Oaklawn is the best-rated casino in Arkansas and the only one where the date on your ticket matters more than anything on the gaming floor. It has run thoroughbred racing at Hot Springs since 1904, which makes it older than the state's casino licences by more than a century, and the live meet still governs the property. Book a weekend in March and you are at a racetrack that happens to have a casino. Book one in August and you are at a casino with a quiet grandstand attached. Both are good trips. They are not the same trip.
The property at a glance
| City | Hot Springs, Garland County |
| Racing since | 1904, thoroughbred |
| Live meet | Early December to early May |
| Slots | More than 1,400 |
| Tables | About 30 |
| Poker room | None |
| Hotel | 198 rooms |
| Spa | The only Forbes Four-Star spa in the state |
| Hours | Casino floor 24 hours, year-round |
| Minimum age | 21 on the floor, 18 at the pari-mutuel windows |
| Google rating | 4.2 from more than 11,000 reviews |
That 4.2 is the highest of the three Arkansas casinos, ahead of Saracen at 4.1 and Southland at 4.0, on a review base of more than eleven thousand. It is also the only property of the three where the rating is plainly driven by something other than the machines.
The meet, and why it ends the way it does
Live racing runs from early December to early May, and the season is built to finish loudly. The closing weeks carry the Racing Festival of the South, a compressed run of stakes races, and the meet ends with the Arkansas Derby, the track's signature day and a Kentucky Derby prep that pulls a national field and a national audience. If you have never been, the Derby weekend is the wrong first visit: it is the busiest, most expensive and least comfortable few days of the year at Hot Springs. A midweek card in late January gets you the same track, a seat you can actually choose and a hotel rate that is not set by demand.
What the floor is like
More than 1,400 slot machines and about thirty live tables, open around the clock all year. The pit is competent rather than deep. There is no poker room, which is the property's one real gap against Saracen at Pine Bluff, and a card player who wants a seat has to make that drive instead. Live table games arrived here only after Amendment 100 passed in November 2018; before that Oaklawn ran electronic games of skill, and those terminals are still on the floor alongside the pit. Our blackjack guide covers what each of the three pits spreads.
The tower and the spa
The 198-room hotel arrived with a reported $100 million expansion that also added the event centre, and it is what turns this from an afternoon into a weekend. It is the reason Oaklawn works as a destination in a way the other two Arkansas floors do not quite manage, and the comparison to make is Saracen, whose own roughly $250 million expansion bought a bigger building rather than a better setting. The spa carries a Forbes Four-Star rating, the only one in Arkansas, which is an unusual thing for a racetrack to own and a large part of why the property rates as well as it does with people who never place a wager. Hot Springs itself does the rest of the work: the national park, the bathhouse row on Central Avenue and a walkable downtown are a few minutes from the gate, which is not something you can say about West Memphis or Pine Bluff.
How it compares with the other two
Southland at West Memphis is bigger on machines and much bigger on tables, at roughly fifty, and it draws a late-night Memphis crowd seven minutes across the river. Saracen at Pine Bluff has the only poker room in the state and the widest table variety. We checked ratings, table counts, hours and the meet calendar for all three in September 2026. Oaklawn wins on rating and on setting, and for a weekend rather than a session we rate it the best choice in the state; for a card player it is the worst of the three, because it has no poker room at all. Our Arkansas casinos guide sets all three against each other, including the fourth licence that voters repealed in November 2024.
Practical notes
The casino floor and the racing keep different hours: the floor never closes, the track and the pari-mutuel windows follow the published card. Parking is on site. Book the hotel well ahead for any date inside the meet, and especially for the closing weeks, when Hot Springs fills beyond the property itself.
Playing from home instead
Arkansas does not license real-money online casinos. Sweepstakes casinos run on a no-purchase-necessary promotional model and are what most players use from home; our Arkansas rankings cover the platforms that accept the state.
Frequently asked questions
When does racing run at Oaklawn?
The live thoroughbred meet runs from early December to early May, ending with the Racing Festival of the South and the Arkansas Derby.
Does Oaklawn have a poker room?
No. Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff runs the only dedicated poker room in the state.
Does Oaklawn have a hotel?
Yes, 198 rooms, plus the only Forbes Four-Star spa in Arkansas.
Is Oaklawn the best casino in Arkansas?
It is the best rated, at 4.2 from more than 11,000 Google reviews. Southland has more tables and Saracen has the poker room.
How old do you have to be at Oaklawn?
21 on the casino floor. Pari-mutuel wagering is 18.
