Anthony Pico, tribal chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, also is a director of Borrego Springs Bank. The bank, wholly owned by the Viejas tribe, has offices in Borrego Springs, La Mesa and Alpine.

By the time he retires in six years, Viejas Tribal Chairman Anthony Pico expects to see a new multimillion-dollar gaming complex on his East County reservation. He envisions two large casinos, a hotel, restaurants and other Las Vegas-style amenities. One of the casinos would be operated by the neighboring Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, the other by Viejas, under a unique arrangement between the two tribes.

Pico says the complex will be located somewhere in the Viejas Valley — a precise location is not yet known — and the existing 285,000-square-foot Viejas Casino on Willows Road in Alpine will either be razed or turned into another use.

“Whatever we do, we will be successful at it,” says Pico, 60, a national leader in the Indian gaming movement. “It’s never been done before, which is nothing new to Viejas. We know where we’re going, so a lot of issues that might be considered detrimental (to the plan) become less so. It’s a smaller step than the ones we’ve taken before.”

Pico estimates it will take three or four years for the gaming complex to be developed. A master plan must first be prepared by the Viejas and Ewiiaapaayp tribes and put through a lengthy governmental review process.

Should it materialize the way Pico envisions, the resort would be the largest Indian gaming center in the nation, employing thousands of workers and generating millions of dollars more in revenue for the Viejas and Ewiiaapaayp tribes — and more dollars for the state, which exacts money from the tribes for each slot machine they own. Couple this project with the gaming operations other tribes are operating or planning to operate and the northern and eastern reaches of the county will become gambling meccas by the end of the decade.

“Indians have the land and they’ve tapped into a market,” says William Byxbee, dean of San Diego State’s College of Extended Studies. The college established a certificate program in casino gaming two years ago because of an increasing demand for qualified casino workers by local tribes seeking to serve a ravenous gaming public. Byxbee estimates the casinos in the county attract 40,000 people a day. “For a lot of people, it’s just another form of entertainment,” he says.

San Diego County has the largest number of Indian reservations in the country at 18, and the greatest number of tribes with compacts with the state at 14. Nine of the tribes have gaming operations, ranging from the large resorts at Barona, Pala, Sycuan and Harrah’s Rincon to the 30-slot arcade run by the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians in Pauma Valley. As a group, the nine tribes employ more than 13,000 workers and have an annual gross revenue of an estimated $1.5 billion.

Janet Beronio, general manager of Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort, and Rincon Tribal Chairman John Currier (both in the middle) headed the resort expansion’s grand opening with Phil Satre (left), Harrah’s chairman of the board, and Tom Jenkins, Harrah’s western division vice president.

The most recent addition to the county’s Indian gaming industry came in December when Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort in Valley Center opened a 21-story hotel tower, a large spa and new restaurant as part of a $168 million expansion to complement its 59,000-square-foot gaming floor.

But more gambling halls and slot machines are on the way.

In the next few years, no fewer than six new or expanded casinos and related facilities are in the planning stages:

Casino Pauma

The Pauma Band of Mission Indians selected Peter Morton’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to develop and operate a new $300 million hotel and casino in Pauma Valley. The complex would include a 300-room hotel, 100 gaming tables, 2,000 slot machines, restaurants, spa and an entertainment venue. It would supplant an existing casino that has 850 slots and 24 gaming tables.

The tribe chose Hard Rock’s proposal from several competing bidders, including one from Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. Tribal Chairman Chris Devers says the tribe plans to open the complex by the fourth quarter of 2006. Its management contract with Hard Rock must be approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission.

La Jolla Band

The La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, which received a state compact in 1999, is negotiating a contract with Nevada Gold & Casinos Inc. of Houston to develop and manage a $25 million to $30 million gaming resort on the tribe’s 9,998-acre reservation in Pauma Valley. The first phase would include 349 slot machines, 12 table games, a 75-room hotel, dining facilities and parking. Later phases would include an expanded casino, a recreational vehicle park, added restaurants, entertainment venues and golf course. Tribal Chairman Tracy Nelson says the tribe hopes to break ground this year pending governmental approvals. Construction would take about 18 months.

The La Jolla tribe’s plan represents a giant leap from the 30 slots it operates in an arcade on the reservation. Those slots are on the reservation’s campground and water park complex.

La Posta Band

The La Posta Band of Mission Indians renegotiated its compact with the state in 2003. Tribal spokesman James Hill says the tribe is negotiating with UIC Construction LLC, a construction company owned and controlled by Alaska Iñupiat Eskimos, to build a 20,000-square-foot casino with 349 slot machines on reservation land three miles north of the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo, which is owned by the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians. Hill estimates the project cost at “under $20 million.” He says the tribe is awaiting the county’s approval of a memorandum of understanding that would clear the way for construction. The casino would open next year. Hill says the proximity of his tribe’s casino with Golden Acorn Casino is not viewed in a negative light but would probably enhance the business of both tribes.

Santa Ysabel Band

In January, the Santa Ysabel Band of Digueño Indians reached an agreement with the county that will lead to the construction of a $27 million gaming complex on Highway 79 in Santa Ysabel. It would include a 40,000-square-foot casino with 350 slot machines, 16 gaming tables and a restaurant. A later phase would include bungalows “tucked into the hills” for use by casino patrons, says Tina Lentz of Majestic Gaming LLC, the company that would manage the operations. Construction is expected to take between 10 and 12 months for the first phase.

Under its agreement with the county, the Santa Ysabel tribe must make annual payments that guarantee a minimum of $600,000 to the county, including $300,000 specifically for the treatment of problem and pathological gambling. The tribe also must make annual payments to the state under its approved gaming compact.

