Opening them reveals an incredible view of the fabled, meticulously groomed thoroughbred racetrack. The room is modern and luxurious by my journalist-salaried standards, but what sets it apart from any other hotel room I’ve ever stayed in awaits just beyond the curtains. In 2019, the Oklahoma-based Quapaw Nation opened the Saracen Casino Annex, then followed with Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff in October 2020.

They announced multimillion dollar expansions, including live table games (to add to existing digital equivalents) and sports books, new restaurants, hotels and event centers. That made the timing right for the state’s two racing/game of skill “racinos,” Oaklawn and Southland, to make huge bets on themselves. In 2018, voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing four casinos to operate in Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson and Pope counties, forever changing the gaming landscape in Arkansas. Unfortunately, most of the time, there’s no way of knowing when the timing is going to be right until it is.

If the people at the table look like they’re in a Saracen Casino commercial, laughing and high-fiving, I boldly enter. If I walk up to the craps table and everyone looks sad and dejected, I just saunter away full of false self-confidence, pretending my hair is blowing in the casino oxygen. For me, casino gaming is all about timing.

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