When people think of Cincinnati, they might think of its historic waterfront, the Cincinnati Reds, or even its famous “chili.” What they may not immediately associate with the Ohio town is full-service casino gaming. Now, however, several companies are hoping to change that.
There’s been an influx of downtown urban casinos — in many cases, some without hotels — throughout the Midwest in recent years. In March, Rock Gaming opened the Horseshoe Cincinnati, a sprawling, 450,000-square-foot building on a 23-acre lot near downtown. The casino, which represents a partnership with Caesars Entertainment, augments the two companies’ current portfolio of urban casinos, which includes the Horseshoe Cleveland, which opened in May 2012, and the Horseshoe Baltimore, which is scheduled to open in mid-2014.
“In 2008, there was actually a gaming referendum that someone else led — this was now the fourth referendum in 20 years that had been led in Ohio. They were all rejected,” explains Jennifer Kulczycki, communications director for Detroit-based Rock Gaming LLC. “The fourth one was going to put one casino north of Dayton, OH, in a pretty rural area of the state. It got us thinking: ‘What if you developed in the downtown areas and put casinos in urban cores where they would spur economic development and create jobs, energy, entertainment, and vitality? How could we do that?’”
The appeal of an urban casino for a leisure traveler is, perhaps, a given, but downtown gaming also offers numerous benefits for meeting attendees and business travelers.
“The benefit from the meeting planner’s standpoint is that you have casino gaming — which brings in 24/7 entertainment — as well as fine dining and celebrity chef restaurants,” says Lisa Williams, director of sales for the MGM Grand Detroit. “[You have] great rates, convenient access, and a condensed but thriving downtown core.”
Another benefit is the high level of service that’s expected from a major casino brand.
“Our planners have told us that our number one benefit to them is the level of service that we’re able to provide thanks to the intense training that we put our employees through,” Williams says.
It’s no wonder then that “when meeting planners are selecting cities, in terms of the city attraction and amenities, having a casino is possibly one of the top three or five things they’re looking for,” Kulczycki adds.
Yet there’s a particular appeal to casinos located in regional Midwest cities, Williams explains. Namely, local industries can meet in their hometowns, or at least in their backyards, rather than having to fly to the East or West coasts.
“For science, engineering, and technology companies, and central regional associations — this gives them an option that they have not been afforded in the past, to be able to meet in their destinations,” Williams says.
Another important distinction between major gaming destinations and these regional urban locales is that, while the MGM Grand Detroit features an attached hotel, many of these downtown casinos are standalone properties. And that’s entirely deliberate, Kulczycki says.
“One of the things we repeat frequently is ‘a high tide lifts all ships.’ We intentionally committed to not building hotels, partly to show the local hospitality community that we were not going to take all their business away, but rather promote their business,” she says.
All of the Midwest Horseshoe properties have relationships with local hotels and restaurants, offering gamers comped meals at partner restaurants, and discounts for the casino if staying at a partner hotel. In Cleveland, during the Horseshoe’s first year of business, it saw more than 5 million visitors, who redeemed $2.4 million in meals at local restaurants and booked 61,000 room nights. Also during that year, “downtown hotel occupancy was up 12.5 percent,” Kulczycki points out.
The bonus of not having a hotel attached is that meeting attendees are encouraged to get out and experience the city, rather than stay within the confines of the casino-resort. However, not all Midwest downtown casinos are standalone casinos; some also benefit from having attached hotels. The MGM Grand Detroit, which opened in 2007, features a luxury hotel as well as four-star spa. And Rock Gaming earlier this year entered into an agreement to acquire a majority interest in Greektown Superholdings, owner of the Greektown Casino-Hotel in downtown Detroit. It’s simply a different experience for guests because it offers an all-inclusive experience, Williams says. And it offers meeting planners the same.
“You can’t beat the value,” Williams says. “To have a nightclub inside your hotel, where you can do an opening reception? And the appointments of the meeting space and guest rooms and the spa? All of these services are complimentary; Internet is complimentary.”
And even when a hotel is attached to the casino, as in the case of the MGM Grand Detroit, the property is in the heart of downtown, meaning that those guests who’d like to venture off property can easily walk to many urban attractions.
“You have museums and culture and sports,” Williams says. “You can walk to Ford Field [home of the Detroit Lions football team], or to Comerica Park to see a baseball game. You can see the Red Wings play at Joe Louis Arena. You can get in the Henry Ford Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. You can enjoy the riverfront. And then you can also have the casino gaming experience.”
At the end of the day, the growth of these urban casinos means planners and their meeting attendees will have more choices in their destinations. “Planners are really looking to get a return on their meetings and really quantify that,” Williams continues. “[This provides] a great opportunity and a great option.”