market. Who wins? The consumer, he said.
But hotels and other perks are also good business for casinos, Bourie explained. Hotels can be used to market to out-of -town players who can be lured to stay a night or two. He said studies show players tend to gamble more and spend more money overall if they stay at a property.
Indian-owned casino operations nationwide are adding hotels and other non-gambling amenities. Across the United States, non-gambling revenue was up nearly 5 percent to $3.6 billion. Non-gambling revenue gains have outpaced gambling revenue in 10 of the past 13 years, according to Casino City's Indian Gaming Industry Report.
Oklahoma is doing well in this area, with the state seeing its non-gambling revenue increase nearly 14 percent in 2013, to $580.5 million.
Cherokee Nation Entertainment is the wholly owned gambling, hospitality, retail and tourism arm of the Cherokee Nation. It runs the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa; seven Cherokee Casinos, including a horse-racing track; four other hotels; two golf courses; and retail outlets. It employs about 3,800 people across all of its operations.
In September of last year, the Cherokee Nation said a casino-hotel will be part of a $170 million retail development in Tahlequah, Okla. The three-phase project is expected to take five years to complete. In West Siloam Springs, Okla., the tribe operates the Cherokee Casino & Hotel, which was upgraded in 2010 and now has 1,500 electronic games, table games and a 140-room hotel.
SundayMonday Business on 12/13/2015