The iconic 36-story guitar-shaped tower has continued to glow every night during the coronavirus crisis, but the slot machines have been dark and silent inside the newly-renovated Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood.

Unlike most of its casino cousins in Las Vegas, parking at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa is free. It wasn’t always this way. In August of 2016, the Seminole Hard Rock began charging guests $10 to park, with a complicated list of requirements for free validation based on shopping or restaurant spend and play in the casino.

Among the hardest-hit tourism industries during the pandemic is the gaming industry, which affected 246 Native American tribes with more than 500 gaming facilities in 29 states, including the Seminole and Miccosukee hotels and casinos in South Florida.

About 1,500 gamers turned up Sunday for the reopening of Miami’s Miccosukee Resort and Gaming under strict health guidelines. Those included temperature checks for all guests and employees, mandatory masks, every third slot machine on with two between off to ensure social distance, and disinfectant wipe stations throughout the facility.

1. Located in the rear of the newly expanded casino area, Cipresso I is adjacent to Rise Kitchen & Deli offering a variety of seating options from comfortable family-style dining to cozy booths.
2. As Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood’s $1.5 billion expansion comes to life, guests can begin to see the new contemporary aesthetic throughout the property. The latest addition is the opening of the new Center Bar. The elevated showpiece bar features 125 seats, video poker machines and a DJ on weekends.

“We were able to open our doors early by meeting what we call all the steps of safety for all of us. And yet we have a long way to go. We’re not out of it,” Billy Cypress, chairman of the tribe, said Wednesday at a press conference outside of Miccosukee Resort & Gaming, 500 SW 177th Ave.

Some areas remain closed: hotel, valet services, Bingo, poker, Empeeke Aaweeke International Buffet, Bravo Bravissimo, Café Hammock, Cypress Lounge, Martini Bar, Pa-Hay Okee Salon Spa, Club Egret and the teen arcade.

The scenario will be much the same Thursday night, when Seminole Hard Rock Tampa reopens. “Safe and Sound” rules there include temperature checks, mandatory masks, alternating slot machines, and Plexiglass barriers dividing players and dealers at poker and table games.

There are no confirmed reopening dates for any of the Seminole Tribe’s three Broward casino complexes – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Seminole Casino Coconut Creek and Seminole Classic Casino Hollywood. The Seminole-owned Billie Swamp Safari and Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum also remain closed.

The Magic City Casino remains closed, but Jai Alai there resumed on May 1 with no fans. Games are streamed online.

Jim Allen, the CEO of Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International, told Fox Business last week that he expected their Florida casinos to open “end of May or early June”.

The closures of tribal casinos alone took a estimated $4.4 billion bite out of casino revenues and left 296,000 people out of work. That means $997 million in lost wages, and $721 million in lost taxes and revenue sharing received by federal, state, and local governments, according to Alan Meister, the CEO and Prime Economist at California-based Meister Economic Consulting, which analyzes the gaming industry and Indian gaming.

Meanwhile, the Seminole Tribe’s long-running gaming compact dispute with the State of Florida remains in limbo until the legislature is back in session. In May 2019, the Seminole Tribe discontinued sharing revenue generated by its six casinos, arguing the state was in violation of the deal that gave the state at least $1 billion over five years. A subsequent, 2015 deal by then-Gov. Rick Scott (R) would have brought the state $3 billion over a seven-year period, but no arrangement has been finalized.

“These closures continue to cause significant detriment to Native American tribes, many of which rely heavily on gaming related revenue to pay for tribal government operations infrastructure, and social and economic programs and services for a Native American population that is already substantially disadvantaged,” said Meister.

South Florida is feeling its share of the pain. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood employs more than 4,000 people, most of whom were furloughed when the complex closed March 20. Seminole Gaming extended employee healthcare benefits, continued salary payments for two weeks and twice distributed $100 grocery gift cards to workers who make less than $50,000 a year, according to Gary Bitner, whose public relations firm represents the Seminole Tribe of Florida and its Florida casinos.

