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Canadian Casino Fights to Regain American Customers

"Downtown Detroit looms large across the Detroit River, scarcely a mile from the casino's front entrance. Yet the short trip to Windsor offers Americans the mild thrill of going to a foreign country where signs are in French as well as English, and each dollar buys almost 1.6 Canadian dollars. Thanks to such bait, Americans have typically made up more than 80 percent of Casino Windsor's 13,000 daily visitors.

"But on Sept. 11, Casino Windsor's biggest asset suddenly became its biggest liability.

"`It hit us that afternoon,' said Robert Yee, the casino's chief executive. The crowds had thronged the casino's 3,300 slot machines that morning, but `as they left to go home, there was no one coming in' Mr. Yee said.

"Then, after the immediate shock of the terrorist attacks abated, it became clear that the casino faced a huge new obstacle in attracting business from across the border: stringent and time-consuming customs and immigration formalities.

"…Many gamblers decided to place their bets at one of the three casinos that have opened in Detroit in the last three years and have struggled to match Casino Windsor's popularity.

"All three of them — the MGM Grand Detroit Casino, owned by MGM Mirage the MotorCity Casino, a joint venture of the Mandalay Resort Group and a group of local investors; and the Greektown Casino, owned by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians — are housed in temporary quarters, each about three-quarters the size of Casino Windsor.

"…Business at Casino Windsor was down about 70 percent in the days just after the terrorist attacks. According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, the casino's revenues fell to 135 million Canadian dollars ($84.6 million) in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from 170 million Canadian dollars in the previous three months.

"…As the American and Canadian authorities funneled extra resources into the checkpoints, transit times at the border were back to 15 to 20 minutes — close to normal — within a month or so of the terrorist attacks. Still, Mr. Yee said, `we had to dispel the myth that it was a two- or three-hour wait.'

"…Mr. Yee has also mounted an aggressive marketing drive in the United States. Weekend room rates at the hotel were cut for a time from $175 to $99 a night. The price of a prix fixe restaurant meal was chopped by a third. The casino has spent an extra $2.5 million a month on `cash back' promotions, which reward the frequent use of slot machines.

"Casino Windsor has also extended its advertising campaigns to Ohio, Indiana and Toronto, reasoning that the farther visitors travel, the longer they are likely to stay.

…According to Mr. Yee, business is back to 85 percent of what it was before Sept. 11.

"Despite the recovery, and continuing gains, Mr. Yee acknowledged that the casino was still trailing two of its three Detroit rivals in market share. From now on, he said, the border `is always going to be an issue that we have to deal with."

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