Fraser Downs Poker Room
It’s hard to beat the excitement of the casino gaming floor – the riffling of chips, the flick of the cards, and the lights and sounds of the slots. Fraser Downs Set To Open Poker Room. February 6, 2012: On Friday, March 2, Fraser Downs Racetrack and Casino will have the opportunity to shuffle up and deal its first game of poker in the brand.
It is not the pound of hoofs but the swish of a card that now backdrops future hopes for Fraser Downs Racetrack and Casino in Cloverdale, which recently expanded with a high-tech, 24-7, no-limit poker room. While poker is not a big money-maker at Surrey’s only casino, it forms part of an all-in play to keep the facility afloat.
The biggest standardbred racetrack in B.C. now relies far more for income on its 400 slot machines and gambling tables than parimutuel punters.
“The people who used to follow standardbred racing are literally dying off,” explained Howard Blank, vice-president of Great Canadian Gaming Corp. (TSX:GC) owner of Fraser Downs. “Anything you can add as an adjunct to racing is a benefit.”
Poker does not rake in a lot of cash for Fraser Downs, Baker said. The poker is set up for tournaments, where players pay a fee to get into a game, but the house does not get a share of the pot.
“It is labour intensive,” Blank said. ”You are not working on a percentage. You are working on time. The casino charges only a small fee for each player.”
For example, $25 can get a player a seat at a $10,000 tournament play that can run for days. Such tournaments have become popular with young, mostly male consumers who follow events such as the World Series of Poker on TV and often play online.
“Poker is a way to get more people into the casino,” Blank said. “Maybe they will also try some slots or make a wager on horseracing.”
When the horses – pulling two-wheeled sulkies – aren’t running at Fraser Downs, a bank of TV screens allows parimutuel betting on tracks across North America, Australia and Asia.
Ken Stratton, general manager of Fraser Downs, said the poker room’s waiting system, the Bravo system by Genesis Gaming, is the first of its kind in B.C.
“It’s the same system that they use in the World Series of Poker down in Vegas,” he said. “It’s basically an electronic gaming system for our guests when they check in. It shows the wait list and the tournament clock as well.”
It even has an app that people can download to look at what games are scheduled and what games are currently running, he added.
Stratton said the new poker room is attracting new clientele, and could even be considered a draw for U.S. visitors.
“The gambling age down there is 21 where it’s 19 up here. There’s a lot of people getting into poker, they play online, and now they’ve got an opportunity to come to a brick-and-mortar casino and play.”
Poker room manager Matt Parker said Fraser Downs’ poker room has daily tournaments, with feature tournaments on weekends. There are also special tournaments, such as ladies’ night on Mondays.
Gambling losses
Richmond-based Great Canadian has a lot riding on poker’s potential. The company posted a $31.9 million loss in the first quarter of this year, compared to a $5 million profit in the same quarter a year earlier. The loss came despite a 12% rise in revenues, compared to the same period last year, to $102.8 million. For all of 2011, the company posted a $23 million profit, its first in three years.
In a conference call announcing first-quarter results, Great Canadian Gaming CEO Rod Baker made it clear the company is not about to place many more bets on the sport of kings. Live horse racing is “a sunsetting business, virtually everywhere in North America” with 10% to 15% annual declines, Baker said.
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In B.C., the provincial government subsidizes Great Canadian’s horse racing at Fraser Downs and Vancouver’s Hastings Park to the tune of $10 million per year. Great Canadian, however, has already written off its nearly $50 million assets at Hastings Park even as it negotiates a new leasing agreement for the site with the City of Vancouver.
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As for Fraser Downs, the government-appointed B.C. Horse Racing Industry Management Committee notes that the City of Surrey is considering a major casino expansion. “If carried to fruition,” the committee states, “a large-scale [gaming] development would compete directly with the casino at Fraser Downs and likely result in its closure.” •