Tribal Chairman Johnny Hernandez has hailed the agreement as a model for future pacts between tribes and government entities. “Development and completion of this gaming facility will be an important step in the direction of self-sufficiency and economic development for the Santa Ysabel tribe,” says Hernandez. “It will allow us to provide much-needed services and infrastructure for our people.” The tribe has 743 members.

Viejas and Ewiiaapaayp

Before the two tribes agreed to pursue a two-casino resort on Viejas land, the Ewiiaapaayp (pronounced WEE-UH-PIE) tried to get approval for a casino on 10 acres of land a mile away from the Viejas Casino in Alpine. The site is home to an Indian health center. But Viejas blocked the proposal, leading to the unique plan for the operation of two casinos on the same property. “We thought it was very prudent for both of us to get together and build two casinos together,” says Pico. “These casinos are highly regulated and it takes a lot to make them a success. If you put casinos side by side, you’re expanding the market. You can centralize the administration, centralize the purchasing power. It becomes a win-win for Viejas and a win-win for the Ewiiaapaayp.”

Pico says Viejas will insist on having regulatory control over the casinos.

Viejas, like a few other gaming tribes in San Diego, continues to venture into non-gaming business enterprises. In February, Pico traveled to Washington, D.C., to help celebrate the opening of a $43 million Marriott Residence Inn, a project financed primarily by Four Fires, a limited liability corporation formed by Viejas and three other Native American tribes. Another tribal partnership, Three Fires, broke ground on another Marriott Residence Inn in Sacramento. And last year, Viejas took full control of Borrego Springs Bank by buying the remaining 30 percent of shares held by minority stockholders. Pico, a director of the bank, which has branches in Borrego Springs, La Mesa and Alpine, is noncommittal about future bank expansion. “We’re having a strategic meeting (in April) and certainly we will be discussing these things,” he says. “There is room to grow. We’ve developed Indian gaming services within the bank which is very lucrative.”

In January, Viejas’ East County neighbor, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, closed the U.S. Grant Hotel that it purchased in 2003 for $45 million for a $26 million renovation program of the historic 273-room Downtown hotel. The project is expected to be finished this summer and will include a new restaurant, a spa and salon and new bar area, among other amenities. Adam Day, director of public relations for the tribe, says the intent is to reposition the hotel to four-star status for “a new market and new audience in the 21st century.” When it reopens, the Grant will become part of the Starwood Luxury Hotel Collection which includes The Palace in San Francisco, The St. Regis Hotels and The Prince de Galles in Paris.

Sycuan

Meanwhile, Sycuan is awaiting state approval of a proposed $30 million hotel, conference center and restaurant complex in National City that the tribe wants to develop with partners Latino Builders and MRW Group. Day says the tribe is hopeful of a summer or fall start of construction with completion 18 months later. Separately, the tribe spent $25 million last year to purchase 1,236 acres of land in Dehesa Valley adjacent to its reservation. The property had been the site of a sand mining operation for the past 30 years, but those activities stopped with the purchase. Day says the land has considerable historical and archeological artifacts. The tribe, he says, has not decided on any kind of development plan for the acreage.

Rincon and Pala

The expansion of Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort in Valley Center last year and Pala Casino Resort and Spa’s $105 million expansion the year before were driven by demand. “We had 201 hotel rooms when the property opened in 2002 and we couldn’t meet the demand,” says Janet Beronio, senior vice president and general manager at Harrah’s Rincon. By expanding to 651 rooms, she says, “we met the demand and then some, and people are responding very favorably.”

The Pala Casino Resort and Spa, located between Escondido and Temecula, attracts visitors throughout Southern California.

With its expansion, Pala offers 425 hotel rooms, drawing patrons from San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties. “In this business you want to be a total product,” says Jerry Turk, developer and managing partner. “Our guests were really asking for more hotel rooms and restaurants and we listened to what they had to say.” The Pala Band of Mission Indians, owners of the resort, are planning to renovate a few of the eight restaurants and adding a Mexican restaurant this summer. “In the gaming business, you need to continually keep your product fresh,” says Turk.

More Growth

Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson competes in Harrah’s Rincon World Series of Poker.

The new casinos expected to come online in the next few years probably will generate more interest in the casino gaming program at SDSU’s College of Extended Studies. Byxbee, the dean, says 120 students have either gone through the program or are taking courses now. Many of them have low-level jobs at the various Indian casinos and want to get into higher-paying positions. SDSU’s 15 teachers are tribal members from the reservations.

Pico, in his 23rd year as tribal chairman of the Viejas band, marvels at the growth of the industry. “Seventeen years ago, the first time I went to Washington for a gaming hearing, we barely had enough money to get there, barely had enough to pay the attorney with us. We really had to watch our dimes and nickels. When we got there, we had to carry our luggage three blocks to a hotel, which turned out to be in a red light district.”

Last month, Pico and his aides flew first-class to Washington. A limousine shuttled them from the airport to their hotel.

He does not view Indian gaming as an end in itself, but as a way to secure the rights of tribes to govern themselves and to improve the lives of their members. “Success for us is to bring our native brothers and sisters along with us,” says Pico. “If we are akin to them in anything, we are akin to them in our suffering, our past injustices, our recent existence in abject and grinding poverty. We still know how that feels. Now that we are affluent, it’s our moral obligation, or spiritual obligation, to reach out to our brothers and sisters.”

Yet Pico may surprise some when he says Indian gaming will one day cease to exist, “either because some studies are going to come out and find that gaming is inherently bad for people for whatever reason, or something is going to happen. Maybe they’ll open up commercial gaming in California.”

Pico insists he will never support Indian-sponsored gaming in urban areas outside of reservations. “We made a promise to the voters of California when Proposition 5 was passed,” he says. “Clearly, the voting public does not want casinos in their back yards. And we told them that wouldn’t happen.”