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'Casino Windsor' which will be renamed 'Caesars Windsor' in 2008 is a major casino resort in Windsor, Ontario. Owned by the government of the province of Ontario, but operated by Harrah's Entertainment. It is on the riverfront overlooking the Detroit skyline near customs on the Canadian side 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 21 stories tall, and was constructed in 1998. It competes with MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, and Greektown Casino in Detroit. Casino Windsor is a non-smoking casino that attracts people from the metro Detroit region as well as tourists from Toledo and Cleveland, OH.

Contents

Management

History

Expansion

Economics

Photo gallery

See also

External links

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. The casino and hotel were at one time operated by Hilton Hotels Corporation. The company later spun off its gaming division, and the casino operated by Park Place Entertainment, later Caesars Entertainment, and currently Harrah's Entertainment.[1]
In December 2006, Harrah's announced that it would change the name of the casino to ''Caesars Windsor''. The re-branding is part of a company-wide effort to consolidate its widely-varied properties into three or four different brands, with the Caesars brand being applied to upscale properties. The name switch will coincide with a number of other significant changes, including a new 22-story hotel and a 465 square meter (5,000-square-foot) Entertainment centre.
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, Casino 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.

History

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 conjoined hotel was opened to the public on July 29th, 1998.
In 2006, the first licensed sports book in Canada was opened in the casino. A bar and restaurant named "Legends" is a smaller version of the traditional Las Vegas sports books. Gamblers can bet on professional and college sports, with expanded limits from the OLG's lottery products such as ''Proline'' and ''PointSpread''. The sports bar 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. To accommodate smokers, the casino has set up two outside patio smoking areas. In January, 2007, the provincial government allowed casinos in the province to build covered, fenced-in outdoor smoking areas right off the casino floor. This move was controversial, since bars and restaurants are not allowed to have similar facilities.
The casino announced an expansion which will be completed sometime in 2007, adding a convention centre, a 5,000-seat entertainment centre and additional hotel rooms. Casino officials have also started renovating the current facility, adding new bars, a large buffet and repositioning many of the slots and table games.

Expansion

Economics

Initially, the US/Canadian currency exchange rate had given people from the United States an economic incentive to gamble at Casino 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.

Photo gallery

See also

★ Detroit, Michigan

★ Metro Detroit

★ Tourism in metropolitan Detroit

★ Windsor-Detroit

★ Windsor, Ontario

★ Greektown Casino

★ MotorCity Casino

★ MGM Grand Detroit

External links

★ Casino Windsor

★ Google Maps location of Casino Windsor

★ Casino Windsor at Emporis.com

★ SkyscraperPage.com's Profile on Casino Windsor