Gretna Casino One Year Later – A Look Back, and Ahead

The Creek Entertainment Gretna (CEG) is a relatively new facility also known as the Gretna Casino, which is just over one year old. The operation was the first to bring casino style gambling to the Gretna, Florida area, and is located on Interstate 10 at its intersection with State Road 12 (Exit 174). Looking back after one year of operation, you find a versatile equestrian center which has already made a respected name for itself in Northwest Florida. The Facility includes a spacious Gretna poker room, para-mutuel betting, simulcast wagering on greyhounds, horse races and Jai-Alai, and multiple retail offerings.

The Gretna Casino was finally built thanks to a partnership between three influential Northwest Florida parties. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians joined David Romanik and the City of Gretna with a dream of building a multifaceted gambling and equestrian center that would allow North Florida poker players, casino aficionados and horse lovers to save time and money if they wanted to engage in their favorite activities. Traditional Las Vegas style casino table game gambling has not yet been legalized in Gretna, but poker play has. Owner operators of the Gretna Casino are working with city and state officials to add blackjack, roulette, slots and other casino games in the future.

And for the time being, poker lovers can enjoy the world class poker room, which offers $10,000 guaranteed tournaments the first Saturday of every month at 1 PM, $100 buy-in bounty tournaments every Saturday at 7 PM, and $50 buy-in no limit Texas Hold 'Em tournaments each Friday and Saturday nights starting at 7 PM. The poker offerings include multiple daily, weekly and monthly tournaments, with a focus on Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, Crazy Pineapple and other popular poker games. A unique Player of the Month Invitational is offered, as are Bad Beat, Mini Bad Beat, Full House and High Hand rewards.

You must be 18 to play and 21 to drink alcoholic beverages in the poker room, and the simulcast Greyhound offerings have expanded significantly since the facility's grand opening. The Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach and Naples kennel clubs' daily and weekly Greyhound races are offered for your wagering enjoyment. On the equestrian side, access to all the largest horse races around the United States is available. Aqueduct, Calder and all the important horse racing courses in the United States offer daily, weekly and monthly horse races for the Gretna Casino patron to place a wager on.

Casino style gambling is likely just around the corner, as there is current legislation at the city level considering adding slot machines and other casino table game style wagering opportunities to the Gretna Casino. As soon as slots are approved in the city, CEG officials are ready to instantly add video poker, Keno, craps, blackjack, roulette and other popular casino style options for their patrons. The growth that the Gretna Casino and equestrian center has experienced in its first year of operation has been exceptional, and the future looks bright for North Florida residents looking for local casino and poker gambling, as well as horse race wagering and equestrian event spectating.