A casino in Pine Bluff, Arkansas held a surprise soft opening on Friday, just days before its scheduled grand opening this coming Tuesday.
News outlet Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Saracen Casino Annex opened doors for its first visitors at 6 pm local time on Friday. The facility features 300 slot machines and a full-service bar.
The annex occupies 15,000 square feet of space. The gaming facility is connected to the Saracen Q Store, formerly the site of the Southern Edge Truck Stop.
Saracen Casino Annex remained open for five hours Friday night. The facility opened at 8 am on Saturday and closed at six to give employees the chance to review how gaming operations were going ahead of the planned Tuesday grand opening.
The Pine Bluff casino opened at 8 am this morning and will remain open through midnight. The plan is for it to assume operations tomorrow morning at 8 am and to remain open after that.
Saracen Casino Annex is operated by Oklahoma-based Quapaw Tribe. It is the third Las Vegas-style gaming property to open doors after Arkansas voters approved in last November’s vote the development of casino resorts in four counties around the state.
Southland Casino Racing in Crittenden County and Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Garland County debuted their casino-style gambling options this past April. Both properties previously operated as horse racetracks.
Last November’s ballot also authorized the construction of new casino gaming properties in Russellville, Pope County, and Pine Bluff, Jefferson County. While the development of the Jefferson County casino is progressing smoothly, as it can be seen, the same cannot be said about the Pope County one, which has been marred by bitter controversies over the selection of the preferred casino developer.
Preview of the Main Gambling Floor
Commenting on the surprising soft-launch of the casino annex, Saracen Casino Resort spokesman Carlton Saffa said Friday that it was their surprise for the community. He went on that they jokingly refer to the facility as “our 100-day casino.”
The Quapaw Tribe was granted a gaming license by the Arkansas Racing Commission in June, just over 100 days ago. Mr. Saffa pointed out that they started construction 97 days prior to the annex’s soft opening this past Friday.
As mentioned above, the casino annex features 300 gaming machines. Mr. Saffa explained that the facility is a small preview of the main gambling resort. The gaming floor of the main Saracen Casino Resort will spread over 80,000 square feet. The casino will be attached to a 13-floor, 300-room hotel across the street. That facility is slated to be completed and launched by the end of 2020.
Of Friday’s soft-launch, Mr. Saffa said that the event was initially intended to be an invitation-only one. However, casino officials saw interest was running high and quickly changed the plan, opening the property for everyone who wanted to see it.
The casino annex and Q Store are understood to be currently employing 236 people. Between the casino facility and the main resort, around 400 construction jobs have been generated. Mr. Saffa said they expect to expand construction jobs to about 1,000 very soon. Once Saracen Casino Resort becomes fully operational, it will be providing over 1,100 permanent jobs.
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