The first legal poker club in the UK is set to open its doors in Nottingham today.
Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino has slashed its slot machines from about 1,200 to 516 as part of a revamped business plan to boost revenue in 2008 after trailing in third place for months among the three Broward County casinos.
The plan: change the first floor casino to a half-casino, half horse-racing lounge. Add a dozen new versions of video poker, and swap out other, less-popular machines for more penny and two-cent slots. Once all the changes are complete in mid-December, the casino will have about 825 slot machines and video poker games divided between the second floor casino and the redone, first floor lounge-casino.
Were going to blow the socks off people in terms of video poker offerings, said Steve Calabro, corporate vice president of gaming for Magna Entertainment, the Canadian company that owns Gulfstream. ``Instead of having 1,200 games on the floor, were going to have 850 of the best ones out there. . . . Were going for quality versus quantity.
The racino has been troubled for months. Its revenue, calculated on a per-machine basis, has been the lowest of the three state-regulated casinos now operating in Broward. It has averaged $81 per machine in the fiscal year that began in July, compared to $167 for Mardi Gras Racetrack and Gaming Center and $213 for The Isle at Pompano Park.
In the previous year -- though none of the three casinos were open for a full year -- Gulfstream averaged $161 per machine, compared with $216 at Mardi Gras and $193 at The Isle.
Gulfstream also competes with the Seminole Tribe-owned Hard Rock near Hollywood. On Wednesday, Gulfstream filed papers in the Florida Supreme Court asking to join a lawsuit opposing a state agreement to allow the tribe to offer games prohibited at other casinos. Gulfstream argued the agreement will hurt its business and reduce taxes it pays to the state.
But revenues havent been Gulfstreams only problem. Its casino operation is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE officials remain close-mouthed about details of the investigation, but they confirmed the probe. Gulfstream officials also refuse to talk about it.
The investigation has no relation to the business plan change, said Sam Farkas, spokesman for the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees parimutuels. ``It really comes down to a business decision for them.
Both the states business regulation agency and the FDLE have offices at each Broward casino, overseeing the financial and regulated aspects of the business and running criminal background checks on all employees.
An Oct. 30 letter sent by Gulfstream to the states chief of slot operations, Milt Champion, outlines some of the changes. They include reducing first floor casino slot machines and ``adding back into those vacant areas more simulcasting to accommodate the demands of our racing fans . . . We are striving to increase our revenue over 2007 and we believe we can accomplish that with fewer machines.
Calabro, who has been on the job since September, said the casino changes will help ``marry horse racing fans with video poker slots players.
Gulfstream has suffered from the wrong mix and type of slots games, he said.
Weve got a big uphill battle, he said. ``Weve got to get the perception to the customers that we have the slots they want to play.
2007-12-05
