CHRIS MERRILL Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:00 am
RIVERTON - The new Wind River Casino sits atop a sage- and grass-covered bluff overlooking Arapahoe and Riverton, with panoramic views of three different snow-capped mountain ranges.
But the hundreds of customers who drove here on a sunny day Tuesday came not for the sights, but for the slots. And to check out the new digs.
The Wind River Casino, a 24-hour Las Vegas-style gambling operation, unlocked its doors Tuesday morning, as part of a "soft" opening in advance of its June 5 "grand opening."
It's the outcome of years of effort by the Northern Arapaho tribe to offer casino gambling on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
The well-lit, tan-carpeted main room is filled with clusters of slot machines - about 750 total - and eight card tables for blackjack and three-card poker games. About 200 chiming slots were in operation Tuesday, and the rest remained dark and silent, many of them still wrapped in plastic.
Outside, contractors were finishing the landscaping around the building, and workers were pouring concrete for sidewalks and loading doors in the rear of the facility.
The new casino is eight miles south of Riverton on Wyoming Highway 789.
The casino's previous location, just down the road, was a converted bingo hall with 8-foot-high ceilings and was hazy with an almost permanent cloud of smoke, regulars said Tuesday.
By contrast, the new building, designed by architect Charles Schiffner of Phoenix, is a large, lofty hall with a specially designed air filtration system intended to minimize cigarette haze and odors, said casino CEO Jim Conrad.
"With better air, less smoke, more tables and more than 200 more machines, we anticipate head counts will go up by more than 25 percent," Conrad said. "The tribe and lots of people started working on this over 12 years ago. Some of them are dead now. Many people came before those of us you see working on this now, and this is a tribute to all of them."
The tribe won the right to offer Las Vegas-style gambling in 2005 after a five-year legal battle with the state of Wyoming.
A federal court also decided that year that Wyoming had failed to negotiate with the tribe in good faith, and as a result, the tribe is allowed to operate its casinos without a revenue-sharing compact with the state. So all of the revenues from the Wind River Casino will go to the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
The Arapahos are the only tribe in the United States that manages gambling operations without a revenue-sharing state compact, according to Jenni Wildcat, a primary regulator with the Northern Arapaho Gaming Agency.
The old Wind River Casino will be converted back to a bingo hall in the coming weeks, and its smoke shop will be expanded, said Al Hubbard, a casino manager.
Customers should find the new, 45,000-square-foot facility with gift shop, restaurant, sit-down cafe, conference and VIP room quite an upgrade over the previous operation, Conrad said Tuesday.
Three years ago the casino had 60 employees, and within a few weeks it should have over 425, he said. Opening the new operation has created 75 jobs, with more expected down the road.
Schiffner, the architect, said he was still putting the final touches on some of the design details Tuesday afternoon. He said he planned the exterior of the building to "harmonize" with the landscape - matching its green and tan colors with the sage and soil around it. And inside, one of the primary concerns was keeping the air fresh, he said.
"We're able to get as much as 100 percent air exchange," Schiffner said. "And the exchange of air can adjust with the number of smokers in the room. A lot of effort was put in to ensure that the effects of cigarette smoke were mitigated."
There is also a separate non-smoking room with about 80 slot machines for those who don't want to deal with any smoke, mitigated or otherwise, he said.
Mary Headly, an area resident, came out Tuesday to check out the new casino.
She owns land in the area and she said she's excited about future development she believes the casino will spur.
"It's gorgeous. It equals the ones I've seen in Arizona," Headly said. "It's good for the economy. We fought long and hard for this."
Ronald White of Ethete also came out Tuesday to see the new operation. White was also impressed, and he indicated that the casino has a way of bringing people of different races, classes and backgrounds together - which, to him, seems like a positive thing.
"I see a lot of people from different denominations in there," White said in the parking lot on his way out to his car. "I think it will be a good thing for the community and the city of Riverton."
Reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.
Some local officials have expressed concerns in the past about the growing casino business on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
In addition to the Northern Arapaho Tribe's new Wind River Casino near Riverton, it has a smaller casino in Ethete. And the Eastern Shoshone Tribe has opened its own casino near Lander and has plans to build more.
Doug Thompson, chairman of the Fremont County Commission, told news media last month that he believed the new casino will probably exacerbate problems associated with casinos such as increased traffic, waste and law enforcement calls.
"I don't think it's a good thing for the community, but it doesn't do any good to oppose it. It's already there," Thompson said in March. "I don't believe gambling is the best form of economic development for anybody, because of the social problems that go along with it. They're draining a lot of money out of the county and also their own tribal members."
Riverton Mayor John Vincent, however, has a different take.
"From past experience, I think the project will be beneficial, overall," Vincent said Tuesday. "There are a lot of people working, and many are Native American people who maybe haven't had the best job opportunities in the past."
The local casino business has created good jobs, job training and basic job skills, he said. The Wind River Casino, for example, gives its employees drug tests and requires them to have either a high school diploma or a GED - all of which helps to strengthen the community.
"It's also important to note that there's health insurance out there for the workers and their families, which is important for them and for the town of Riverton," Vincent said.
- Chris Merrill]]->