Poker club nears opening in Orange City
ORANGE CITY — The owners of the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room are opening a card room and off-track betting club in a renovated old West Volusia movie theater by Feb. 1 and are hiring.
In addition to opening the Orange City Racing & Card Club, the multi-billion dollar corporation will also be changing the name of its Daytona Beach operation to Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club — to align the two facilities' identities and market them, said Fred Guzman, general manager of the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room.
The opening of another location will not disrupt services in Daytona Beach. No games or services will be moved from the Daytona operation to the one in Orange City, Guzman said.
"As far as the games and services, nothing is changing at the Daytona Beach location," Guzman said. "It will be two different locations but the services will be the same."
The Orange City Racing & Card Club will cater to poker aficionados who also like to bet on horse and dog racing while having a meal in a sports bar and grill. It will open in a remodeled Marketplace 8 Cinema at the corner of Saxon Boulevard and Enterprise Road.
Delaware North, the Buffalo, New York-based corporation, is the owner. The company will create at least 150 jobs and bring new life to an up-and-down shopping plaza, Guzman said.
The $6.1 million renovation in Orange City will add 33 poker tables, a restaurant and a bar where people can bet on simulcast horse racing or greyhound racing. Adorned by 75-inch television sets, the venue will also feature beer on tap that's 29 degrees cold.
“This plaza was a plaza in decline,” Guzman said during a tour of the future poker room.
ORANGE CITY BUZZ
Bethune-Cookman University will host a hiring fair for the Orange City poker room from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday at its Deltona campus, 1555 Saxon Blvd.
Samantha Avallone, who works at P.J.'s Diner in the Marketplace shopping center, said her boyfriend plans to apply for a job at the poker room.
“I think it’s great that there’s going to be more jobs available to people around here because it is hard finding a job, especially in this plaza,” she said. “This plaza used to be extremely popular and I think it’s going to help it get back to that.”
The manager of the diner, Doreen Avallone, said a lot of the steady customers at the restaurant are planning on going to the card room.
"I've got somebody counting down the weeks," she said.
The diner might even extend its hours from breakfast and lunch to add nights if the card room works out well, she added.
"It is exciting for the city as far as bringing jobs and tax revenues and giving people a new entertainment venue to go to," Mayor Gary Blair said.
Greg Wheatley, a 68-year-old DeBary resident who eats at P.J.'s Diner regularly, said he does not gamble but thinks the project is great as it gives people something to do and creates jobs.
"They'll get a lot of people that usually go to bingo," he said.
PLUSES AND MINUSES
But Lauren LaGue, a 26-year-old Orange City resident, predicted the project will "just draw more bad people in here trying to win some money."
In March, the City Council considered the project during an hour-long public comment session where a large group of supporters spoke for the project while some religious leaders voiced concerns.
Advocates' argument for job creation and the desire to revitalize the Marketplace plaza, a sprawling complex, won the green light in a 5-1 vote.
Guzman said the card room will make a declining shopping square safer since the business will provide security and surveillance for customers.
“What we think we can do is we can be an anchor for this plaza to revitalize it, to bring traffic to the plaza and really to provide a boost for the local economy,” Guzman said.
Employees will earn an average of $41,000 a year. Overall, the business will pump an estimated $6 million annually into the economy of Orange City, as it will market its services to Orlando and surrounding areas, Guzman said.
“It’s going to be a huge impact once you consider the annual salaries as well as taxes,” Guzman said. “It’s a shot in the arm for this economy.”
The remodel has also created 35 construction jobs. The club is in the process of hiring workers for the club.
"We are going to need at least 100 poker dealers to operate and we will need servers, cocktail waitresses, guest service managers," Guzman said. "We are using Facebook, our website, agencies like Career Choice, Daytona State College, just reaching out to let people know of employment opportunities here."
