Native American gaming properties are mushrooming in both number and sophistication throughout the West, providing plenty of top-tier entertainment, dining, recreation, and versatile space for meetings. Along with cutting-edge excitement, many also feature museums and cultural aspects in spectacular settings that provide glimpses into America’s past.
Nationwide, the hotels, resorts, restaurants, golf, and entertainment associated with tribal reservation casinos have grown into a $2.7 billion industry, according to the National Indian Gaming Association. With new upscale gaming properties springing up everywhere from Seattle to Albuquerque, the industry is more than likely to continue on its upward course during the years ahead.
California
Making up for lost time, the Golden State now commands almost one-third of the revenue of the nation’s Indian gaming market. Not until voters approved casinos in 2000 and compacts were signed with tribes did bingo halls begin morphing into full-blown casinos and resorts.
By 2005, 55 California tribes operated 57 gaming facilities, according to the 2006/2007 Indian Industry Gaming report produced by Alan Meister, an economist with Los Angeles-based Analyst Group. Gaming revenues increased 23.7 percent over 2004 to $7.2 billion. (Connecticut was a distant second with $2.3 billion in gaming revenues and a 10.3 percent market share.)
Of the $4.3 billion Indian casino projects completed nationwide between 2002 and mid-2005, California accounted for $2 billion, according to a casino report from Denver-based Hospitality Real Estate Counselors. All but two of the state’s 13 casino projects included hotels.
Many more are on the way. According to Meister, California has at least 45 casino proposals in various states of planning and development. And he believes the state is ripe for further growth, noting that California is home to the largest share of U.S. gamblers and yields the largest share of casino trips.
“The trick is enticing them to stay in California, at least a little more often, rather than crossing the border into Nevada,” he says.
Last year, the Schwarzenegger administration negotiated new compacts with five of the largest Southern California tribes that could serve as a future model for compacts. These agreements would allow each tribe to increase its number of slots by between 3,000 and 5,500 in return for hundreds of millions of dollars of additional taxes paid into state coffers.
Deadlocked on casino labor issues, the California state legislature failed to approve the compacts before the 2006 session ended. Now they are before the legislature again.
In the meantime, casino expansion in California continues, especially in Palms Springs, the state’s newest gaming hot spot.
Twenty minutes west of Palm Springs in Cabazon, the 2-year-old, 27-story Morongo Casino Resort & Spa dominates the desert landscape of the Gorgonio Pass. Owned and operated by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the deluxe resort features 310 rooms, a 95,000-square-foot casino, and meeting space that includes a 12,000-square-foot ballroom.
To the east, Palms Springs and the Coachella Valley offer five casinos.
In Indio, an expansion of the Fantasy Springs Casino Resort in December 2004 gave the valley its second largest venue after the Palm Springs Convention Center: a 100,000-square-foot events center accommodating 4,000 people. The expansion also included a 250-room hotel and additional restaurants adjacent to the 1,950-slot casino. The owner, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, is now building an 18-hole golf course.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has two casinos in the area, each with 1,000 slots, and a golf course.
The tribe’s Agua Caliente Casino at Rancho Mirage, which has a 1,000-seat showroom, is expanding to include a 344-room hotel with 32,000 square feet of meeting space and a 10,000-square-foot spa. The $185 million project, which also includes a casino renovation, is set for completion next March.
The tribe also operates the 228-room Spa Resort Casino in downtown Palm Springs and according to Nancy Conrad, spokeswoman for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the tribe is in the initial, pre-design stages of planning a new hotel to replace the resort.
San Diego, which has the largest concentration of casino resorts in the West, undertook a billboard casino campaign three years ago to drive traffic to its new attractions.
Within 30 minutes of downtown San Diego are two acclaimed properties: the 400-room Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino, with amenities that include golf and more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space; and the 103-room Sycuan Resort & Casino, which can handle groups of up to 200 with theater-style seating, and also offers 54 holes of golf.
