While the rest of the U.S. economy may be down on its luck, San Diego’s Indian tribes continue to pour money into their casino properties, adding hotels, more gaming space and entertainment venues. In 2003, six tribes have either recently completed or just begun planning major projects totaling more than 1.5 million square feet and valued at $570 million.

From Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in Lakeside to Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort in Valley Center, casinos are becoming more than a place to gamble. Many are now referred to as “destination resorts.” That status means more live entertainment opportunities, banquet space and meeting rooms for North and East counties. Pala Casino, Valley View and Golden Acorn have plans to grow as well.

But not every tribe is jumping on the bigger-is-better bandwagon. Viejas, which pioneered the full-featured upscale gaming experience in San Diego, is taking a wait-and-see approach, while Sycuan, which acquired the Singing Hills Resort in 2001, says it has no need to expand.

Destination Resorts

Forget the image of the big top for Barona Casino, which now has a new name and then some. Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in Lakeside opened its doors Jan. 1. “Since we opened, the response has been overwhelming,” says Kelly Speer, a Barona spokeswoman. “People have been wowed.”

The $260 million resort, which was designed to look like an upscale California cattle ranch, features a 397-room hotel, an 18,000-square-foot event center, a wedding chapel and a new casino, which grew from 70,000 square feet to 315,000. It all surrounds the Barona Creek Golf Course, which was rated the fourth best public golf course in California by Golf Week magazine in March 2002. The property is “the best of Las Vegas combined with the best of a California resort,” Speer says.

The influence of Las Vegas figures into more than just the gaming aspect of Barona’s new property. Bergman, Walls & Associates of Las Vegas, the lead architect of Caesar’s Palace, Mirage and Paris Casino Resort, designed the resort, while Yates-Silverman, the interior designer for Luxor and New York, New York did the interiors.

In sleepy Valley Center, Las Vegas figures even more prominently at Harrah’s Rincon, which opened Aug. 8, 2002. “Where we’re unique is we truly are Las Vegas,” says Mary Goldman, vice president of marketing for the resort. “That’s what we are, that’s who we are.”

The new property with a new name boasts a 201-room hotel, six restaurants, 52,000 square feet of gaming space and a large entertainment venue, the Pavilion, which attracted such big-name acts last year as Jay Leno, The Beach Boys and Tony Bennett.

“Our vision is to have entertainment that the mass populace can see at a reasonable price,” Goldman says.

When it comes to gaming, Harrah’s has an edge. “You know what you get when you come to Harrah’s,” Goldman says, adding that there are 26 Harrah’s properties in the United States.

Also in North County, Pala Casino will open a 507-room, four-star hotel in mid-August, says Jerry Turk of Turk Pala Management Co. The Freidmutter Group of Las Vegas is building the hotel, and Ralph Gentile of Los Angeles is designing the interiors. In addition, the property will have 30,000 square feet of meeting space, a 10,000-square-foot spa with 14 treatment rooms, two more restaurants (bringing the total up to eight) and a 2,000-seat outdoor entertainment venue.

“We like to think of ourselves not just as a gaming property, but as a full-service entertainment property,” Turk says, adding that the Palomar Lounge will be expanded from 5,000 square feet to 12,000 and will open in May. “Gaming is obviously the fuel of the engine, but you can’t forget the rest of the parts.”

Valley View Casino in Valley Center has plans to expand this year as well. It already added 150 slot machines, but this year will go to 2,000 slot machines, 20 table games, a bingo hall and three restaurants, says John Straus, vice president of marketing. Siren Gaming of Las Vegas backs the $30 million expansion.

Meanwhile, Campo’s Golden Acorn Casino, which opened in August 2001, hopes to break ground on a hotel this year, reports Barrett DeFay, Golden Acorn’s marketing director. “We’re in the full planning stages for a hotel,” he says. However, the hotel’s size depends on the outcome of a feasibility study.

Growth, Growth, Growth

So how are these properties doing in this sluggish economy? At Barona, hotel occupancy on the weekends is nearing 100 percent, while midweek is not as strong, but that’s to be expected, says Linda Devine, the resort’s vice president of marketing. “We’re an entertainment choice. When people want to go and have fun, they choose to come here,” Devine says.

Harrah’s determined soon after it opened that gaming needed to be expanded, so more than 6,000 square feet of gaming space was added in December, bringing the number of slots up to 1,500 and table games to 35.

Straus says, “Business is doing better, thanks to many factors. More and more people are knowing who we are and where we are, many thanks to Harrah’s.”

Adam Day, director of public relations for the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, says Sycuan Casino is not feeling the negative market forces that others are. “I attribute that to incredible employees, excellent customer service and very loyal patrons,” he says. “It could also be a function of other economic forces in the state and nation, where people are choosing to travel less and look in their back yard for entertainment opportunities.”

Located in El Cajon, Sycuan Casino was the first Indian gaming establishment to open in San Diego County, and it will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. Two years ago it acquired the Singing Hills Resort, and in January 2002, it opened its 500-seat Showcase Theatre.

Andy Asselin, senior vice president/general manager of Viejas Casino, has another theory on the continued success of Indian gaming. “Before the passage of Propositions 1a and 5, there were people who didn’t feel comfortable coming to Indian casinos.” Once the compacts legitimized gaming and allowed coin-operated slot machines, things changed. “There were a lot of people who went to Vegas, Laughlin and Reno,” he says. “And now they come here.”

