45 years after buying Tampa land, Seminoles keep expanding Hard Rock

What started as a smoke shop and burial ground on 8.5 acres is today a massive casino and hotel that never sleeps.

  • By Louis Llovio
  • | 5:00 a.m. February 7, 2025
  • | 0 Free Articles Remaining!
A new gaming area, on the spot of a former food court, minutes before it opens bringing 350 new slot machines to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa.
A new gaming area, on the spot of a former food court, minutes before it opens bringing 350 new slot machines to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa.
Photo by Mark Wemple
  • Tampa Bay-Lakeland
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It’s about 10:30 on a cold, rainy Thursday morning in January. A car pulls off Interstate 4 onto Orient Road. Downtown Tampa’s skyline fills the horizon to the west.

Finding parking, the driver thinks, should be easy at this hour. Especially given these conditions.

 

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