West of I-15 and north of the city, there are three upscale casino resorts equipped for meetings, all of them dating from the 2002-2005 casino building boom.
Within 20 miles of each other are the 507-room Pala Casino Resort & Spa, with 30,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 20,000-square-foot ballroom; the 653-room Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort with 13,000 square feet of meeting space; and the 522-room Pechanga Resort and Casino with 40,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 22,000-square-foot ballroom.
Twelve miles northeast of Escondido, the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians is spending $114 million to expand its Valley View Casino. An events center and two of five new dining outlets are expected to open this fall.
Last November in the San Joaquin Valley town of Lemoore, the Tachi Yokut Tribe of Santa Rosa Rancheria held a grand opening for the 255-room Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino. In addition to a 2,000-slot casino and a 950-seat bingo hall, the property now has additional restaurants and 6,000 square feet of meeting space.
California has two other upscale casino properties, both of which opened in 2004: the 200-room Cache Creek Casino Resort, located 40 miles north of Sacramento and offering 5,000 square feet of conference space; and the 106-room Chumash Casino Resort, located 35 miles north of Santa Barbara, featuring a spa and a 1,000-square-foot meeting room.
Among other California properties is the 146-room Jackson Rancheria Casino Hotel & Conference Center, which has 8,000 square feet of meeting space, situated southeast of Sacramento in Jackson.
Arizona
The Grand Canyon state is the nation’s third top tribal gaming state, with 7.3 percent of the market. According to the Meister report, revenues totaled $1.6 billion in 2005, with 15 tribes operating 24 casinos. A casino expansion spurt came in 2004 after the state negotiated new compacts.
At Desert Diamond Casino, operated by Tohono O’odham Gaming Enterprise and located near the Tucson International Airport, a $90 million expansion is under way, with completion set for this fall. Billed as southern Arizona’s first casino hotel, the project features a 151-room hotel with four meeting rooms. It will also include a 500-seat bingo hall, 400-seat banquet hall, nightclub, and new casino.
Arizona’s newest reservation resort is the Radisson Fort McDowell Resort & Casino. Opened at Fountain Hills near Scottsdale in November 2005, it features 240 guest rooms and 25,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, including an 18,000-square-foot ballroom. It adjoins the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation’s 775-slot casino.
The Yavapai reservation also offers the famed We-Ko-Pa Golf Club and the Saguaro Golf Course. The Saguaro, designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, debuted last December.
The Gila River Indian Community reservation near Phoenix has three casinos, a frontier-town attraction, and a performance driving school. It also has the deluxe 500-room Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, which includes 100,000 square feet of meeting and event space, and two 18-hole golf courses.
Among other casino resorts are the 146-room Harrah’s Phoenix Ak-Chin in Maricosa, which offers four meeting rooms, and the 80-room Cliff Castle Casino in Camp Verde, located 90 minutes north of Phoenix, which houses a 3,500-seat entertainment pavilion and a six-room conference facility.
New Mexico
Like California, New Mexico’s legislature is scheduled to vote on a new state gaming compact. This agreement with 11 of the state’s 13 casino tribes, which operate a total of 20 casinos, would allow an extension of the gaming contract.
Greater Albuquerque got its first casino resort in December 2005 with the opening of the 228-room Sandia Resort and Casino. The Sandia Pueblo’s property has 35,000 square feet of meeting space, a 700-slot casino and an 18-hole Scott Miller-designed golf course.
Less than 30 miles north of the city, on the Santa Ana Pueblo reservation, is the 350-room Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa. It has 20,000 square feet of function space and an 18-hole golf course.
The Santa Fe area also has casinos. North of the city, the Pueblo of Pojoaque began work earlier this year on the long-awaited Buffalo Thunder Resort, scheduled for a fall 2008 completion. Among its components will be the 390-room Hilton Santa Fe North, a spa, a variety of restaurants and entertainment venues, and 66,000 square feet of meeting space, including a ballroom accommodating up to 1,200 people.
