perks for working for oaklawn gaming casino

I should’ve known my timing was all wrong. Standing amongst other players at the craps table, I feel too full of marshmallow fluff to gamble. The most brilliant thing about Oaklawn’s casino is that it’s nonsmoking, which sets it apart from every casino I’ve ever been to, giving it a much cleaner feel.

A large cartoon-style painting of a horse jockey thinking about a massive Thanksgiving spread is visible from about anywhere in the restaurant. Adorned with chic modern lighting and sleek restaurant booths, The Bugler feels both upscale and casual and doesn’t take itself too seriously. A row of tables runs parallel to the racetrack inside and on a patio. Headed up by James Beard Award-winning executive chef Ken Bredeson, the restaurant announces itself with the statue of a bugle player blowing imaginary musical notes from the hallway right into the restaurant entrance. Less than a year old, Oaklawn’s fine dining establishment The Bugler is located just outside the casino and the new food court. Rhett Brinkley Night views from the room. The windows do not open, but if they did I probably could fly a paper airplane made from Oaklawn stationery right onto the track. Opening them reveals an incredible view of the fabled, meticulously groomed thoroughbred racetrack. The room is modern and luxurious by my journalist-salaried standards, but what sets it apart from any other hotel room I’ve ever stayed in awaits just beyond the curtains. In 2019, the Oklahoma-based Quapaw Nation opened the Saracen Casino Annex, then followed with Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff in October 2020.

They announced multimillion dollar expansions, including live table games (to add to existing digital equivalents) and sports books, new restaurants, hotels and event centers. That made the timing right for the state’s two racing/game of skill “racinos,” Oaklawn and Southland, to make huge bets on themselves. In 2018, voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing four casinos to operate in Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson and Pope counties, forever changing the gaming landscape in Arkansas. Unfortunately, most of the time, there’s no way of knowing when the timing is going to be right until it is.

If the people at the table look like they’re in a Saracen Casino commercial, laughing and high-fiving, I boldly enter. If I walk up to the craps table and everyone looks sad and dejected, I just saunter away full of false self-confidence, pretending my hair is blowing in the casino oxygen. For me, casino gaming is all about timing.

Perks for working for oaklawn gaming casino