CASINOS
Recession stymies Seneca Gaming’s expansion plans
Casino projects delayed, but not new golf course
NIAGARA FALLS — Gamblers at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel are staying longer and spending more as the casino targets customers from farther away.
Seneca Gaming Corp. has been working to attract more gamblers from southern Ontario and the Toronto region during the last year and has boosted efforts to lure high rollers from New England casinos.
Robert Victoria, senior vice president of marketing, said those efforts have helped increase the average amount each patron spends by 8 percent during the last year.
“The length of stay has increased and the total spend, when you look at the food and beverage spend and the entertainment spend, has gone up,” Victoria said. “The number of trips per customer has gone down slightly, so it’s sort of leveled off the total revenues, but we’re very encouraged by the fact that people are looking at the Seneca Gaming Corp. as a destination resort.”
That’s an encouraging sign, Victoria said, despite economic conditions that have impacted casinos across the country along with other industries.
Seneca Gaming has not been immune.
The company halted its expansion projects at its Buffalo Creek Casino and the Seneca Allegany Casino & Hotel late last year.
A project expected to more than double the size of the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel has been on hold along with other Seneca Gaming capital projects. The company reported this month it is unlikely to make any substantial capital investments in its properties during the next 18 months due to “liquidity concerns.”
But Seneca Gaming Chief Executive Officer Brian Hansberry said the company is continuing to plan for future expansion projects and has no plans to scale back future growth at its Niagara Falls site.
“Just like any other company, whether it’s gaming or not, the expansion in the credit markets is really non-existent to go out and do anything,” Hansberry said. “The expansion is on hold. We’re still doing strategic planning to decide what should be done to prioritize so that when the timing is right we will be able to develop the additional land that’s here.”
Hansberry said the company plans to open its Seneca Hickory Stick Golf Club in the spring of 2010. Construction began on the $25.5 million golf course in Lewiston in 2007.
Those types of amenities, Hansberry said, help draw patrons from farther distances who tend to spend more and stay longer.
“I think the first perception people have when a casino comes into an area — especially an area where there has been gaming before — is that it’s people who sit at a slot machine and just grind away on the slot machine. But there’s certainly more excitement here than that,” Hansberry said. “It’s an important part of it, but people do a lot of other things here, and as we develop the property and expand, there will be more things for people to do.”
The Niagara Falls casino has seen a shift in its customer base since the 604-room hotel opened on the site in 2006.
Canadian players now make up 8 percent of the people who have signed up for the Seneca Link Player’s Card, the company’s primary tool for registering and tracking customers. Before the hotel opened, Canadians made up less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the database, Victoria said.
Victoria attributed the growth to recent marketing campaigns that have targeted print publications and radio stations in the southern Ontario and greater Toronto area.
Seneca Gaming had about 1.5 million members signed up for its player’s card as of September. About 28 percent of those members live in the Buffalo Niagara area, according to the company’s annual report.
Hansberry said Seneca Gaming also has made a push to go after patrons who pay cash in casino restaurants and at other amenities, compared to “comp” customers who receive those items as free rewards for gambling activity.
While cash customers in restaurants and other amenities remain a “small percentage” of total patrons, Hansberry said, those sales have increased during the last year.
Three years ago when the company first opened its entertainment venue in Niagara Falls, Victoria said, it gave away most of the tickets to shows. Now, he said, that’s “flip-flopped.”
“We had the availability,” Hansberry said. “We weren’t at full capacity in our restaurants with our comp customers. You have two ways to fill those seats; either you lower the criteria for comping, or you do programs to try to bring in more cash customers.”
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