Desert Diamond Casino West Valley near Glendale to open Sunday after long battle

Paul Giblin | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Sneak peek at Desert Diamond Casino West Valley Sneak peek at Desert Diamond Casino West Valley. Here's a look inside the new gambling facility near Glendale.

Desert Diamond Casino West Valley set to open Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. and remain open indefinitely

Gambling hall will offer 1,089 gaming devices that look and play like slot machines

Facility will debut without table games and alcohol as legal entanglements continue

Gamblers will have a new venue to test their luck starting Dec. 20, when a southern Arizona tribe opens a casino in the West Valley.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is scheduled to unveil its fourth casino in Arizona at the edge of Glendale, about a mile north of the Westgate Entertainment District and University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Desert Diamond Casino West Valley marks a turning point in the tribe's ambitious effort to test the limits of gaming compacts that have governed American Indian casinos in Arizona since the 1980s. The tribe has prevailed over other casino-operating tribes, as well as an array of municipal, state and federal entities and officials, which have used courts and public forums to challenge the new casino.

Opponents contended that agreements reached by the state and tribes don't allow the Tohono O'odham to open a casino on land it purchased miles outside of its historical reservation boundaries. The Tohono O'odham countered that federal law allowed it to replace flooded reservation land and the state agreements permitted the tribe to build a casino on the property.

The tribe's legal gamble has paid off — at least in part. The tribe's initial temporary casino is set to open for the public on Sunday and to remain open 24/7 indefinitely.

Casino/resort built in phases

The Tohono O'odham are developing 135 acres of former agricultural land at Northern and 95th avenues. Approximately 54 acres have been taken into trust by the U.S. Department of the Interior as reservation land.

The first phase of the development is a low-profile boxy building that will serve as a temporary casino. Later, it will be converted into a warehouse to support a larger permanent casino, hotel and convention-center complex that will be developed within several years.

The privately financed, $200 million temporary casino is set to open with 1,089 gaming machines, which by outward appearances look and operate like slot machines.

The devices' internal mechanisms differ from true slot machines. They're actually bingo-based gambling devices. The odds of winning on the bingo-based machines are approximately the same as the odds of winning on traditional slot machines at the tribe's other casinos, according to a tribe's slots manager. However, he declined to disclose the odds of either type.

The casino also will debut without poker tables, blackjack tables and alcohol, which are standard features in other casinos in Arizona.

The concessions were made in part because the Arizona Department of Gaming withheld a full Class 3 gaming license, claiming the tribe committed fraud by not disclosing plans for the West Valley casino while negotiating its state compact.

The Arizona Department of Liquor hasn't granted a liquor license. Casino operators expect to obtain a liquor license around February.

The Tohono O'odham will operate the West Valley facility as a Class 2 casino under provisions of the National Indian Gaming Commission, rather than as a Class 3 casino under state guidelines, said casino spokeswoman Treena Parvello.

The tribe will convert the casino to a Class 3 gambling operation if it is successful in court in overturning the state's ruling, she said. The tribe so far has notched 17 favorable court and federal-agency rulings during its quest to open the casino.

In the meantime, patrons shouldn't notice the difference between the casino's bingo-based machines and traditional slot machines, said Don Ayers, slots director for all four of the Tohono O'odham's casinos. The machines feature the razzle-dazzle video, light and sound effects of traditional slot machines.

The casino will offer a bingo-based array of the industry's most popular machines, including Wheel of Fortune, Jumpin' Jalapenos, 5 Frogs, Buffalo Thunder and 88 Fortunes.

"88 Fortunes is probably the top earner on most casino floors right at the moment," Ayers said. "It's the new game out that's very popular. People really like it. They like the play mechanics, and the progressives hit a lot."

Progressives are the big jackpots.

A few machines in the casino will be linked to a wider network of Indian casinos nationwide and offer $1 million jackpots, which, according to a running scroll on the machines, pay out somewhere around the country every two to four months.

The not-quite-slot machines offer a variety of price points. Some can be played for as little as a penny a spin. Others cost several dollars.

A focus on accessibility

The machines are arranged in a single 50,000-square-foot space in a manner that creates enclaves, but provides lines of sight and easy pedestrian access throughout the facility, Ayers said. Accessibility was a prime consideration.

"I don't know if I should say this or not — we shopped our competitors and saw where we had opportunities to be better," Ayers said. "I spent a lot of time in every one of them and saw the good things that they do and saw the things where there were opportunities for us to maybe do a little better, to be innovative."

