Year one of the Margaritaville experiment is done, and Red River gambling won’t stay static because of its success.
The casino opened its doors to much fanfare June 15, 2013, and the riverboat was soon after able to boast impressive revenue and visitor numbers. The local gaming market — then on edge with the unknowns of the first new casino opening in 10 years — trudged through the year and now foresees more normalized competition.
“At one year, we’re where we thought we would be in third position behind Horseshoe and Eldorado. We do have the second most in number of admissions, but third highest gaming revenue,” said Margaritaville Resort Casino general manager Barry Regula. “As our database grows, we can increase those numbers and close the gap on the top two.”
For long-standing market Horseshoe there isn’t time to rest on laurels — there’s a new player at the table who is just warming up.
“Competition keeps you on your toes, and that’s better for every customer,” said Horseshoe general manager Mike Rich. “At the end of the day, Margaritaville has forced all of us to look at ourselves internally, and ask how we can be more competitive.”
His casino on Saturday will debut its day club and pool concept Dare, a $3.5 million investment. While the idea was in the works for four years, Rich said the advent of Margaritaville prompted the final move toward its opening.
Horseshoe isn’t alone, according to Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman Ronnie Jones. Each casino and their general manager in the local market has come to him over the past year with some kind of plan for capital reinvestment for their property.
From rehabilitating air conditioning systems to restoring hotel rooms to remodeling buffets, Jones said the local casinos are looking to step up their game and keep fresh while the market settles into having six riverboats instead of five.
“Margaritaville is still getting their sea legs, and when you talk about Margaritaville, you have to talk about the whole market and it’s still sort of shaking out,” Jones said. “They’re not the big dog on the block, but northwest Louisiana is still the largest gaming market in the state. All it takes is one bad experience and a customer might decide not to come back.”
Margaritaville isn’t resting either. The casino has spent the past year working out the kinks in its systems and designing the most player-friendly atmosphere they can.
“Even though we’re brand new, we continually reinvest in our gaming product. We’ve been able to spend an additional $3 million in our first year on slot product, gaming product and other guest amenities,” Regula said. “As we learn more about what people want, we adjust accordingly.”
Regula said Margaritaville managers quickly found their high-limit slot players were looking for a more intimate experience, so they remodeled the equipment and structure of those areas. Electronic table games were a much bigger hit than anyone originally expected, so the casino added more positions. The table games have been rearranged several times to provide a more energetic and dynamic experience.
“We found that the majority of our visitors come in through our hotel-side entrance as opposed to our north entrance or our Boardwalk entrance. It has to do with people’s perception of where the front door is, where they should come in,” Regula said. “So that one dynamic was probably the No. 1 driver of rearranging how our casino floor was laid out.”
The casino’s 395 rooms stayed mostly full — near 97 percent occupancy over the past six months — and its restaurants are a hit, Regula said.
The big country music shows are resonating well with the Texas drive-market and the smaller shows, such as the comedic hypnotism series Hypnaughty and the new Wednesday night comedy events, brought in big crowds. In September, James Burton and Jimmy Buffett will lead more than 1,000 people in breaking the world record for most people simultaneously playing guitar. Regula said he also wants more pool-oriented events this summer.
It’s all about keeping the market on its toes, Jones said.
“In the old days, you didn’t want people to get off the floor. But the casinos have realized there is a new generation of gamers,” Jones said. “Marketing is at the core and the heart of what these people do.”
Competition goes a long way toward prompting capital investment, Rich said, but there’s more to it than just another riverboat in the market. Las Vegas casinos have, over the last several years, doubled down on non-gaming entertainment, and Rich said that mindset is spilling over to smaller markets.
“You see that in Vegas where two-thirds of their business was once gaming versus now seeing it as maybe just one third. People are changing their behavior and spending more on non-gaming attractions. Vegas has seen that over the last 20 years, and over time that will trickle down to more regional markets like Shreveport,” Rich said. “We’re trying to bring a whole new audience to the game here. The younger crowd might be more interested in playing Candy Crush than a slot machine, but would certainly be willing to utilize a day club experience.”