Between the Seminole Gaming entities and the Hard Rock holdings, the enterprise in a normal year brings in about $5 billion in annual revenue, according to Allen. The two biggest properties in Florida — Hollywood and Tampa — are among the five most profitable casinos in the country.

The company’s $2.2 billion expansions of the Tampa and Hollywood properties opened in late-2019 and significantly bumped revenue and growth during the quarters ending Dec. 31, 2019 and March 31, 2020. Those results should help Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International withstand the crisis in the long run, said an April 13 report by Fitch Ratings, one of the nation’s top credit ratings agencies.

The two enterprises saw their Fitch Ratings dropped from “Stable” to “Negative” in mid-April due to the pandemic. “Seminole’s Outlook revision to Negative reflects the tribe’s exposure to the adverse impact to the gaming industry from the coronavirus pandemic and, to a lesser extent, the broader restaurant and leisure industries,” said the Fitch report. “All of the tribe’s casinos are currently closed with uncertain timelines for opening” but “SHRE (Seminole Hard Rock Enterprises) also has sufficient cash on hand to weather the near-term cash burn without the need for additional liquidity,” the firm wrote.

“Fitch views STOF (Seminole Tribe of Florida’s) expansion in Tampa and Hollywood favorably, given the strength in the underlying operating environment and benefits to the company’s competitive positioning.”

As of May 18, 54 tribal casinos had re-opened in 14 states — Idaho, Oklahoma, Washington, Texas, Arizona, California, North Dakota, Michigan, Florida, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Carolina and Oregon.

Said Meister, “It’s a two-edged sword because the casinos want to open as soon as possible to start generating revenue, but you want to do it safely and make your customers feel comfortable and that they’re going to want to come back out. It’s going to take time. There definitely is some pent-up demand. We’ve seen lines at some facilities when they re-opened. But some people won’t want to go out yet.”

He said the Seminole tribe is “a fairly large gaming tribe, very well known for acquiring the Hard Rock brand and being able to operate not just gaming, but non-gaming businesses around the world that Hard Rock has, so they’re pretty experienced in operating gaming and hospitality.”

Allen feels confident the Seminole gaming facilities have the space and capacity to create a safe environment, and he expects there will be pent-up demand. Seminole Hard Rock Tampa is the first of six Seminole Gaming casinos to reopen in Florida.

“We’re anticipating very large crowds,” Allen said. “We saw some openings last week in other parts of the United States, and frankly, volumes are tremendous. We will be prepared for that. The max capacity we will allocate is 50 percent as we navigate safety for our guests and employees.

“But we’re more concerned about third quarter, fourth quarter, first quarter of next year because I think after the initial pent-up demand is behind us, then the question is, `What’s the frequency and available discretionary income to come to an entertainment facility.”

Allen added that Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming are fully committed to providing a safe environment for their staff and guests: “We are making sure our resorts are safe and sound so our guests and team members have peace of mind when they return.”

While the Seminole gaming facilities were hemorrhaging money, the Tribe worked hard to control the virus within its community.

There were just three confirmed cases out of more than 4,300 members of the Tribe, and all three already recovered, according to Bitner. Across Indian Country, more than 5,200 cases were confirmed, according to the New York Times, and the Navajo Nation this week surpassed New York and New Jersey for the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. The Navajo population is 173,667 and they have 4,002 cases.

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Grand opening dates have been announced for the combined $2.2 billion expansions of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, where the world’s first guitar hotel and casino complex is on track to open Thursday, Oct. 24. It follows the Thursday, Oct. 3, grand opening of a major expansion of Florida’s largest casino, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

The expansion projects are underway at the two Four Diamond flagship casino-resorts of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which owns Hard Rock International and operates both entertainment destinations as part of its hugely successful Seminole Gaming business.

Emblematicof the Hard Rock International brand, the $1.5 billion expansion of theSeminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood includes an iconic guitar hotelthat can be seen for miles. Like abeacon, it stretches 450 feet into the South Florida sky and is already generatingglobal interest as an integrated resort destination that rivals the world’smost iconic landmarks.

“The guitartower will attract casino players and other visitors from throughout thecountry and around the world,” said Hard Rock International Chairman andSeminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen. “It willput South Florida on the map as a world-class gaming destination, and it willhave a huge economic impact on Florida. The gaming industry will never be the same.”

