Casino Regina is a casino located on Saskatchewan Drive — (formerly South Railway Street) — in

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 census, Regina had a city populatio ...

, Canada. It operates in the city's former

union station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, a

Tyndall Tyndall (the original spelling, also Tyndale, "Tindol", Tyndal, Tindoll, Tindall, Tindal, Tindale, Tindle, Tindell, Tindill, and Tindel) is the name of an English family taken from the land they held as tenants in chief of the Kings of Engla ...

and

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone structure completed in 1912. The casino is owned and operated by

Sask Gaming Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation, trading as Sask Gaming, is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Saskatchewan established in 1996. Overseen by the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA), it is the owner of Casino Regina and C ...

History

Union Station, Regina, Saskatchewan 1911

The Beaux-Arts style Union Station was constructed in 1911-12 and was actually Regina's third train station; the first is now a museum in Broadview, Saskatchewan. The station was completed the same year the deadly "

Regina Cyclone The Regina Cyclone, or Regina tornado of 1912, was a tornado that devastated the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on Sunday, June 30, 1912. It remains the deadliest tornado in Canadian history with a total of 28 fatalities and about 300 p ...

" struck the city, tearing through

Wascana Park Wascana Centre is a 930-hectare (9.3 km2/2,300 acre/3.6 mi2) urban park built around Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, established in 1912 with a design from renowned architect Thomas Mawson. The park is designed aro ...

and gutting part of the downtown area. The building underwent a major expansion in 1931, and the original façade was redone in a simpler

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 ...

style with Tyndall stone. As well, terrazzo floors, marble support columns and plaster molded ceilings where added to the interior. In the early 1990s, cutbacks to rail services throughout

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

lead to the closure of Regina's Union Station. The Station had been an important part of Regina's history and heritage since its opening in 1912. After the station's closure, its fate remained unknown for several years. Union Station was designated as an official

heritage site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

in 1991. By 1995, a $37 million construction project began to convert the vacant station into the province's second casino. In 1996, Casino Regina opened.

Description

The building contains old railway police jail cells in the basement that were used for transporting prisoners, and shows evidence of a tunnel representing a system of underground passages said to stretch several blocks east of the casino and south all the way to the stately

Hotel Saskatchewan The Hotel Saskatchewan is a historic hotel, one of Canada's grand railway hotels located in downtown Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, overlooking Victoria Park. The Hotel Saskatchewan was the fourteenth hotel in a nationwide chain constructed and ...

. These tunnels were destroyed during the construction of the Cornwall Centre, a major downtown shopping complex. Inside, positioned on a wall in the central hall, is a schedule board displaying the arrivals and departures on the day the train station closed back in 1990. The hall itself, formerly the station's main concourse, features a high ceiling with simple chandeliers and a clock near the top of the back wall. The casino houses some 800 slot machines, 35 table games, and an 8-table poker room. The 800-seat Show Lounge features entertainers, and meals are served in The Union Station and Rail Car restaurants, as well as in the CPR Lounge and VIP Lounge. Regularly scheduled Union Station historic tours are another attraction, as are the nightly LED shows. Casino Regina is a notable employer in the city, employing 664 people, over fifty percent of whom are Aboriginal.

References

External links

*
Canadian Register of Historic Places

{{Authority control Art Deco architecture in Canada Buildings and structures in Regina, Saskatchewan Casinos in Saskatchewan Music venues in Saskatchewan Disused railway stations in Canada Beaux-Arts architecture in Canada Union stations in Canada Tourist attractions in Regina, Saskatchewan

History

Description

See also

References

External links