Caesars Windsor

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Caesars Windsor
Caesars Windsor
Caesars Windsor
Facts and statistics
Address 377 Riverside Drive East.
Windsor, Ontario, N9A 7H7
Opening date July 29, 1998
May 17, 1994 (Interim Casino)
June 19, 2008 (Caesars Rebranding)
Casino type Land-Based
Theme Roman Empire
Owner Harrah's Entertainment / OLGC, LLC
No. of rooms 389 guest rooms, suites & 369 room Augustus Tower
Total gaming space 9,290 square meter (100,000 square feet), Legends Sports Book
Permanent shows 5,000 seat Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
Notable restaurants Neros Steakhouse, Caché, Market Buffet, Legends Sports Bar, Artist Cafe, VU Bar
Years renovated 2007 - 2008
Website Caesars Windsor

Caesars Windsor—formerly Casino Windsor—is a major casino resort in Windsor, Ontario. Owned by the government of the province of Ontario, it is operated by Harrah's Entertainment. Both the original Casino Windsor and the new expansion were designed by WZMH Architects. The casino is located on Windsor's riverfront overlooking the Detroit skyline near the Canadian end of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The creation of this casino was a leading factor in the legalization of casino gambling in Detroit.

The casino hotel stands at 27 stories tall, and was constructed in 1998. Caesars Windsor attracts about six million visitors annually.[1] Its main competitors are MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, and Greektown Casino in Detroit. Caesars Windsor is a non-smoking casino that attracts people from the Metro Detroit region as well as tourists from Toledo, Ohio and Cleveland, Ohio.

Contents

[edit] Management

The Casino is publicly owned by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation; a large portion of the profits are returned to the provincial government.

In December 2006, Harrah's announced that it would change the name of the casino to Caesars Windsor. The name switch will coincide with a number of other significant changes, including a new 27-story hotel, a 5,000 seat entertainment center, and 100,000 square feet of convention space.

The changes are necessary to make the casino more desirable to U.S. gamblers. For a variety of reasons: 9/11 border security, closing of the exchange rate gap, a labour strike that closed the casino for a month in 2004, the popularity of the three Detroit properties, and provincial smoking ban, Caesars Windsor has failed to maintain its customer base from its peak years in the late 1990s. Before September 11, 2001, it was the most popular casino in the Detroit market. Efforts are being made to make it a destination resort for tourists, and to reward clients of the Caesars brand, a high end name in gaming. Included in the re-branding to Caesars Windsor, the re-launch will be celebrated with an employee uniform overhaul, and world-famous pianist Billy Joel will perform at the re-launch ceremonies to an invitation-only crowd.[2]

[edit] History

Part of the re-branding to the Caesars name.
Part of the re-branding to the Caesars name.

The first Casino Windsor opened in its temporary location in September 1994, as Ontario's first permanent casino. The site of the Art Gallery of Windsor was refitted to house the temporary Casino Windsor. The permanent casino and hotel was opened to the public on July 29th, 1998.

In 2006, the first licensed sports book in Canada was opened in the casino. Players can bet on select professional and college sports through Game Picks sports wagering. The venue is designed with booths and large high-definition televisions above the gaming boards as well as in a theatre style seating section.

Effective May 31, 2006, Casino Windsor became one of the few smoke-free commercial casinos in North America. This was to comply with the Smoke Free Ontario Act, which bans smoking in all enclosed workplaces and public places.

On February 14, 2005, representatives from the Ontario Government, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and the Executive team announced a $400-million expansion project to be completed in 2008. It will add a convention centre, a 5,000-seat entertainment centre and another hotel tower. Renovations also began at the current facility, adding new bars, a large buffet and repositioning many of the slots and table games.


[edit] Business climate

Initially, the US/Canadian currency exchange rate had given people from the United States an economic incentive to gamble at Caesars Windsor. The exchange rate was a major contributor to U.S. gamblers crossing the border in Casino Windsor's boom years of the late 1990s. The Canadian dollar was trading below the sixty-five cent mark compared to the U.S. dollar in the late 1990s, giving U.S. visitors a price incentive to gamble in Windsor as well as spend in the city's hotels and hospitality establishments. The rebounding of the Canadian dollar, in 2006 breaking the ninety cent mark, which is often linked to the higher price of oil, since Canada is an oil exporting nation, has negatively impacted the Casino and the Windsor tourist trade, especially when the added sales taxes are factored into decisions. Nevertheless, because the Canadian government does not tax gambling winnings, the casino often promotes this in order to draw clientele from the United States who are left to themselves to declare taxes on their winnings.

Nevertheless, during 2007, the Canadian dollar eclipsed and even exceeded the U.S. greenback by several cents, which has added to the decline of the Windsor, Ontario hospitality sector. The casino must compete with three Detroit casino resorts which are opening expanded resort style properities in 2008. The positive exchange rate for Canadians has drawn them across the border to shop and gamble, and Windsor is in a recession out of sync with the stronger economic pattern in the rest of the country[3]

[edit] Photo gallery

Civic space in front of the Casino hosts fairs and festivals.

Entering from parking structure.

View from second floor.

Legends sports book.

View from VU Bar on casino's second floor.

Turning the interior towards Caesars Windsor

Sports bar and book

The old waterfall is replaced with a bar.

Cosmos bar stage

View of new hotel tower from Mariott hotel in the Detroit Ren Cen in April 2008.

The new hotel addition as the Caesars branding is evident from Detroit.

New hotel tower begins to takle its place alongside the first.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cordiano, Joseph (February 15, 2005). Government of Ontraio invests in a competitive Casino Windsor.Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Retrieved on October 28, 2007."Caesars Windsor attracts around six million visitors each year and is a key driver of the local economy."
  2. ^ The Windsor Star
  3. ^ DeBono, Norman. "A city on the ropes" 20 October 2007. (Accessed 30 October 2007)

[edit] External links