Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa is a gaming complex and hotel that opened in 2004. It is located on the Tampa Reservation off of

Interstate 4 Interstate 4 (I-4) is an Interstate Highway located entirely within the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Spanning along a generally southwest–northeast axis, I-4 is entirely concurrent ...

, just east of

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough ...

. The 190,000 square foot casino has been expanded multiple times since its opening. It is a 24-hour venue that permits smoking indoors. It includes many displays of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm ...

memorabilia, such as clothing and musical instruments. Rock videos and music play on multiple screens, including one displayed inside a waterfall. Many song lyrics are displayed on the walls. Among its many services are a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. ...

and

tour bus A tour bus service is an escorted tour (sometimes a package holiday) or bus service that takes visitors sightseeing, with routes around tourist attractions. Information Double-decker buses and open top buses are commonly used, for provi ...

parking. Special membership cards entitled "Seminole Wild Cards" allow points accumulated by gambling to be redeemed for retail discounts, gambling playing credits, and other discounts and promotions.

History

In 1980, while excavating to build a parking garage in downtown Tampa, Indian remains were discovered. They were exhumed and relocated to of land east of Tampa, that was granted reservation status to the Seminole Tribe one year later. Taking advantage of reservation status, the tribe opened a museum, a smoke shop and a high-stakes bingo hall by 1982. Eventually a Four Points

Sheraton Hotel Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Cen ...

opened on the land, and slot machines and poker were added to games offered. In 2000, the Seminoles announced plans to rebuild the casino as a Hard Rock Casino. The Hard Rock Casino opened in 2003, with the hotel opening the following year. Over time, the

Florida Legislature The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Co ...

has changed laws allowing new games at the casino, including Vegas-style

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s and

blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fam ...

. Major expansions of the casino occurred in 2007 and 2012, making it the largest in Florida.

Features

Aside from the casino, the hotel has a 12-story tower, a pool, a

fitness center A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health ser ...

, and three

parking garage A multistorey car park ( British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a bui ...

s. There are many restaurants, including the locally acclaimed Council Oak Steak House, The Fresh Harvest buffet, Rock and Raw sushi bar, The Rise Deli, JuBao Noodle Palace, an international food court, a large

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and r ...

, which regularly hosts live stage performances, as well as others. For shopping there are multiple stores, including the Rain Maker tribal gift shop, the Hard Rock Store and a Seminole Smoke Shop. There are also multiple bars located around the casino floor, including the L Bar, the Center Bar and others. Additional features include a non-smoking game room and a high-rollers club room. Musical memorabilia exhibits can be found throughout the complex. In 2019, a 14-story hotel tower was added to the property.

Casino

The 190,000+ square foot casino features over 5,000 Vegas-style slot machines and over 110 tables, encompassed within the complex. The grounds and surrounding parking garage structures combine Indian art and architecture together with

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

fixtures. These exterior features afford the casino a unique interior design and presence, that has specific attention to the display of Seminole art and tribal designs; many of which have been built into the various structures and can be seen among the many examples of Rock and Roll history, fame and memorabilia.

Notes

References

Tampabay.comSeminole Hard Rock WebsiteTampabay.com

External links