Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- As night deepened on a summer Friday, electronic dance music pounded inside Drum Bar, a cylinder-shaped nightclub with big-window views of the Ohio River and the Pittsburgh skyline. Ayisha Morgan-Lee and Marguarite Matthews, both 28, sipped cocktails and flashed bright smiles as they laughed and shouted with friends.
A dozen yards away, on the main floor of Rivers Casino, slot machines whirred and blackjack dealers called for bets. Outside, in an amphitheater that cascades to the water's edge, a local rock band sang to gamblers and boaters alike.
Neither scene lured the young women, who were enjoying a girls' night out in their new favorite hang-out. In addition to providing gambling games, the Steel City's first and only casino offers a club scene, live bands and city views.
"Sometimes I'll play some slots, sometimes not," said Matthews, a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh. "If you're not really a gambler, you can still come here and have a good time. I think it gave people another alternative, and in a part of town we didn't used to come to."
The Rivers, a new kind of casino, attracts a new kind of customer. Young professionals and bridal parties descend on a complex built on a former steel mill just across the river from downtown, in an urban setting that defies casino-industry tradition.
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Developers in Cleveland are about to take that concept a giant step further. Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, when it opens next year, will be the only casino standing on the public square of a major American city.
Tall windows, lined with gold fabric panels, will look out on Ontario Street and Prospect Avenue. Antique revolving doors that once spun Higbee shoppers will empty onto sidewalks that reach the restaurants of East Fourth Street and the nightclubs of the Warehouse District.
An area of the city that people really don't go to at night, Public Square, stands to become a bright, busy, 24-hour crossroads.
Executives of Rock Gaming LLC and its partner, Caesars Entertainment Corp., promise a casino that connects to the surrounding city and to a degree seldom seen before. They plan to partner with nearby restaurants and hotels for amenities their casino will purposely lack, sending people outside to dine, drink and explore.
"This will be a new, groundbreaking concept," said Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner and Rock Gaming principal Dan Gilbert. "We believe in it. We believe in it deeply."
Gilbert said he learned from watching Detroit's experience that casinos disconnected from their neighborhood lack something special. He said he wants Horseshoe Cleveland to attract not only gamblers but also the young professionals who are leaving the area for brighter lights.
"We hope to create a real excitement downtown," he said. "And just create some optimism, which will draw even more investment."
The way to do that, Gilbert said he believes, is to design a casino that enhances the attractions around it, creating a back-and-forth synergy that no suburb can match.
Such a strategy is stoking interest and intrigue among downtown merchants, industry analysts and a key special-interest group -- avid gamblers.
A place to escape to
If there's a typical casino aficionado, Ken Jirik of Parma might fit the profile. The 52-year-old eyeglass maker is conversant with all the regional casinos within striking distance of casino-free Ohio: Mountaineer in West Virginia, Seneca-Niagara in Buffalo, Caesars Windsor in Ontario, Canada.
Once a year, he and his wife, Linda, a nurse, fly to Las Vegas for a four- or five-night vacation. They'll catch a show. They'll dine in style. Mostly, Jirik will gamble. He might spend 17 hours of a 24-hour day playing casino games.
"To me, it's very relaxing," Jirik said. "You forget everything else. I've tried telling this to people who have never been to Las Vegas. It's like a different planet. Nothing back home exists."
Two tactics help Jirik afford his passion. He sticks to a daily loss limit. And he employs the players' cards that casinos use to buy loyalty.
Jirik holds a Caesars gold card, placing him in the lowest and most popular tier of the casino giant's Total Rewards program. Every time he swipes his card at a slot machine or a craps table, he earns points that translate into discounts on meals in Caesars restaurants and free rooms in Caesars hotels.
"They comp my meals and I always get the four nights for free," he said. "I like the perks."
Horseshoe Cleveland is counting on that.
Marcus Glover, the man with the Cleveland gaming plan, stood at Ontario Street and Public Square on a recent morning and surveyed his coming domain. Inside the old Higbee's department store, a hard-hatted army was busy constructing a four-level, $400 million permanent casino that is expected to one day connect to a larger complex overlooking the Cuyahoga River.
When it opens next year, phase one of Horseshoe Cleveland will notably not include a full-service restaurant, a hotel, stages for live shows, elegant shops or other features common to modern-day casinos. Those omissions portend a new business strategy and a new kind of casino experience.
Glover, the casino's general manager, said a grand buffet and two modest bars will not be enough to satisfy the 100,000 gamblers he expects to attract weekly. But he noted he was standing two blocks from East Fourth Street, within walking distance of five steakhouses, and next door to Tower City Center.
"It's a walkable city. You have probably 30 restaurants right down here. The Rock Hall is north," he said, looking across Public Square."It's not just about coming to the casino," he said. " It's about the total experience." And we have to facilitate the partnerships to make that happen."
Glover envisions a fleet of casino buses shuttling visitors to and from downtown attractions, PlayhouseSquare and maybe Tremont. He said Public Square will become one of the safest places in town, well-lighted and watched by both city police and casino security.
To insure connections between his customers and nearby businesses, Glover holds a trump card. It's that gold card that Ken Jirik carries in his wallet.
Playing the loyalty card
Like other Caesars casinos, Horseshoe Cleveland will be connected to the Total Rewards network, the largest players club in the world and one with a huge local following. Within 100 miles of Public Square, according to Caesars Entertainment, live 200,000 card-carrying members.
