Orange City Racing & Card Club antes up
ORANGE CITY — With a loud swish from a large red and silver pair of scissors Wednesday, Orange City Mayor Gary Blair declared open the Orange City Racing & Card Club.
The card and betting business brings with it the expected revival of a shopping plaza at Saxon Boulevard and Enterprise Road that has declined over the years, Blair said. A $6.1 million venture of Delaware North, a Buffalo, New York-based corporation, will create revenue for the city but most importantly, jobs, the mayor said.
"It's very significant. They've taken this blighted shopping center and put new life into it," Blair said. "These businesses will soon fill up here with opportunities for different businesses that will help serve the customers of this business as well as others."
The Orange City Racing & Card Club opened in a remodeled former Marketplace 8 Cinema at the corner of Saxon Boulevard and Enterprise Road.
Poker games began shortly before noon after a short delay following the ribbon-cutting outside the club, which includes a restaurant branded as Jake's 29 Degrees Bar & Grill featuring beer on tap that's 29 degrees. Patrons can bet on simulcast horse and greyhound racing, and the business has 33 poker tables. Multiple 75-inch television sets line the walls of the restaurant and bar.
"We wanted to build a place that the community would be proud of," said Fred Guzman, president and general manager of the Daytona Beach/Orange City Racing & Card Club.
Several customers said the Orange City location is convenient because they won't have to make the drive to Daytona Beach. But Guzman said that both the east and west sides of Volusia County have grown in leaps and bounds, so he expects business to be good.
"I expect that there will be plenty of customers both for Daytona and Orange City," Guzman said, adding the Orange City location also caters to the Orlando market.
The grand opening was greeted with excitement by poker players and guests who gathered to see the ribbon cutting, tour the business and taste finger foods and sample the cold beer.
Bill Hasty of Orange City has been playing poker for 66 years. He said he has been by the poker room more than a dozen times watching its progress and was happy it's finally open.
"I live three miles from here so I don't have to drive to Daytona," said Hasty, who plays poker at least three times a week. "Just the social aspect of it is tremendously appealing to me."
For others like Larry Devore of Orange City the glamor of the poker room lies more in the wager room where the races are simulcast.
"I play the dogs," said Devore. "This is a very convenient. I only live one mile from here."
"I can drive my golf cart here," said Bob Toth, a retired steel mill worker and a poker player of 60 years.
Businesses around the shopping plaza are also hoping to enjoy a share of the annual $6 million economic pie the poker room is expected to pump into the local economy. Tony Benitez, chef of PJ's Diner, bore witness.
"It's already started. We had an open house and we already had a good lunch pop yesterday with them," Benitez said. "We are excited. Hopefully everything will move up for PJ's diner."
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