Saracen Casino Resort Expansion Continues After NIL Pitch Strikes Out

Posted on: March 8, 2025, 11:33h. 

Last updated on: March 8, 2025, 11:33h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Saracen Casino Resort is amid a renovation
  • Saracen sought iGaming this year for NIL programs
  • An NIL remains active

Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff, AR, is undergoing a $250 million expansion that will bring a hotel and event center to the Arkansas Delta property owned by the Quapaw Nation.

Saracen Casino Resort Arkansas NIL
Construction continues at Saracen Casino Resort in Arkansas. The $250 million project is more than halfway complete. (Image: Saracen Casino Resort)

Last August, Saracen announced the quarter of a billion-dollar development highlighted by a 13-story, 321-room hotel and 84,000-square-foot event center capable of seating 1,600 attendees. Officials with the project told THT11, a local CBS affiliate in Little Rock, that construction is nearing 60% completion.

Saracen was authorized through Issue 4, a statewide ballot referendum passed by voters in November 2018 to allow casinos in Crittenden, Garland, Pope, and Jefferson counties. The casino is named after a French-Quapaw man by the same name who witnessed the removal of the native Arkansas people to Indian territory in the early 1880s.

After the 2018 vote, Jefferson County government officials partnered with the Quapaw Nation, which is today based in Oklahoma, to develop and run its casino destination. In the tribe’s native language, the word “Quapaw” means “downstream people” to honor their ancestors who moved down the Mississippi River while the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, and Kansa moved upstream.

Oaklawn Turf War

The casinos endorsed through the 2018 vote for Crittenden and Garland allowed the Southland greyhound track in West Memphis and Oaklawn horse race track in Hot Springs to transition from racinos offering electronic skill games to full-fledged casinos with slots, live dealer table games, and sports betting. Racing has ceased at Southland, though live racing at Oaklawn remains. Both facilities offer simulcast parimutuel wagering.

Southland is owned and operated by New York-based gaming and hospitality giant Delaware North. Oaklawn is owned by the Oaklawn Jockey Club, Inc., which the Cella family controls.

Oaklawn and Saracen have butt heads in recent months after the Quapaw Nation proposed a scheme to help raise money for name, image, and likeness (NIL) programs at Arkansas universities and colleges. Oaklawn is opposed to any form of online gaming aside from sports betting on the belief that it would hurt foot traffic at its casino.

NIL has become vital to college athletics after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that student-athletes can profit from the use of their name, image, and likeness.

Last November, Rep. RJ Hawk (R-Bryant) filed House Bill 1044 — the Arkansas Sports Raffle Act. The statute sought to allow qualifying college and university athletic departments to conduct online raffles to raise money for their NIL programs. The measure, however, prohibited “a casino licensee or an agent of a casino licensee” from acting as a third-party operator or administrator of the raffle.

Saracen opined that if the state wishes to allow online raffles for the benefit of NIL, lawmakers should allow casinos to conduct the operations, as they already have geolocation technologies in place for mobile sports betting. Saracen additionally opined that if Arkansas’ goal is to raise as much NIL money as possible, Little Rock might as well go ahead and allow iGaming, or online slots and interactive table games, and designate that tax revenue for college athletes. 

NIL Bill Remains 

HB1044 ultimately failed. Hawk wasn’t done, however, as he filed House Bill 1634.

The new legislation would still authorize online raffles for the benefit of colleges but would allow casinos to participate. Last Wednesday, HB1634 passed the House Rules Committee.

Saracen isn’t as enthusiastic about the bill because Arkansas Amendment 84, which allows for bingo and raffles, mandates that the funds raised “cannot compensate in any manner any person who works for or is any way affiliated with the authorized bingo and raffles organization.”

Hawk contends that student-athletes are not university employees and therefore Amendment 84 allows for NIL fundraising. Saracen spokesperson, Chief Marketing Officer Carton Saffa, says HB1634 might help raise general funds for universities but cannot support NIL programs because of Amendment 84.