A freeze-out in February and a shootout in March hasn't slowed down the Saracen Casino Resort.
The casino, which opened its main casino operation in October, has set three "best day" records, all in March in the two weeks or so after an exchange of gunfire in the parking lot injured a guard, according to Carlton Saffa, chief market officer for the operation.
"Word about our property and what we have to offer is getting out," Saffa said. "Our branding, marketing, customer experience and word-of-mouth, it's all coming together."
In February, the casino was closed for a week, partly from bad weather but mostly from a loss of water pressure from the water company, Liberty Utilities.
Then in mid-March, five men were escorted out of the casino for what was called inappropriate behavior. Two of the five men were eventually arrested and charged for shooting at a casino guard, slightly injuring him, while the men were driving away.
If the shooting incident has frightened away would-be customers, as some feared, it's not apparent. Saffa said the casino has had its best overall weekend since the incident, as well as the three record-setting days.
Before the big-business days in March, the casino's busiest day was the day it opened.
"We had just under 150,000 customers come through the doors in March," Saffa said. "That is by far the most we have had, and this has been a consistent ramp-up of business. Our weekdays now look like our weekends last fall."
Saffa said, at the time of water-related closure, that being shut down during February and March for a casino was like a retail business being closed during Christmas buying season.
Part of the reason for that, Saffa said, is because people are getting income tax refunds during that period, and this year people have received and are still receiving stimulus checks. That influx of money has given the public a "fluidity in finances" that Saffa called "huge."
When the casino opened in October, he said, it was "absolutely the worst possible time" because of the covid pandemic.
"The hospitality business was apocalyptic," he said. "Hotels were under water, and restaurants were closing."
But even then, he said, because of the consistent business being done by the casino's annex, a much smaller operation across the street from the land where the big casino was yet to be built, Quapaw Nation officials "never doubted" that, once built, the bigger casino would be a success.
Still, there was uncertainty, but beginning in January, that started to change, he said.
"Today, we know much more about covid than we did then, and customers are more comfortable protecting themselves and getting out now than they were then," Saffa said. "The public now also has access to vaccines, and they may be getting a little restless."
In addition, the casino has an aggressive marketing campaign, and, on a smaller scale, customers are going back home and telling their friends about their experience at the casino, he said.
"I think it's beginning to work," he said. "I think our Las Vegas narrative is starting to spread."
As for beefing up security in the wake of the shooting incident, the casino is spending "six figures" on a touchless security system that will detect weapons and an equal amount on the training and technology that supports the new system, Saffa said.
Saffa was somewhat philosophical about the shooting incident, saying that such things happen nowadays, pointing out, as examples, a recent shooting at a Little Rock hospital and another at a high end hotel in west Little Rock.
From the beginning, the casino had an enhanced security system, he said. When the shooting happened, it was the casino that produced the detailed photos of the five individuals that police wanted to question. Very quickly, the five men had all voluntarily turned themselves in.
The new screening system, however, will add another layer of protection for employees and visitors alike, Saffa said, adding that the overall security system at the casino is among the best systems available.
"I would put our security system up against any used by the state government, including the state Capitol," he said. "Our procedures meet or exceed those systems. I feel very good about it."