Near Ruidoso, the upscale Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino opened in May 2005, replacing a smaller hotel and a smaller casino. The Mescalero Apache-owned resort features a 1,000-slot casino, a 273-room hotel with 40,000 square feet of meeting space and a Ted Robinson-designed championship course.
Washington
With gaming revenues of $1.3 billion in 2005, Washington is the nation’s 6th top Indian gaming state, and third in the West, with 22 tribes operating 33 casinos, according to the Meister report.
Near Marysville, just north of Seattle, the Tulalip Tribes are building a $125 million, 363-room luxury hotel and conference center. Expected to open early next year, the new property will be between the 2,000-slot Tulalip Casino and the tribe’s 100-store Seattle Premium Outlets, which it opened in 2005 along with a rentable 2,300-seat amphitheater.
North of Bellingham, and 90 miles north of Seattle off I-5 in Ferndale, the Lummi Nation unveiled the Silver Reef Hotel & Spa adjacent to its casino last fall. The $24.5 million addition features 105 rooms, a spa, a third restaurant, and additional meeting space that brought its total to 6,300 square feet.
The Suquamish Tribe held a grand opening for its Clearwater Casino Resort Hotel & Spa at Suquamish on Puget Sound last September. A member of Preferred Hotels and Resorts, the property features 85 rooms, restaurants, a spa, meeting rooms, and a renovated casino.
North of Olympia, the Squaxin Island Tribe added the 23,000-square-foot Skookum Creek Event Center to its Creek Resort & Casino in Shelton last July. The resort includes a 200-room hotel with 11,000 square feet of meeting and function space.
Bow, 70 miles north of Seattle, is home to the 103-room Skagit Valley Casino Resort. Operated by the Upper Skagit Tribe, it features a 650-slot casino, 4,000 square feet of meeting space, and a 450-seat showroom.
In Rochester, 50 miles southeast of Tacoma, the Chehalis Tribes broke ground last October on a 390-suite Great Wolf Resort. Slated to open early next year, it will feature a spa, a water park and a 30,000-square-foot conference center.
Oregon
Although Oregon has only nine casinos—each operated by a different tribe—six of them have hotels with meeting space and another will join them this year.
Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort & Casino is an example of a tribal property where the hotel preceded the casino. Located in central Oregon in Warm Springs, Kah-Nee-Ta’s 139-room hotel opened in 1972, while its casino opened in 1995. The resort also offers a spa, golf course and 15,000 square feet of meeting space.
A $40 million expansion is under way at the 112-room Mill Casino Hotel, located on the coast in Coos Bay. Currently, the property, which is owned by the Coquille Indian Tribe, has more than 12,000 square feet of meeting space. The expansion will add 93 guest rooms and five new meeting rooms.
In Willamina, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are also expanding. They broke ground in February on a new complex at their 254-room Spirit Mountain Casino, which has almost 5,000 square feet of meeting space. The project includes an events and entertainment center and additional conference rooms.
Slated to open later this year is a 93-room hotel, conference center and additional gaming space at the Three Rivers Casino in Florence. The casino, which was opened in 2004 by the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians, is Oregon’s newest gaming facility.
Other States
One of Nevada’s three Indian casinos is the Fort Mojave Tribe’s Avi Resort and Casino in Laughlin. With a beach by the Colorado River, it has 455 guest rooms, a golf course, a movie theater, and a 1,100-slot casino. An expansion last year added a new lagoon pool area and an 11,000-square-foot meetings and banquet facility.
Notable among half a dozen Idaho tribal casinos is Idaho’s 202-room Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel in Worley, located 30 minutes from Spokane, Wash. It has 1,800 gaming machines, 18 holes of championship golf, a 13,500-square-foot ballroom, and a 30,000-square-foot events center.
