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Get ready for slots and poker at Calder Race Course
Calder President and General Manager Tom O'Donnell addressed horsemen Thursday night for the start of Calder's 2009 racing season, which begins April 24.
Included in his remarks:
The race course plans to open a card room in the existing grandstand building in November.
Groundbreaking for a new slots facility is expected in mid-May, with the idea of slots being available before the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl football fans come to Miami late in January.
Miami-Dade County voters on Jan. 29, 2008, approved a referendum to allow slot machines limited to the existing horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons in Miami-Dade County, including Calder. Since then, Calder has been working on a new 104,000-square foot facility.
It's expected to hold 1,200 slot machines, three restaurants, valet parking service, and self-service terminals for wagering on horse races as well as video monitors to show live and simulcast racing. (Mardi Gras has about 1,500 slots, Gulfstream about 900, for sake of comparison.)
With Calder only a few feet from the Broward County line, and easily accessible, it will be interesting to see if the casino draws business away from, say, Gulfstream or the Hard Rock. It will also be interesting to see if they plan anything different from what we see at the other parimutuels.
My question to you, dear readers: What would you want to see there (penny slots, video poker, etc.)? And is Calder in a location that would make going there an option over where you are going now?
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, early training for his...
Comments
Another track that is adding slots and poker to their existing facility. Sorry, but this will not cause people to go there when you have a real casino like Hard Rock down the road. That's what the parimutuels don't get....people do not want to go to a 40-50 year old track that now has slots. They want a real casino in a shiny new building. Unfortunately only Dania Jai-Alai/Boyd gets this and that's why they have done nothing yet. They either are going all the way or not at all it seems. But the parimutuels really can't compete with the cash rich Seminoles, especially with the obscene 50% tax rate they face. They can't really afford to build what it would take to be a draw and compete with Hard Rock.
Posted by: truth | April 19, 2009 11:43 AM
I agree with truth. There isn't anything DIFFERENT that the pari-mutuels offer that would make me drive to one, when Hard Rock is the closest to me.
If I'm in the neighborhood, I might pay any of them a visit (except Gulfstream).
I will never ever step foot in Gulfstream again. Smart thinking on the Gulfstream p.r. department to change an advertised promo and not honor it was total b.s. They want the customers and then do their best to piss them off, fine, I said piss on Gulfstream.
Posted by: KCK | April 20, 2009 11:35 AM
I think I might have to contend with your assumption that people don't like a parimutual adding slots and poker. The fact is that people want to play where they think they can make the most money. Plenty of track betters like to take a shot at poker and for a real player thats a huge room full of fish. I work at a dog track in WV, that doesn't even have a hotel, and threw table games and poker in in the lest year, middle of nowhere and with a failing economy and we still had 30 tables of poker when we opened on the weekends and plenty to play with during the weeks, even now we get 20 tables on the weekends and without bus groups. Don't think that just because a "real casino" is next door they won't pull some of the action. There are lots of people who appreciate a good race and an easy poker room. Just think the dealers for the Belterra during the Kentucky derby pull $50-70 p/h when they share tokes, horse racing hasn't died off and the ability to watch the races and play poker is still a heck of a draw.
Posted by: dealer | June 12, 2009 7:07 AM