Caesars Windsor in

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada is one of four

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

s in the Detroit–Windsor area and was opened in 1994 on the waterfront of the Detroit River. Owned by the

Government of Ontario The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor� ...

(through the

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, known for corporate branding purposes simply as OLG since 2006, is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It is responsible for the province's lotteries, charity and Aboriginal ...

), it is operated by Caesars Entertainment. Both the original Casino Windsor and 2008 expansion were designed by

WZMH Architects WZMH Architects is an architectural firm established in 1961 and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally known as Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden (after Peter Webb, Boris Zerafa, René Menkès, and Warwick Housden) the company's name was changed t ...

. The casino overlooks the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

skyline from the waterfront, and is near the Canadian end of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The creation of this casino was a leading factor in the Michigan legislature authorizing the legalization of casino

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

in Detroit in the early 21st century. The "Forum" hotel tower stands at 23 stories tall and opened in 1998. The "Augustus" tower stands at 27 stories and opened in 2008. Caesars Windsor attracts about six million visitors annually, from

, Canada; and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

and other states in the

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.Cordiano, Joseph (February 15, 2005)
Government of Ontario invests in a competitive Casino Windsor
.''Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade''. Retrieved on October 28, 2007."Caesars Windsor attracts around six million visitors each year and is a key driver of the local economy." Since 1999, its main competitors are the American

MGM Grand Detroit The MGM Grand Detroit is one of three casino resort hotels in Detroit, Michigan, and one of four in the Detroit–Windsor area. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. The casino opened in its temporary locatio ...

MotorCity Casino MotorCity Casino Hotel is a casino and hotel in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It was opened in December 1999 and is one of three casino hotels in the city. There are four hotels in the Detroit–Windsor area, including the Ontario-owned ...

, and Hollywood Casino located across the river in Detroit.

History

In 1993, the Ontario government selected a joint venture of

Caesars World Caesars World Inc. was a hotel and casino operator. It began as Lum's Inc., owner of the Lum's chain of restaurants. It shifted into the gaming business with the purchase of Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip in 1969, selling off the restaura ...

Circus Circus Enterprises Mandalay Resort Group (formerly Circus Circus Enterprises) was an American hotel and casino operator based in Paradise, Nevada. Its major properties included Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and Circus Circus, as well as half of the Monte Carlo. ...

, and

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

to build and operate a province-owned casino. Casino Windsor opened in a temporary location in May 1994 as Ontario's first casino. The former

Art Gallery of Windsor Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) (formerly known as the Art Gallery of Windsor) is a not-for-profit art institute in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1943, the gallery has a mandate as a public art space to show significant works of art by local ...

, located on Riverside Drive, was refitted to house the interim casino. The casino attracted record numbers of customers, millions annually from the U.S. and Canada. Line-ups wrapped around the building. In response, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation announced it would bring a riverboat casino to the riverfront. The ''Northern Belle'' was located at the foot of Ouellette Avenue on the Detroit River. It was open from December 1995 to July 1998. During this time, the permanent casino was under construction on the former Windsor Market site, a few blocks east of the temporary casino. It opened on July 29, 1998, with a grand opening celebration with a

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

007 theme.

Daisy Fuentes Daisy Fuentes (born November 17, 1966) is a Cuban-American actress, comedian, model, television host and former weather presenter. Fuentes broke barriers as MTV's first Latina VJ (signed to MTV and MTV Latin America simultaneously) and as Revlon ...

and

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were among the stars that attended. The new site included a waterfall and tropical entrance, hotel, five restaurants, gift shops, and an entertainment lounge. In February 2005, representatives from the Ontario Government, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and the executive team announced a $400 million expansion project. It was completed in June 2008. It added a convention centre, a 5,000-seat entertainment centre, and a 27-story hotel tower. Effective May 31, 2006, Casino Windsor became one of the first smoke-free commercial casinos in North America. It complied with the Smoke Free Ontario Act, banning smoking from all enclosed workplaces and public places. Caesar Windsor front desk

Renovations were undertaken at the original facility, adding bars, a large buffet, and repositioning many of the slots and table games. The official relaunch took place on June 19, 2008. Caesars Windsor closed from January 5 to 26, 2022, because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

restrictions reported in the Ontario government’s Step Two. In a media, Caesars Windsor management announced that it is temporarily closing the doors and that during the period of closure, all restaurant bookings, concerts, and other events will be canceled.

Management

The casino is publicly owned by the

; a large portion of the profits are returned to the provincial government. Caesar sign on Casino Windsor

In December 2006, Harrah's announced that it would change the name of the casino to ''Caesars Windsor''. At the same time, the operators began construction of a new 27-story hotel (the "Augustus Tower". It opened in 2008 and provides a 5,000-seat entertainment centre, and of convention space. The operators intended to make the casino more attractive to U.S. gamblers. Before the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

by terrorists in 2001 in the United States, Casino Windsor was the most popular casino in the Detroit market. Its customer base declined following increased

border security Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

by the US, a reduction in the exchange rate gap between Canadian and US currencies, a labour strike that closed the casino for a month in 2004, and the increasing popularity of the three Detroit properties. It may also have been affected by a provincial smoking ban, but Michigan and the US have also restricted public smoking since then. The changes in the early 2000s were an effort to make Caesars Windsor a destination resort for tourists, and to reward clients of the Caesars brand, a high-end name in gaming. Caesars Windsor reopened on June 19, 2008, and featured American musician Billy Joel, who performed at the relaunch ceremonies to an invitation-only crowd.The Windsor Star
/ref> The hotel effectively closed on April 6, 2018, due to ongoing workers' strikes. These had resulted in reservation and concert cancellations. The strike concluded with a ratification vote on June 4, 2018. Caesars Windsor re-opened on June 7, 2018.

Business climate

In the late 1990s, the US-Canadian

currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general ...

exchange rate had given people from the United States an economic incentive to gamble at Caesars Windsor. Numerous U.S. gamblers crossed the border in Casino Windsor's boom years of the late 1990s. The Canadian dollar was trading below the sixty-five-cent markBank of Canada rates lookup
/ref> compared to the U.S. dollar in the late 1990s. US visitors had incentive to gamble in Windsor, as well as spend in the city's hotels and hospitality establishments. The rebounding of the Canadian dollar, which broke the ninety-cent mark in 2006, has been linked to the higher

price of oil The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC ...

, since Canada is an oil exporting nation. It negatively affected the casino and the Windsor tourist trade. But, because the Canadian government does not tax gambling winnings, the casino has promoted this to attract clientele from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. In 2007, the Canadian dollar eclipsed and exceeded the U.S. dollar by several cents, which contributed to the decline of the Windsor, Ontario hospitality sector. In addition, the casino must compete with three Detroit casino resorts, which opened across the river in 1999. The positive exchange rate for Canadians in the US has drawn them across the border to shop and gamble.

Notes

External links

Caesars Windsor

Casino Windsor at Emporis.com

Casino Windsor Hotel Tower II "Augustus" at Emporis.com

SkyscraperPage.com's Profile on Casino Windsor
{{Caesars Entertainment 1998 establishments in Ontario Casinos in Ontario Skyscrapers in Windsor, Ontario Hotels in Ontario Tourist attractions in Windsor, Ontario Economy of Windsor, Ontario Caesars Entertainment Casino hotels Skyscraper hotels in Canada

History

Management

Business climate

See also

Notes

External links