Viejas completed the remodeling of its Dreamcatcher Lounge last year, with Paul Steelman providing the interior design.

The Clientele

Clearly, expansion implies there’s a customer base with money to spend. While San Diego residents account for a large percentage of gaming and resort patrons, so do out-of-towners.

Noting that San Diego already is a tourist destination, Linda Devine of Barona says the resort markets itself in Los Angeles and Orange counties, Phoenix and Tucson, while Harrah’s reports its clientele is a 50-50 split, with half its customers coming from San Diego and the other half from Los Angeles and Orange counties. Viejas, however, says most of its customers come from San Diego. “It’s not like Las Vegas where they’re flying in from all over,” says Asselin of Viejas. “It’s within driving distance.”

Other smaller casinos attract a clientele primarily from their geographic location: gaming casinos in North County get their customers from that region, whereas facilities in the East County appeal to customers from San Diego, the South Bay, East County and Imperial County.

Working Through Red Tape

It may appear that all Indian tribes in San Diego County currently operate casinos, that’s not the case. The Jamul Indian Village of California wants to build a 240,000-square-foot casino on its property in Jamul. The property would include five restaurants and 95,000 square feet of gaming space with 2,000 slot machines, says Rod Wilson, director of public relations for the tribe. However, the tribe has only six acres, and has applied to take 101 acres nearby into trust. The plan is to move housing and tribal services onto those 101 acres and build the casino on the original acres.

The tribe recently completed an environmental impact study, and held a public hearing in February, at which testimony was given to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The public had until early March to comment on the EIS, after which the BIA would respond to the comments, possibly approve the EIS and then forward it to the Department of Interior for a final OK. What appears to be delaying the tribe’s intent to bring a casino to Jamul is a group of people who live near the reservation who, while they may support Indian gaming, don’t want it in their back yard.

To combat what it sees as a public relations issue, the tribe has advertised in surrounding area publications promoting the positive effects of Indian gaming and targeting Supervisor Dianne Jacob and NIMBYism as thwarting their efforts for self-reliance.

The tribe also paid a national demographics corporation to poll voters in Jacob’s supervisorial district to determine what residents thought of Indian gaming. The results indicate that the majority of voters polled voiced strong support for Indian gaming and the revenue and jobs it brings, Wilson says.

Also going through the red-tape process is the Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which plans to build its Leaning Rock Casino in Alpine, a mile west of Viejas. The tribe, which has 10 acres, has proposed constructing the casino where the Southern Indian Health Council Clinic is located. This plan requires moving the clinic and obtaining a lease amendment from the federal government, says William Micklin, executive director of the tribe.

The tribe is anticipating a decision by the Department of Interior in June and would open its casino in 2005. The 237,000-square-foot casino would have 2,000 slot machines and 65 table games. Construction costs are estimated at $160 million to start.

Giving Back to the Community

Casinos, especially the larger, more established ones, have been large contributors to San Diego organizations. Rincon has contributed to the Alzheimer’s Association — San Diego Chapter, the Asian Business Association, Elizabeth Hospice, San Diego Asian Film Foundation, Miramar Air Show and others. Sycuan gives to the Barrio Logan Service Station and the American Diabetes Association. Valley View Casino sponsored the Joe Lizura Children’s Hospital Golf Classic in 2002, and will do so again this year. DeFay of Golden Acorn, however, says the casino has to be more selective with charitable giving because its pockets are not as deep as other casinos’.

The Outlook On Gaming

The future of Indian gaming looks bright, barring any major economic upheaval.

“We’re thrilled about the marketplace and the potential it holds for us, as we expand,” says Goldman of Harrah’s. Plans for 2003 include adding 15,000 to 20,000 square feet to the gaming floor, which would mean 100 more slots and 10 more table games, plus a new bar, a fast food eatery and an expanded indoor entertainment venue, meeting and banquet place.

“It’s real rosy for us,” Goldman says. “We see Pala’s expansion as more bodies in the marketplace. It’s all about critical mass.”

Straus of Valley View echoes the positive impact of nearby casinos. “We’re the San Diego strip,” he says. “When Pala opens their hotel, they’ll grow the market some more. Our goal is to grow and continue to provide great service, but always stay small.”

For all its expansion, Barona will tackle one more improvement this year. It will renovate its former 100,000-square-foot casino building and turn it into meeting space for trade shows and the like. “It gives East County a convention property that it never had before,” Devine says.

Viejas has a more tempered view. “They’re looking at what’s happening in the world as a whole, watching the economy which is soft, and they’re in negotiations with the governor on their compact,” Asselin says. “They’re seeing how other casinos are doing who have spent a lot of money on the hotels, and somewhere down the line, they’ll make a decision as to which direction they want to go.”

Jerry Turk of Pala Casino is careful to curb his enthusiasm as well. “My outlook for the next 12 months is for continued growth for a couple of reasons,” he says, explaining that not only will the new hotel increase business, but it also will attract new customers who haven’t visited Pala before. “I temper that with the unknown we’re all faced with,” he says. “It’s an economy that has some challenges, and the world situation has some challenges. I’m cautiously optimistic.”

The La Jolla tribe and Casino Pauma could not be reached for comment on their plans. The Manzanita tribe reports it has no set plans for expansion at this point. Yet even without these three, it is certain that gaming in San Diego is still on the rise. And if a favorable revised compact granting thousands of new slots is worked out with Gov. Gray Davis, a new wave of growth is just over the horizon.