Caesars intends to make the player cards count at nearby businesses. Conceivably, a visitor to Horseshoe Cleveland could enjoy a discounted dinner at Morton's steakhouse, tickets to a show at the Palace and a comped room at the Ritz.
The mechanics of forming local partnerships "are a bit complicated" Glover said, and discussions with downtown restaurateurs and hoteliers have just begun. But it's a strategy pioneered with some success at the Caesars-owned casino in New Orleans, Glover said.
View full sizeErich Schaefer, of New Kensington, Pa., left, and Jason Hazlewood, of Pittsburgh, wait for the next hand during a busy night in the poker room at the Rivers Casino.He expects the strategy to work even better in Cleveland. In fact, his success depends upon it.
"We don't have a lot of amenities we can offer our customers," Glover said. "When we say we're going to be connected, that's real."
The prospects of a friendly casino steering customers to their doors is buoying the spirits of downtown business owners, who had reason to worry.
Modern-day casinos often exhibit what he calls a "bunker mentality." They are windowless boxes that keep gamblers and their money inside. Instead of boosting area commerce, critics contend, casinos suck away the customers.
Urban casinos break that pattern by reflecting the casinos of yesteryear, says Andrew Klebanow, the principal of Denver-based Gaming Market Advisors.
Klebanow is an expert on urban casinos, which are so few he can name about all of them, including Rivers, Greektown in Detroit, Harrah's New Orleans and a casino in Macau, China.
The original casinos of Nevada sent their customers outside for food and entertainment and downtown Las Vegas and Reno thrived, he said. Those downtowns faded in the 1990s, when casinos began connecting to parking garages with pedestrian bridges, adding restaurants and shops and creating the "island casinos" prevalent today.
"Now we're seeing a new era of urban casino development," said Klebanow, a former casino executive. "We're starting to realize that building places that are integrated to the surrounding community is mutually beneficial," said Klebanow, a former casino executive.
Will gamblers spread the wealth?
Nick Kostis dares to dream. His development of the Pickwick & Frolic restaurant and comedy club on East Fourth Street helped to create one of the liveliest blocks downtown.
"It's an exciting prospect, not just for us but for Cleveland," Kostis said. "We're kind of an event-driven marketplace. When there's a big game or a big play, every boat rises. But we don't have the critical mass that really makes for a big-city experience."
Casino visitors could change the local game, he said, providing a new and steady stream of customers.
Cleveland architect Jennifer Coleman is not so sure. She chairs Cleveland's Landmarks Commission and is the creator of audible Cleveland walking tours called CityProwl. Coleman notes that most casino traffic will come from highways and from the south and that gamblers can easily bypass Public Square.
"The casino, by nature, is a place that you go in and you gamble," she said. "Right now, we'll get bodies. But if they're all getting on and off of buses, will that help?"
Anthony Coyne, who is chairman of the city Planning Commission and a lawyer with an office above Public Square, expresses cautious optimism. Spillover, he thinks, is inevitable.
"They're saying 5 to 6 million people a year are going to come to this casino? If it's only 2 million, that's significant," he said. "I have to think a third of those people are going to get bored and meander out, and go to John Q's or go shopping in Tower City."
They might venture further than that. Experts say Horseshoe Cleveland is likely to tap a younger, livelier class of gambler -- people downtown for a night out.
"Urban casinos are bringing in a different kind of customer," said Klebanow, the gaming consultant, "a more entertainment-driven customer."
Off the bus, into limos
Parma Heights retirees Eugene Schroeder and Mary Simak are the kinds of gamblers regional casinos see by the busload. The couple stepped out of a Lakefront Lines tour bus in front of Greektown Casino in Detroit on a recent Friday afternoon, ready to play the slots.
"It gets me out of the house," said Schroeder. "We get on a bus, we're gone five to six hours, and we go home."
He said he'll visit a downtown Cleveland casino if a bus takes him there.
Greg and Pearl Roberts of Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood are after a little more adventure, which is why they came to Greektown. The casino anchors an old ethnic neighborhood lively with shops and restaurants on the edge of downtown.
They ride the elevated Detroit People Mover for its views of city landmarks and visit Niki's, a popular Greek restaurant.
"You can't just sit in the casino and give them your money," said Greg Roberts, a contractor. "I want to get out and see things."
At the Rivers in Pittsburgh, a crowd that seems to skew younger than Greektown creates a livelier scene.
Cut off from the downtown grid by a river, Rivers has limitations as an urban casino. Most of its customers drive in and drive away, there being little to walk to on Pittsburgh's north shore. Still, it brought new urban nightlife to a city that needed it, customers say.
"Instead of just going to a dingy bar, you can come here, meet a lot of pretty girls, and I can play cards, which is something I like," Michael Divens, a 28-year old graduate student, said between hands of Texas hold 'em.
Elle Deutsch, 26, a buyer for American Eagle, said the nearly two-year-old casino is another stop on the club circuit.
"It's nice to have something new to do," she said "It's open 24 hours, which is fun. You can come here after the bars close."
She and a dozen friends were enjoying a bachelorette party that filled a dining room with conversation and laughter. The bride-to-be, 26-year-old Kacey Wells, expressed astonishment at the setting, a private party in a bustling casino.
"This is not the kind of thing we would have planned before the casino came here," she said. "I thought the idea was so fun. You definitely get that Vegas-Atlantic City feel, but hometown."
A bit breathless, she said, "We took a limo here."