Carlton Thomas Saffa
Carlton Saffa showed grit and tenacity in retrieving Saracen Casino Resort’s gambling license. Still an integral part of the casino, Saffa works to support Native Americans and the Pine Bluff community.
When Carlton Saffa was growing up in Lawton, Okla., in the 1980s and ’90s, he loved to spend time with his grandparents and listen to his grandmother, Ella Mackey, play piano. She was a legendary music teacher at the local junior and senior high schools, and also played with bands at dances and other events.
“She’s embedded in the story of music education in Oklahoma,” says Saffa, the chief market officer at Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff and co-chair of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s forthcoming Opus Ball XXXVIII fundraiser. “She could play by ear, and she could play anything.”
His grandmother’s music inspired Saffa’s love of music, including that of another Lawton native, Leon Russell, who gained fame as a rock musician in the 1970s. “He was an incredible piano player, and my grandmother played in the same style,” Saffa says.
By leading the fundraising efforts for this year’s Opus Ball, which takes place at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock on Nov. 4, Saffa is helping support the ASO’s extensive music education programs, which he says is a perfect way to honor Ella.
“I am committed to the symphony for my grandmother,” he says.
FROM OKIE TO ARKIE
Saffa was born in 1981 in Lawton to Chuck and Sue Ann Saffa. His mother’s family was from north Texas and southeastern Oklahoma, while his father’s family moved to the area from Lebanon around the time Oklahoma became a state in 1907. He and his younger sister, Rachel, grew up “without wants or needs,” he says, adding that he loved playing golf and swimming.
“I grew up at a kind of little local country club and swam and played golf,” he says. Despite what he calls a “wonderful childhood,” he was not a fan of Lawton, a city of less than 100,000 people known primarily for its proximity to Fort Sill, a U.S. Army post in southwestern Oklahoma. He describes it as a “rough place.”
His father worked in retail and later in regional management for an insurance company while his mother taught school. His father attended the University of Oklahoma at Norman, as did his mother, who played on the tennis team. His sister, along with his aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, also went to OU and it was expected that Saffa would as well. But he wasn’t exactly sold on the idea, and because college visits counted as excused absences from high school, Saffa says he eagerly agreed to accept an invitation to visit the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, which would be his first trip ever to the state.
“I remember the trip up what was then I-540, now I-49, driving through the Bobby Hopper Tunnel,” Saffa says. “Coming out into the Boston Mountains, I felt like I was in Colorado, because you have to remember where I grew up. We call mesquite bushes trees, and we had to stake everything because the wind blew so hard. … So, for all I knew, Fayetteville was Telluride [Colorado]. … Fayetteville was just beautiful to me.”
After that visit, he decided to go to Arkansas, noting that “Fayetteville was perfect. It was just far enough away that it was different, but it wasn’t so far away that I couldn’t get home if I needed to.”
He began his college career with a chancellor’s scholarship as a political science major with Middle Eastern studies as a minor. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he became less interested in Middle Eastern studies, he says, because it became too focused on terrorism. Instead, inspired by Stephen A. Smith, a communications professor, he changed his major to communications. Under Smith’s tutelage, he learned a lot about the First Amendment and joined the university’s parliamentary debate team where he and his partner won a national championship. He also studied with Smith during a summer at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England.
Not one for classroom work, Saffa says he learned more from Smith during conversations on Smith’s front porch on Ralston Street in Fayetteville, drinking beers and smoking cigars. “I learned about the First Amendment, I learned about Arkansas history, Arkansas politics,” Saffa says.
Smith, who is retired, calls Saffa “brilliant” and “intellectually curious,” adding that Saffa is one of about a dozen students he is still in touch with and considers a friend.
“Carlton is a most generous person with his time and money,” Smith says. “I have watched as he mentored younger students and colleagues. It is no surprise that he is leading the fundraising campaign to support his community.”
LIFE IN LITTLE ROCK
Saffa graduated with a degree in communications while his wife-to-be, Kristen, finished her marketing and accounting degrees. They married and moved to Little Rock, Kristen’s hometown, and “much to my mother’s disappointment” he says he didn’t go to law school to become a lawyer. Instead, Saffa continued to sell insurance as he had been doing during the summers while in college.
Although he made good money in insurance, he was still drawn to politics and in 2014, he joined the staff of Gov. Asa Hutchinson as a senior adviser. In this role, Saffa worked directly with several agencies, including the Bank Department, the Alcohol Beverage Control Board and the Racing Commission. “The other thing I worked on was projects as assigned,” he says. “And that took the form of things that oftentimes were on fire.” He also worked on the governor’s legislative initiatives, keeping track of vote counts and lobbying
“We have developed this reputation for food, and I’m cool with that. I tell people all the time, you know, if you want to come gamble, please do, it’s our primary line of business. … But if you don’t, that’s OK, come eat. The best restaurant in Little Rock is in Pine Bluff.” (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Cary Jenkins)
lawmakers.