Research Forecasts the Creation of 19,000Additional Direct and Indirect Jobs

Allen points to economic research that predicts the creation of 19,000 direct and indirect jobs, including construction jobs, as part of the expansion projects in Hollywood and Tampa, where more than $700 million is being invested by Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International. Aggressive global marketing of the expansions will draw hundreds of thousands of new visitors to Florida, further boosting the state’s current record-setting tourism results.

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa – Coming Fall 2019

SeminoleHard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, one of the largest and most successfulcasinos in the world, plans a series of opening reveals throughout the summer,leading up to a grand opening on Thursday, Oct. 3.

The $700million expansion includes a new 14-story hotel tower with 562 guestrooms andsuites, three ultra-lavish pools and extensive gaming space. The casino complex has already completedexpansions to its state-of-the-art Poker Room, Mezzanine Level Casino/Rock Walkand Orient Road Garage. It will also unveil a new Rock Spa® & Salon, newfood and beverage options, retail stores, Hard Rock Event Center and a new arrivalexperience.

Three newoutdoor swimming pools are located on the second level of the expanded hoteland casino complex. With a total of 200,000 gallons of water to float, soak andsplash around in, a 60,000-square-foot expanded pool and deck area will feature20 cabanas, 700 lounges and daybeds, two DJ booths and more.

Thecompleted 245,000-square-foot casino includes an additional 1,000 slots and 41table games throughout its new gaming spaces, bringing the completed gamingexperience to nearly 5,000 slots, 179 tables and a state-of-the-art poker roomwith 46 poker tables. For the ultimate VIP experience, a high floor of the newhotel tower will feature a private gaming parlor for VIP guests, with anexclusive check-in and private elevators to rock star suites.

Restaurants Inside Hard Rock Casino Tampa Florida

Hard RockInternational acquired Elvis Presley’s 24-karat gold leaf plated 1928 KimballPiano Company Grand Piano in 2015 as its 80,000^th piece ofmemorabilia. The piano was originallypurchased in 1955 by Presley as a gift for his mother, Gladys. Following herdeath in 1958, the piano was placed in storage, then resurrected by Elvis’ wifePriscilla Presley in 1968 in celebration of their first anniversary, when thegold leaf finish was added. The piano will be on permanent display in the GrandEntrance of the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.

Continuingto elevate its music and entertainment programming, a Hard Rock Event Center withseating for 2,000 guests is set to open on the second level of the casinocomplex. A companion 17,000-square-foot grand ballroom will host conventions,trade shows, private events, large-scale poker tournaments and concerts, including60 major entertainment acts each year.

Theexpanded, 26,000-square-foot Rock Spa® & Salon will feature 13 treatmentrooms, including a Rhythm & Motion room, Hammam, and two VIP suites, plus ahair and nail salon, barber shop, and co-ed aqua lounge.

Uponcompletion, a total of 14 restaurants and bars will keep hungry hearts happy,including the addition of Constant Grind, a casual sit down or grab and go hotspot for coffee, gelato, pastries, and more, the Pool Bar & Grill, anupbeat, full service restaurant presenting stellar views from the center of thehotel’s three pools, and an Italian fine dining concept that will furtherelevate the property to true culinary destination status in the Tampa Bay area.

Restaurants Inside Hard Rock Casino Tampa Fl

An upscalewine and spirits experience will join the retail offerings at Seminole HardRock Tampa, presenting the opportunity to enjoy wine by the glass and samplefeatured wines available for purchase. Additionalretail concepts will feature jewelry, cosmetics, and men’s and women’s fashions.

Rooms in theexpanded Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa are available to book nowfor resort stays beginning in mid-July.

Architect ofrecord for the expanded Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa is KlaiJuba Wald of Las Vegas. Interiors design is led by Wimberly Interiors, NewYork. Landscape designers are EDSA of Fort Lauderdale.

Restaurants Inside Hard Rock Casino Tampa Beach

For moreinformation, visit www.seminolehardrocktampa.com.