By Kellah Lavoie

Casino opens expansion

Jan 14, 2011 | 10:32 AM

It’s breath of fresh air for patrons of the Northern Lights Casino.

Today, they opened the new expansion of the building with a leather cutting ceremony.

Zane Hansen, Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority president and CEO, said the 4,500 square foot expansion will be for people who smoke, making the rest of the building a clean air facility.

“The expansion, it has special HVAC units in it and it will keep air quality clean and that will be the designated area where patrons who wish to smoke, they can do that and play at the same time,” he said.

“The existing floor that we have all come to know over the years, this goes all totally non-smoking.”

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The new addition started about a year ago with the planning stages, and it is only phase one of the renovation. The casino plans on updating the older playing floor – it should be completed in the spring.

“Prince Albert and the North has been so good to us and our customer base here, and it was time to reinvest and get that much better of a playing experience offered up for them,” Hansen said.

He said they’ve received some complaints about smoking in the casino in the past. It is the first of the original SIGA casinos to have new ventilation system – the three new facilities had them installed while being built.

Hanson said they want to keep their patrons happy.

“The facility here, particularly in the busy times got very, very crowded and we also wanted to improve the air quality. You always want to give your customers just a real great environment to come and enjoy our product in,” he said.

The cost of the project came to $3.5 million. It includes 205 new slot machines and upgrades to the Starlight Lounge.

klavoie@panow.com