With $40M expansion project complete, Hoosier Park executives look to future
Mar. 27—ANDERSON — Two months after formally opening the largest expansion in the facility's history, executives at Harrah's Hoosier Park Racing and Casino say the casino's more spacious layout is already paying dividends.
"We actually have some elbow room now, which is nice," said Colin Skidmore, senior vice president and general manager at Harrah's Hoosier Park. "The focus of this expansion was, really spread it out. The feedback to that specifically has been very positive. It actually makes for a much more social experience."
The $40 million expansion, which added about 30,000 square feet to the casino floor, along with two new restaurants, a high-limit space, a casino bar and a sit-down dining area with direct views of the track, was four years in the making. Planning began in 2019 after Indiana lawmakers approved legislation permitting legalized sports betting across the state and green-lighting live table games.
Skidmore, who succeeded Trent McIntosh as the facility's top executive in May 2023, said supply chain issues and logistical challenges which plagued the project during and immediately after the pandemic had a silver lining to them, allowing officials to rethink some of the plans and improve the casino's overall layout.
"Previously the slot machines were side by side," he said. "It was like a wall of slot machines. So you were very close to somebody you don't know. Now they're more (in a) circular pattern, so folks are a little bit more apt to hang out with their significant other."
A better sense of space throughout the facility has, in Skidmore's view, allowed younger patrons to feel more comfortable there. Other additions have brought a heightened buzz to the gaming floor as well, he said.
"We have seen a younger group of individuals join us," he said. "It's been a demographic that a lot of casinos have been targeting and trying to figure out ways to do it and what they need to do.
"I think just the fact that we've created an open space for them, we've amped up the music a little bit as well, so there's a little bit more energy as you walk through the door."
During a ribbon-cutting ceremony in January, Dan Nita, regional president for Hoosier Park's parent company, Caesars Entertainment, said the upgrades are part of an ongoing "evolution" of the property in its efforts to remain among the state's prime entertainment destinations. When asked what the next step in Hoosier Park's evolution might be, Skidmore offered a measured response.
"We're seeing business levels improve, which has been great," he said. "(Business levels) dictate what that next evolution is going to be. Whether it is a hotel — which I know comes up a lot — or whether it's a poker room if that's something we want to explore...we want to make sure the investment that we've done so far makes sense."
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