Law of Attractions

June 2007 Special Sections

Keno, slot machines, video poker, blackjack. If it has bells and lights and pays out cash, it’s a casino attraction. Or if it has four suits and face cards and pays out cash, it’s a casino attraction.

But gambling isn’t the only feature that makes a casino attraction, well, a casino attraction. Minnesota’s legalized gaming establishments are finding new ways to keep the cash customers on their doorstep—with or maybe even without dropping so much as a ten spot in the gaming halls.

It works for the casinos. And it works for Aric Dols. Last fall, Dols, who lives in Rogers, discovered good reasons to spend time around a casino—seventy of them, actually. Do the math: Fifty-two for every card in the deck of cards at Dols’ private poker table at Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel in Morton, plus eighteen more—one for every hole at the nearby, highly regarded Dacotah Ridge Golf Club.

Dols and seven of his friends loaded up their cars and spent a late-August weekend at the southwestern Minnesota casino, which is located 110 miles west of Minneapolis. The group played two rounds of golf and participated in its very own Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament—all part of the Golf and Getaway Poker Packages offered at Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel/Dacotah Ridge, which the casino started last year. The packages became so popular that Jackpot Junction decided to offer expanded ones to customers this year.

And Jackpot Junction is not alone when it comes to offering new attractions—Minnesota casinos prove that there is more to gaming operations than gambling. From new spas to world-class theaters, casinos up the ante to draw people to their locations.

Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel
Two days of top-notch golf book ended a successful session at the casino for Dols and his friends. Dols says he broke even, and his group probably came out ahead overall on its Golf and Getaway weekend.

The centerpiece of the package is Dacotah Ridge Golf Club. The course’s design, conceived by noted golf architect Rees Jones, reflects its Minnesota-prairie setting, and the course itself is ranked by Golfweek magazine as the third-best public course in Minnesota. Dols called the golf course one of the top five he has played, and he praised the Dacotah Ridge staff for helping set up closest-to-the-pin and other contests for his golf-and-poker group.

Dacotah Ridge golf professional Peter Kurvers came up with the original idea for the golf-and-poker getaways. He says the packages are geared toward groups of eight to sixteen and vary in cost from $244 per person for the weekday Golf and Poker Getaway to $341 per person for the Perfect Golf Weekend Getaway, which includes three days of golf, two nights’ lodging, and five meals. Another new option is the Women’s Getaway Weekend package, which includes golf, shopping in downtown Morton, and a tour and wine-tasting at Fieldstone Vineyard.

At the gaming tables, Jackpot Junction set up a private Texas Hold ’Em tournament for Dols’s group, which included a personal, club-provided dealer and a $40 buy-in with all of the money going toward the payout. They were so impressed with the weekend that they plan to do a repeat trip this year. “We loved it,” he says. “They were very accommodating for us.”

Fortune Bay Resort Casino
Location, location, location. Maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Otherwise, how can you explain why one of Minnesota’s farther-removed casino complexes, at least from the Twin Cities’ point of view, is also one of its fastest growing?

Well, maybe it really is all about location.

“Our slogan is ‘A few miles north of ordinary,’ and for us that refers to our location,” says Bob Villebrun, marketing and communications director at Fortune Bay, located near the Iron Range town of Tower, which is 220 miles northeast of Minneapolis.

There is a duality to Fortune Bay that works to its advantage. Though it is a three-and-a half-hour drive from the Twin Cities, visitors are offered a sense of escape to the deep Northwoods on the shore of Lake Vermilion, which is one of the state’s classic recreational lakes.

Fortune Bay’s new attraction comes in the form of a $13 million expansion: It features the addition of fifty-eight hotel rooms including high-end suites and renovation throughout the property; are all scheduled to be completed this month. The project was helpful for Fortune Bay, which experienced 10,657 lost room nights based on the number of people turned away from the hotel during peak season according to a consulting firm’s report in 2004.
As with Jackpot Junction, golf has been a major draw for Fortune Bay. The Wilderness at Fortune Bay opened to rave reviews in 2004 and continues to rake in awards such as Best New Upscale Public Course (Golf Digest, 2006) and Best Course You Can Play in 2007 (Golfweek). The course is the third within a thirty-mile radius designed by Jeff D. Brauer giving the Texas-based architect the Triple Crown jewels of northeastern Minnesota Golf: The Wilderness, plus The Legend and The Quarry courses at Giants Ridge near Biwabik.

Villebrun says The Wilderness’ golf getaway packages, which start at $191.60 for a one-night play and stay, makes Fortune Bay Resort Casino a location worth considering for a nice weekend away.