Southwest Oklahoma native Carlton Saffa found himself immersed in the beauty of Arkansas for the first time while driving through the Bobby Hopper Tunnel on what is now Interstate 49. As a senior in high school, he ventured to Fayetteville for a college visit at the University of Arkansas, mostly for the excused absence from school, and ended up finding a home in the Natural State.
“I felt like I was transported to Colorado. Arkansas is just so gorgeous,” Saffa said. “At 18, I think we always think that we grow up and become tougher, and while that is true in a lot of ways, if you told me that I had to move to a state where I did not know anyone right now, I would be nervous.”
Saffa’s parents’ alma mater is the University of Oklahoma, and he did not know a soul as he exited his comfort zone, speeding on the on-ramp to northwest Arkansas. In Fayetteville, he found great opportunities beyond his safety net and met many incredible people who he still calls friends today. Saffa met his wife, Kristen, during his college years, and they currently reside in Little Rock with their two young children.
“There is no place I would rather live than Arkansas. I chose Arkansas, and it chose me back,” Saffa said.
According to Saffa, he has never met a stranger, a trait that has served him well throughout his career, including in his current role as chief market officer for the Quapaw Nation-owned Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff.
As CMO, Saffa reports to the Quapaw Business Committee. The first hired employee at Saracen, he has seen how much the business has grown over the years. Saffa was able to oversee the licensure of the enterprise in all aspects, including with the property’s history-making casino gaming license.
“I came to this organization when it only really existed on paper. We had contractors and consultants, but not even a gaming license,” Saffa said. “I was able to see Saracen become the first casino outside of racing to be granted a gaming license within the history of the state.”
Saffa is directly responsible for all outward-facing functions of the property, as well as day-to-day management of the property’s 800-plus employees, who are co-managed by Saffa alongside two additional senior executives.
Saffa served as one of the Quapaws’ representatives for the construction of the Saracen annex, a 300-slot facility which was completed and operational in 100 days. Saracen’s main property, a $300 million construction project, was developed in parallel, and Saffa was on site daily throughout.
“In a career, I never want to be bored. I can tell you through the past four years at Saracen that I have still not once had a boring day,” Saffa said. “It was unbelievable to watch the annex be completed and then to see people still waiting in line for the 80,000-square-foot gaming floor, which was the largest construction project of the state.”
According to Saffa, Saracen has been in various states of construction ever since. Being built in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Saffa believes that time is his greatest enemy in the business.
“When we choose to work on something, we are also choosing to not work on something else. It is all about debating opportunity cost, to put it frankly,” Saffa said.
Saffa led the initiative to regulate mobile sports gaming in Arkansas, and through the production of BetSaracen, he was able to engage the entire state in a small part of what Saracen offers.
“We chose to go all-in with sport book,” Saffa said. “It is still pretty young, but we chose to work on the sport book, and I think the results are paying off. NWA has become a critical market for us, and while 70 percent of our users come from Little Rock, we still needed to advertise on a statewide basis, and it has paid dividends. We consider NWA to be the second most important business market.”
BetSaracen books two-thirds of all online wagers placed in Arkansas, and as of December 2023, it was named the 14th-largest sport book operator in America by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. As Saffa described it, BetSaracen has been more important than table games, though casino gaming is still the biggest draw to Saracen. Recently, Saracen gave away a Denali, attracting a crowd of about 8,000 on the giveaway day.
While running day-to-day operations, Saffa has learned many important lessons, including the need to create a positive culture. According to Saffa, the culture of Saracen is far more important than strategy.
“Organizational culture is slowly built but hard to change. At Saracen, we work together and grow together in a space where office politics are simply not tolerated,” Saffa said. “We are all here to provide the best gaming experience we can in the best environment possible.”
Saffa said he looks up to the people he works with most because they challenge him every day.
“I do not like yes-men. I get frustrated when people just tell me what I want to hear. I look up to the people who in many instances report to me,” Saffa said. “The most important and valuable thing in the world is institutional wisdom. There are so many folks whose counsel I seek, and these people are significant in their industries.”
Saffa credits mentors such as lobbyist Don Tilton, attorney Ron Hope, banker Paul Berry, car dealer Steve Landers, state regulators and others for helping him this far in his career and for being great sounding boards.
From casino to casino, gaming functions are relatively similar, but Saffa has strived to create a difference through other functions of Saracen.
“People come to casinos for a myriad of reasons. They’re escaping to something, escaping from something. They want to win. They want to have fun, and they want to feel like they’re somewhere else,” Saffa said. “At Saracen, we differentiate ourselves through other things such as having knowledgeable sommeliers, top-of-the-industry chefs. We don’t just offer Pappy Van Winkle, but we have a cellar full of wine and the only Kobe beef license in the southeast United States.”
In the span of his entire career, Saffa has had multiple rewarding experiences. Aside from playing a role in the licensure and construction of Saracen, he is also proud of his time working for former Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
“I have known Asa since college, and when Asa won [the race for] governor, I felt really proud to play a small role in that,” Saffa said.
Saffa served as senior advisor to Hutchinson, which involved a lot of work prior to his inauguration. In that role, Safffa handled complex and potentially controversial issues on Hutchinson’s behalf, while also coordinating the passage of Hutchinson’s priority legislation packages. In overseeing both the drafting and passage of Act 561 in 2017, Saffa was able to see through Hutchinson’s vision for the elimination of a dual holiday for both Robert E. Lee and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That left the holiday to King alone.
In addition to his role at Saracen, Saffa currently serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Little Rock Regional Chamber, the Historic Arkansas Museum and United Way of Southeast Arkansas. Saffa also serves on the house corporation of his college fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Notably, Saffa is serving his second term as a member of the Arkansas Supreme Court Office of the Committee on Professional Conduct, which is a body appointed by the court to regulate the practice of law.
For others who wish to embark on similar professional journeys, Saffa recommended retiring the attitude that it is who they know, not what they know, and adopting the attitude of being honest and doing what they say they will.
“So much of life is just showing up, and I believe you make your own luck in life. Who you know may get you in the room, but what you know gets you the job. The best part of this life is showing up and giving your darndest,” Saffa said.
