April 28. 2013--Planners scouting the location for a seven-story hotel with luxury suites, a fine dining restaurant and a billboard of live entertainment acts probably would overlook the town of Pocola.

But all those attractions and more -- including a Class III casino with table games and more than 2,100 slot machines -- can be found at the Choctaw Casino Hotel, near the Arkansas-Oklahoma state line.

The latest phase of the Choctaw complex expansion, which added another 145,000 square feet of casino and hotel space, concludes this week with the opening of the hotel, the "updated" Center Stage and a 600-space covered parking garage. The additions are opening Wednesday, with a more formal observance planned in mid-May.

Earlier expansion phases that ended in December included an increased gaming space, a high-limit gaming area, and a 12-pit table featuring blackjack, three-card poker, ultimate Texas hold'em, live craps and live roulette.

Christy Chaser, general manager at Choctaw Casino Hotel, said expansion of the CenterStage meeting room will enable the casino to bring back bingo, a game discontinued several years ago. The room also will accommodate 500 for concerts and about half that number for banquet seating, she said.

"We want to make this room available for parties, receptions or business-type meetings," she said.

Added dining options include Seven Ponies, a three-meal restaurant with a steakhouse environment for dinner; Oak Tree Lounge, a key focal point at the center of the casino floor action; Trophy's Bar & Grill, a sports bar; and Coffee Cafe, a grab-and-go cafe serving assorted coffee drinks and snacks. The expansion also included Branches Trading Company, a gift shop with sundries, snacks and apparel.

A new Gilley's restaurant and honky-tonk will open on July 4 to complete the expansion.

Chaser said continuing to operate the casino during the construction was surprisingly easy. "We let customers know what changes were going to be made ahead of time," she said. "And we assured them that the games they liked to play would be returned when we were done."

Chaser said the expanded offerings and the long-planned construction of the hotel will enable the casino to attract customers from beyond the immediate area and provide them comfortable lodging and dining. But she said many locals also have booked rooms for opening night.

James Hogg with the casino said the improved offerings create an ideal "stay-cation" stop, where guests who live within a short driving distance can find a Las Vegas-style attraction for a weekend getaway.

Access to hotel accommodations will be restricted to guests. And rooms are designed so the noise from the casino floor cannot be heard.

Another new feature is the 600-space sheltered parking deck with a connection to the casino entrance. Although buses and oversized carts ferry customers from existing parking areas, Chaser said parking has been a common complaint since the early days of the facility.

Altogether, the expansion represents an investment of about $60 million into the area economy.

The project was designed by Denver-based Worth Group Architects and built by Tulsa-based Manhattan Construction. For the hotel theme, design and signage, the Choctaws turned to Las Vegas-based E-gads! LLC.

The casino operated in more humble lodging when it opened in a converted strip mall in 1994. Its first major expansion came six years later, as the Choctaw tribe added 87,600 square feet of gaming space, locating it in front of the original structure at 3400 Choctaw Drive.

That move increased the workforce at the facility to about 300. The current expansion is expected to result in a total workforce topping 850. The jobs are a boost to an area that has seen unemployment figures hovering at around 10 percent, the highest in Oklahoma.

At a "topping out" ceremony held Oct. 9, Janie Dillard, executive director of gaming for Choctaw Nation, gauged the impact of the casino on the area, with annual salaries topping the $11 million it had been paying its 500 employees.

"But we are going to almost double that employee count in 2013," Dillard said. And that means almost doubling the salary flowing back into the local area as well, she said. "That says a lot about what the Choctaw Nation does and brings to these economies."

Gregory E. Pyle, chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, welcomed the opening of the facility as a "first-class entertainment destination," adding, "... we know this multimillion-dollar project will benefit our guests, as well as southeast Oklahoma and the River Valley region."

Although the casino offers numerous amenities to keep its patrons on site when they tire of the gaming floor, it does not hesitate to recognize regional attractions. Its website touts its proximity to Fort Smith and its frontier town heritage. The Casino is a member of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and has been active in its sponsorship of chamber and community events.

The Pocola location is one of nine casinos operated by the Choctaw Nation. It is second only to the Durant property in size and in the revenue it earns for the tribe.

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(c)2013 Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.)

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