There are two basic kinds of casino bonuses: the kind that you get when you play at an online casino and the kind you get when you play at a land based casino. The news this week is that the recently opened Resorts World Catskills is garnering a large following including many celebrities who make the short trip from New York.
Integrated Resort
Resort World Catskills was first proposed amid some controversy. Some local residents were leery of having a land based casino in their community. Some felt that the area, a two to three hour driving radius from the proposed resort was already saturated with casinos both privately and Native American owned.
It was because the casino would be part of an Integrated Resort that it won the support of the majority of the Catskill community and that the resort guaranteed that there would be so much to offer that people would make the trip from New York. All that has been realized and the resort, in the early going, has been a resounding success.
Celebrities
The most recent celebrities seen at the resort have been Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser fame, Adrian Grenier, Gavin DeGraw, and footballers Lawrence Taylor and Phil Simms. They weren’t actually seen gambling as they may have gone to the secluded high roller room to gamble but their presence on the casino floor turned heads. Any casino that can gain the reputation of attracting celebrities is bound to attract average people in our celebrity-obsessed culture.
A True Resort Complex
In addition to the casino, Resort World Catskills has much to offer individuals, couples, families, and groups. The hotel soars eighteen stories high with over 300 luxury suites, two-story villas, ground level and penthouse suites, swimming pools, a spa, and a fitness center.
Even though the casino spans a vast area with over 2000 slots machines and 150 or more tables for blackjack and the like plus a poker room and private gaming rooms for high rollers and celebs and their groups, guests, or entourages, there is much to do at the resort for people who want to gamble just a bit or not at all.
Luxury Hotel
The smallest rooms cover 600 square feet with the penthouse suites occupying 2000 square feet. Every luxury imaginable is provided in the all-suites hotel.
The spa is open every day with longer hours mid-week and early opening on Fridays and Saturdays. Every treatment you might want is available at the spa.
The resort has at least ten restaurants plus bars and pubs. One of the restaurants is run by celebrity chef Scott Conant. The entertainment center features top shows such as Jerry Seinfeld who appeared on May 12th.
Planning is ready for an entertainment village which will serve mostly families and couples and will have separate hotel accommodations, a top class golf course, and a waterpark lodge with an indoor pool for year round use.
High Roller Amenities
Gamers who like to put substantial sums on the line have many opportunities to play in private at the resort. In addition to the aforementioned private rooms, the resort recently opened special high roller gaming rooms with unique VIP amenities and a new poker room.
Success Breeds Jobs
The resort has been so successful since it opened a few months ago, that the casino has announced that it is interviewing candidates for over 200 table games jobs. These will be dealers and croupiers who will be the front line interactors between the casino and the public so they will be excellent jobs with a great deal of responsibility.
Promotions
The resort has two sets of promotions. The first is comparable to the Loyalty Points promotions available at most online casinos. Players receive one of five Players Club cards. The more advanced your status in the club as reflected in your card, the greater the promotional benefits coming your way.
The casino also runs ongoing and monthly promotions. The casino announced that its May promotions would include a promotion at the Ovente Grill, a mystery multiplier, a weekday promotion in which gamers can win $1000 in free slots play, and many other promotions for new players and for players on various dates in May.
Getting There
Because so many people in New York City make do without a personal car, the resort has set up bus schedules from every general location in the New York City area including the five boroughs, Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and the counties just north of the city.
Implications for Land Based Casinos
The news also brings word that some locations have turned down casinos in their midst, Carlisle, Pennsylvania being the most recent to turn down the chance to have a casino built there.
The Integrated Resort idea may become the only kind of casino complex many communities will approve as they try to maximize tax revenues from the casinos while minimizing the deleterious results that sometimes come with land based casinos.
As the news that Resort World Catskills continues to grow and is hiring table games dealers and croupiers for jobs that will pay $40,000 or more, other communities might choose to try to emulate the resort concept.
Resort World Catskills takes the hiring of table games dealers and croupiers so seriously that the training covers six weeks with about twenty hours of training per week. This is the kind of serious entertainment that communities are looking for and Resort World Catskills, being in the news so often and in positive ways, may become the paradigm of the future of land based casinos in the United States.
