Vegas Guy: Isle of Capri Casino

TUNICA, Miss., July 3 (UPI) -- It's hard to believe that Tunica, a gambling market that barely existed ten years ago, is now entering its third generation of casinos -- but that's what you have to think when you walk into the gaudy pastel lobby of the Isle of Capri.

It looks so ... small!

Once the queen of Tunica casinos, this is now a cramped slots house that depends on the goodwill of tour bus drivers who park outside on the steamy asphalt lot next to the decorative fountain. It represents a Tunica of days gone by, and it looks isolated and kind of lonely on a cul-de-sac built around an artificial lake off Casino Strip, which has three other much more bustling joints.

And yet, when it opened on Nov. 25, 1993, this was the hottest thing in Mississippi. In fact, it was the FIRST permanent casino in Tunica, as all the earlier ones -- the first generation -- had been boats tied up at a dock on the famous Mhoon Landing.

Opened as a Harrah's, it was built on a fixed barge so artfully designed that you would never even know you were anywhere near the Mississippi River -- a revolutionary idea at the time, since copied by everyone else. And since it was the closest casino to Memphis, it quickly cut heavily into the profits of the four Mhoon Landing boats and precipitated their early demise.

Almost nine years later, there's not much left of that early promise. Instead of being closest to Memphis, the Isle of Capri and its neighbors are farthest away of the ten Tunica casinos.

Mississippi gamblers became just as fickle and finicky as gamblers everywhere, and Harrah's quickly realized they were too small and didn't have enough hotel rooms to tough it out against the larger, more elaborate casinos to the north. When some local investors opened the nearby Southern Belle Casino and went bust inside of six months, Harrah's started thinking about it as a possible alternate location. They bought the Southern Belle in 1996 and ran two casinos for a while, then got rid of the original building entirely, selling it to Isle of Capri in 1999.

The Isle of Capri is part of a 14-casino Biloxi-based chain, concentrated in the riverboat states and known for its cookie-cutter "standardized" marketing. All 14 casinos look more or less alike, with a Caribbean theme and marketing squarely directed at older people who primarily play slot machines and spend less than $500 per visit. If the Harrah's chain is the McDonald's of casinos, then Isle of Capri is the Dairy Queen.

When the Isle took over the building three years ago, they announced expansion plans, building a 237-room hotel and making a big investment in entertainment. The Caribbean Cove Showroom was designed for big touring acts, with the 1,200-seat Flamingo Bay Theatre serving as the more traditional Vegas-style supper club.

In fact, the Flamingo Bay is one of the most stunning showrooms in Tunica -- but apparently that didn't help.

In an effort to draw more business to what had become one of the smallest casinos in the market, the Isle started with production shows -- and they started in a big way, with four shows a day, seven days a week. "Wolfman Jack's Rock and Roll Revue," "Country Superstars," a Broadway show, various Las Vegas acts that worked full weeks instead of one-nighters -- all were tried, and the whole idea flopped. They discovered, as Atlantic City discovered years ago, that people don't want to interrupt their gambling to go to a show in the middle of the day. There were times when there were only 30 or 40 people in the audience, and the time spent in the showroom tended to lessen the time they spent gambling.

Next they switched to B-level headliners -- at least one big show a month throughout the year 2001. Sawyer Brown, who seems to make his entire living from casinos, played the Isle of Capri, along with Little Richard, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson and Delbert McClinton. What they then discovered, according to Promotions Manager Lori Huffstutler, is that, "The only sure thing in this market is country acts."

And even those are not that dependable. Lee Ann Womack was a huge hit the first time she played Isle of Capri. They rebooked her, but by the third show she was played out. "It was a dud," admits Huffstutler.

Meanwhile, three other Tunica casinos -- the Horseshoe, t the Grand, and Sam's Town right next door -- had gotten aggressive in the entertainment area, and "They got into bidding wars that we eventually couldn't stay in." But even Sam's Town had trouble getting enough country acts to draw people to the Casino Strip, which is the most distant casino cluster from Memphis. "Sam's Town brought in The Wallflowers," said Huffstutler, "and had a dead house."

The result was that Isle of Capri abandoned entertainment altogether and now leaves its two big rooms dark most of the time.

The new strategy? "We market ourselves as a slot house," says Huffstutler. "Mostly penny slots. We're calling it 'Penny Paradise.'"

But that's a tough game to play, requiring huge amounts of advertising (newspapers, billboards), constant promotions, car giveaways, and deals with bus companies to bring in people whose first stop is somewhere else. "We know we're small," says Huffstutler, "and we know we're not always their first choice, so we give them five dollars in coin when they get here, a free buffet and a match-play coupon."

Competing primarily against Fitzgerald's, which also goes after the low-roller, room rates have plummeted, too. Officially the rooms go for $49 on weekdays and $79 on weekends, but as a practical matter you can almost always find a $20 room available, especially during the week.

The casino itself is a fairly standard midwestern riverboat space, with a lot of ferns and rock formations and waterfalls, a buffet, a steakhouse, but no lounge -- and so the only thing the Isle has to offer is freebie giveaways (a $250 player can get a meal) and the occasional "player development" trip to other Isle of Capri casinos. "We took a group down to Vicksburg for a crawfish boil," says Huffstetler.

"We ARE at the end of the road here," she says, "so we use the mailbox to get people to come here. We realize we're not the biggest, so we have to have more winners."

A "penny slot" is, of course, usually more than a one-cent bet. Since most of the Isle's machines are multi-line interactive games, the standard bet is around 45 cents. That's not a lot -- it mostly appeals to senior citizens on day trips -- but modern gambling, even in Mississippi, is moving so rapidly that eventually places like the Isle will either go out of business or become low-end specialty places for the elderly who like their action slow and predictable. It's not glamorous, but, after all, Mississippi is the poorest state in the union -- or at least it was before casinos showed up.

ISLE OF CAPRI CASINO

Casino Strip Resorts, Tunica, Miss.

Theme: Shopping Mall Tiki

Opened: 1999 (previously a Harrah's)

Total investment: $80 million

Known for: Lowest net revenues in Tunica.

Marketing niche: Bus business, senior citizens.

Gambler's Intensity: Low

Cocktail speed: Rapid

Dealers: Friendly

Bosses: Laidback

Tables: 15

Rare games: None

Slots: 879

Rooms: 227

Surrounding area: As you approach Casino Strip, fourth and last "cluster" on the way from Memphis, you reach Isle first, but the lights of the Hollywood, Harrah's and Sam's Town beckon in the near distance.

Website: isleofcapricasino.com/tunica

Overall rating: 50

Joe Bob's bankroll: Down $40 after a desultory hour of penny slots: total to date: +$135

(E-mail Joe Bob Briggs, "The Vegas Guy," at [email protected] or visit Joe Bob's website at joebobbriggs.com. Snail-mail: P.O. Box 2002, Dallas, Texas 75221.)