Looks like the I-40 Seminole Casino will be closed for most of Thursday and then re-open in its newly expanded state “12:00 PM” on Friday, October 12:

Of course the notation “12:00 PM” is ambiguous but I am assuming noon on Friday is the time they are trying to convey.

Scuttlebutt around the casino is that there won’t be any sort of grand opening or promotions connected with the new facility. I heard “there might be something new next month, but nothing right now” several times.

If you’ve been by lately, you’ll have seen the huge new tent-like temporary structure they built for the expansion. It’s looking very nice with a huge portico and brightly colored lights playing on the highway end. However I was disappointed to notice today that more than half the old machines (the better half, for the most part) from the old casino have been removed in the last few days, and so I am presuming they have been installed in the new site. So much for my dreams of bank after bank of new machines!

Meanwhile, the existing facility is starting to feel like a store that’s 3/4ths of the way through its post-bankruptcy sale, with empty holes where banks of machines used to be and random stacks of unused casino chairs everywhere.

I also noticed that the unused ticket-changing machine (that’s been sitting there, dark, for the last three months, while people stand in line at the cashiers’ cage) is still sitting, dark, in the old casino space. I’d been hoping that they’d move it into the new facility and finally start using it! But, apparently, no such luck.