“I am enormously proud to tell you that there was never a bill we worked that we tried to kill that we didn’t kill,” Saffa says. “And there was never a bill that we worked that we tried to pass that we didn’t get passed. So, we were batting 1.000.”
Hutchinson praised Saffa in a recent email interview calling him “a natural at selling ideas and gaining support for important initiatives. He makes hard work look easy and he has a calmness in difficult times that is essential in positions of leadership.” Hutchinson noted that Saffa was responsible for getting legislation passed to end the state’s practice of commemorating Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the same day as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “This was a difficult challenge as it was a highly charged emotional issue,” Hutchinson said. “Carlton did a masterful job in counting votes and generating support for this priority of mine.”
HITTING THE JACKPOT
In 2019, Saffa learned about another career opportunity. Don Tilton, a contract lobbyist, had contacted Hutchinson to see if he could visit with Saffa about working for the Quapaw Nation’s proposed casino at Pine Bluff.
Tilton had helped pass a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling in Arkansas. The governor agreed and Saffa visited with Tilton and the chairman of the Quapaw Nation. “They said, ‘We know you don’t know gaming, but you know Arkansas, and we like the way you handled yourself,’” Saffa recalls, adding that they had watched him working on a proposal the Quapaw Nation had made to put some land they owned near Little Rock in a trust, meaning it would be sovereign land under control of the Quapaw Nation. Hutchinson and other local leaders opposed it and Saffa worked to make sure it didn’t happen. The measure failed.
After visiting with his wife, Saffa agreed to take the job and became the first employee of the Saracen Casino Resort. There was just one issue. They had no gambling license, but Saffa was confident they would get it. “We had the local support, the tribe had the resources and the know-how and the expertise,” Saffa says.
After a presentation to the Arkansas Racing Commission in June 2019, Saracen did get the license. Construction on a temporary gambling facility began and 100 days later it was open for business. “It had 300 slot machines in it, and people would wait in line to play those machines,” Saffa says. “It was a massive hit.” Meanwhile, construction on a permanent $300 million facility with an 80,000-square-foot gambling floor was underway across the street.
“So, what we’ve got is basically a football field of slot machines,” Saffa says. Within the gambling floor are 2,000 slot machines, 40 gambling tables and a poker room. The entire facility has about 200,000 square feet.
While construction was ongoing, covid-19 hit. To shut down would have been costly and difficult, so they worked to find a way to continue the build safely.
“All we knew is that we had to complete the building,” Saffa says. “We had to learn very quickly about screening folks, because in construction people work very closely to each other.”
While the first phase was completed, plans for an additional 440,000-square-foot hotel and event center were delayed by covid, but now are on track.
In Saffa’s role as chief market officer, he shares operation and management duties of Saracen with two other executives. They are co-equals, he says, and refer to themselves as the “three-headed monster.” Saffa’s area of expertise is marketing.
Saracen’s 800 employees have had extensive training with a strong focus on customer service. The standard, known as READY — Recognize, Engage, Appreciate, Deliver, Yes We Can — has been highly successful, Saffa says. A secret shopping service comes in regularly and pays close attention to how staff performs according to the READY standard. Employees with perfect scores get a $500 bonus and a luncheon in their honor.
In addition to gambling offerings, Saracen operates the Red Oak Steakhouse, which provides an upscale dining experience. Led by award-winning chefs, the restaurant’s special offerings include Kobe beef from Japan and an extensive wine and liquor list.
“We have developed this reputation for food, and I’m cool with that,” Saffa says. “I tell people all the time, you know, if you want to come gamble, please do, it’s our primary line of business. And we think we have a unique product in the market. But if you don’t, that’s OK, come eat. The best restaurant in Little Rock is in Pine Bluff.”
In addition to onsite offerings, Saracen has developed its own online sports betting program called Bet Saracen. It has proved to be highly successful and now ranks as the 14th largest sports book in the nation, Saffa says.
DO UNTO OTHERS
Supporting the community is a major part of Saracen’s mission, Saffa says. And it is part of the culture of the Quapaw Nation.
“We are compelled to give back; it’s at its core,” Saffa says, adding that the Quapaw Nation created tribal gambling to provide a revenue stream for Native American governments. “So, the [gambling] is done to help people, it’s not to pay a shareholder dividend.”
In addition to helping its tribe, the Saracen Casino Resort is giving back to Pine Bluff, an area that has seen much economic distress in recent decades. The casino’s contributions and Saffa’s leadership in the community are much appreciated by local leaders such as Mayor Shirley M. Washington of Pine Bluff.
“He’s committed to making it a unique experience that yields success while also giving back to the community and taking good care of employees,” Washington says. “Not only has he been good to the Pine Bluff community, he’s also enriched the entire state of Arkansas though his business savvy and incredible generosity.”