From left, Blair Christianson, Albert Stark, Mayor Ted Clugston and Jason Pechet cut the ribbon for the grand opening of Copper Coulee Casino on Thursday evening.--NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT
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Medicine Hat’s casino has a new look, a new name and is now officially reopened.
The group that purchased the casino last year announced its new name, the Copper Coulee Casino, in late December before doing small renovations to the building.
“We’re really excited to be relaunching the casino and the lounge,” said co-owner Jason Pechet. “Tonight we’re officially bringing the casino to a bit of a new generation and bringing things forward.
“We hope people come and check us out, whether they’re regulars or maybe people who haven’t been in through those doors for the past few years.”
Pechet says the new ownership group spent a long time working to purchase the casino and he’s happy to see them kicking off 2019 with a new name and colours.
“It was a really long process but it’s been worth it,” he said. “We’re pretty eager as a group to get things going and giving people a great experience.
“We’re putting the past behind and looking forward to the future of the casino.”
Other than some new logos hanging around, new colours and the name, Pechet says the group is hoping to provide more on the entertainment side of things.
“We’ve got all new furniture in the lounge,” he said. “We’re hoping to bring a bit of a new energy to the casino and to make it a fun, new place to be for everyone.
“We’ve done a lot of what we’ve wanted to do, but we hope people notice that there’s a lot more focus on entertainment — things like duelling pianos going on and other fun stuff is what we’re looking forward to.”
The casino will be moving to the Box Springs area in six years but Pechet says the group wants to make the years at the Medicine Hat Lodge as strong as possible.
“It’s going to be moving, likely to Box Springs, but we want to offer a great experience while we have this location,” he said. “You can do a lot in six years — we certainly hope to.”
Pechet says the casino will continue to do work with charitable organizations in Medicine Hat.
“We produce a huge amount of dollars for local charities and we’re proud of that,” he said. “A lot of the money spent here goes into the pockets of charities — we look forward to continuing that.”