Casino

LINCOLN -- It's hard to get excited about a new loading dock, unless you are Len Wolman, one of Lincoln Park's owners.

The track is undergoing a major renovation and expansion with a new 2,100-seat sports and entertainment arena, restaurants, bars and a sprawling gambling space.

But it's a loading and storage area that really thrilled Wolman as he gave a recent tour. For him, the "new Lincoln Park" is not just about amenities -- although there will be plenty of those -- but about service. An improved back-of-house means that patrons no longer will see slabs of meat wheeled past slot machines on the way to the kitchen.

While most of the state is focused on a November ballot question that would allow a casino in West Warwick, Lincoln Park is transforming itself into a place that looks a lot like the Connecticut casinos, minus the blackjack and four-diamond hotels.

Wolman and his partners in BLB Investors, some of whom developed Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, have launched an aggressive marketing campaign and fast construction schedule since purchasing the track and its British parent company, Wembley plc, last July for $435 million.

To get a sense of how big this expansion is, consider this: Lincoln Park is building its own power plant.

If a hurricane or some other event knocks out power to the rest of the state, slot machines at Lincoln Park will still beep, buzz and clang.

"The restaurants are open, slots are on and we'll have the Red Sox game," said Craig Sculos, the park's vice president and general manager.

With nearly $1 million in daily slot revenues, the track can't afford to be closed for a single day.

The state would also be hurt by a closure. Since BLB Investors took over in July, Lincoln Park's slot machines have taken in $338.9 million. The state got 60.5 percent of that, or $205.4 million. Rhode Island's other slot hall, Newport Grand, provided $49.2 million to the state.

Gambling, including about $100 million from the state lottery, is the third-largest and fastest-growing source of revenue for the state. That's about 11.3 percent of all state revenues.

LINCOLN PARK will never be Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but BLB is sure trying.

The track opened in 1947, as a horse-racing facility. In 1977, greyhounds replaced the horses. In 1991, to boost revenue, the state allowed simulcast betting, in which gamblers wager on races at other dog and horse tracks around the country.

But the really large sums of money didn't start flowing until Saturday, Dec. 18, 1993, with the first video slot machine.

Lincoln Park's new owners, a consortium of hotel giant Starwood Capital, gambling company Kerzner International and Wolman's Waterford Group, are trying to add as much glitz and glamour to what for years has essentially been an oversized shed housing slot machines.

BLB is partnering with several high-end restaurants, including a steak house, an Italian restaurant and an Irish pub, hoping to diversify its client base. Wolman won't say which well-known chains BLB is talking to. But expect something along the lines of a Smith and Wollensky or Michael Jordan type of steak house.

The company is also planning a television and radio studio for the corner of the gambling floor. Wolman hopes to partner with local stations, although again he declined to elaborate. The idea is to draw people who might not normally come to Lincoln Park with dining options, comedy shows, boxing and other attractions.

"It's all these little pieces that get woven together and create multiple experiences. Different guests want different experiences," Wolman said. "You might come here with your significant other and go for dinner and then they might want to play slot machines and they might want to go to a show."

BLB has borrowed ideas from their casino businesses elsewhere.

Take the new "lighthouse bar" under construction. It's strikingly similar to the popular Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun -- a free concert area in the middle of the casino floor that has drawn big names over the years.

"We want to take the best we've learned," Wolman said when asked about the similarities.

There are also the little touches, such as flat-screen TVs and granite tabletops at every booth in the racebook -- the area where gamblers place bets on greyhounds and televised horse races elsewhere.

LINCOLN PARK draws most of its customers from within a 15-mile radius. Eventually, BLB hopes to attract gamblers from 50 miles away. That includes downtown Boston.

Lincoln Park draws about 10,000 visitors a day. After the expansion, BLB hopes to double that to 20,000. By comparison, Foxwoods draws about 40,000 people a day.

Billboards have gone up as far away as Fall River and Worcester promoting the park. BLB even partnered at one point with Conway Tours to run buses from Newport to the track, something they have since stopped.

"With the new ownership we have seen a very aggressive new strategy in their advertising and marketing," Newport Grand co-owner and CEO Diane S. Hurley said this winter.

To help lure gamblers, BLB has launched a new players club, which rewards gamblers for time spent at the track. The club is similar to frequent flier programs and is widely used by casinos elsewhere.

Patrons are mailed coupons giving them $5 for just walking through the door again, and $5 in food discounts, show tickets and various gifts including a free set of plates. For the Fourth of July, they gave away star-spangled T-shirts.

While at the greyhound track, they can dine on $8.95 prime rib specials.

Larger prizes have included a Mustang convertible, a new pickup truck and a year's salary.

Since BLB took over in July, the players' club has gone from 25,000 members to about 80,000.

One of the more controversial promotions this year targeted riders of the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority, creating a fleet of specially painted "fun buses" that stop at the track.

Eventually, players will be rewarded for how much money they gamble. Wolman said Lincoln Park is partnering with downtown Providence hotels and it is not hard to imagine Lincoln Park's top players possibly earning a free hotel room at Atlantis in the Bahamas. A trip there is already one of the prizes.

THE RENOVATIONS are necessary for another reason: people want something new.

"You have to keep bringing out new and better and making it more attractive," said Gerald S. Aubin, who oversees the Rhode Island Lottery, which includes the video slots. "Entertainment. Entertainment. Entertainment. People are not going to spend their hard-earned dollars if they don't find something new and better."

"We have to come up with new ways to attract players and patrons to those facilities because there's a point of saturation," he added. "I don't want to say we've maximized our ability, but we need to come up with new means."

Call it the TV factor.

"It's a television show. That's all it is. It's entertainment and it's getting old," Aubin said. "Even Seinfeld ran its course."

To ensure that Lincoln Park spent the necessary millions to upgrade the track, the General Assembly and Governor Carcieri last year struck a deal with BLB.

The track got to add 1,750 slot machines to the 3,002 that were already there and had its tax rate locked in for 18 years. In exchange, BLB promised to spend at least $125 million in capital improvements to the aging facility. The project cost has now grown to $200 million. The project should be completed in the beginning of next year.

So is the new Lincoln Park working?

That still remains to be seen.

January was a very successful month for the track. Slot revenue was up 21 percent from the prior January.

But as the expansion project hit full steam in the spring, attendance dropped. Parking lots were moved or eliminated and patrons had to navigate a maze of Jersey barriers. The number of parking spaces fell from 3,500 to 2,800. On some weekend nights, the parking lot was full but only 70 percent of the slot machines were occupied.

Slot revenues fell 9.5 percent in May, compared to last year.

"We kind of pushed the envelope with our customers," Wolman acknowledged.

Parking spaces have since been added and business appears to be rebounding.

Overall, for the year Lincoln Park's revenue was up 6 percent. Across the state at the other slot hall the picture is bleaker: Newport Grand's revenue was down 2.3 percent. This is the first year since video slot machines debuted in 1993 that any facility had a year worse than the prior one.

Newport Grand is working on a minor expansion. There are larger renovation plans, but they have not moved forward as the facility is up for sale. Hurley, one of the owners, has refused to comment on the sale, but one prospective buyer is O'Neill Properties Group, owner of the exclusive Carnegie Abbey club in Portsmouth.

Statewide, slot revenues only grew 4.3 percent -- the first year of single-digit growth.

Aubin attributes the slow down to rising gas prices.

"Gas prices have gone extremely high," he said, "taking away some of that disposable income."

smayerow@projo.com / (401) 277-7513