Most of the not-quite-slot machines lack arms to pull. Instead, they feature buttons. Gamblers feed the machines with plastic cards and pre-loaded paper tickets, relieving gamblers of the burden of carrying coins or paper money.

Every machine has a wide-seat and wide-back chair, and the aisles between the rows of machines are wider than in most Arizona casinos. Ticket-redemption kiosks are arranged strategically on the floor.

"We have Sun City that's close, and we wanted to make sure that we are accessible for everybody," Ayers said.

The casino is lit by a spacey overhead light system, with large interconnecting rings hanging in some areas and large twisting tubes in others. The rings and tubes shift colors, fading from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple, changing the atmosphere in the gaming area with each turn.

The lights also can be adjusted to create specific moods. For instance, they can illuminate the casino in Christmas colors on Dec. 25 or in the colors of the college football teams that will play in the national championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium on Jan. 11.

Large-screen televisions hang in clusters throughout the facility, including at the alcohol-free sports bar. The TVs can show live events, such as college and professional sports, or video spots created within the casino, Ayers said. Imagine a patron accepting an oversize check moments after winning a jackpot.

Somewhere above the lights and TVs is a heavy-duty air-filtration system, intended to whisk away cigarette smoke. Smoking will be permitted throughout the West Valley casino.

The facility also will feature a food court with side-by-side restaurants that sell burgers, pizza, salads and other quick-service items. Self-serve drinks are free.

That's just the beginning.

Years of construction

Construction on the site will continue for years, according to tribal leaders.

They envision a larger casino, complete with slot machines, blackjack and poker tables, a 400-room hotel with standard and suite options, a full-service bar, 100,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, additional restaurants and retail outlets and other amenities.

Once fully constructed, the complex is expected to create more than 3,000 permanent jobs, both at the casino complex and in the surrounding area, according to the tribe. The casino is projected to generate millions of visits a year and an economic impact of more than $300 million a year.

Glendale officials previously took the tribe to court in an effort to halt the development, but dropped the unsuccessful suit after spending millions of dollars on legal fees.

City officials have since taken a more conciliatory position. Glendale reached an agreement with the tribe in August 2014 to support the casino. The tribe committed to paying Glendale $26 million over 20 years.

"From a development standpoint, the addition of a resort and entertainment venue of this nature is complementary to the existing sports and entertainment district," Glendale economic director Jean Moreno said in a written statement.

The city has not analyzed the casino's potential economic impact on Glendale, she said. Glendale receives no tax revenue from the casino, because the casino is on reservation land, just outside the city limits.

Support from county residents

Meanwhile, likely voters in Maricopa County generally support the new West Valley casino, according to a survey conducted last month for the Tohono O'odham by the national polling firm Moore Information, which is based in Portland, Ore.

"While many voters are unaware or remain undecided on the casino and related issues, the clear majority among those who have an opinion is to allow the West Valley casino to open without congressional interference," said Bob Moore, president of the polling firm.

Approximately 66 percent of county voters knew the casino was in development, according to the survey, which was released Dec. 11. Of those, 58 percent supported it, while 24 percent opposed it and 18 had no opinion.

The top reasons people supported it was because of its job creation and economic impact, the tribe's right to develop the land as it desires, and because the West Valley casino would serve a region without an existing casino.

The findings were based on a telephone survey of 500 likely voters conducted from Nov. 21 through 23, according to Moore Information. The sampling error is plus or minus 4 percent.

The Gila River Indian Community and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which operate casinos in metro Phoenix, have opposed the Tohono O'odham's plans to open another casino in the market.

Gila River Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said the casino's opening will only strengthen opposition by other tribes, elected leaders and residents across Arizona and the country.

"Sadly, the Nation has built its casino on a foundation of broken promises and fraud," Lewis said in a statement.

"The voters of Arizona were promised gaming would remain on traditional tribal lands, never encroaching on neighborhoods, near schools and residences. It's a sad day to see those promises broken. But the fight for honesty and justice will absolutely continue," he said.

Reaction by parents of students at Raymond S. Kellis High School, about a half-mile east of the casino, has been split. They have generally cited the casino's potential effects on the area's commerce, traffic and character.

Vote in Congress

The tribe started construction on the casino months ago, then gained renewed momentum in November when the U.S. House of Representatives rebuffed an attempt to stop construction.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., introduced legislation to block the casino's opening, but the measure failed to gain approval from two-thirds of the House members on Nov. 16, which would have allowed it to move forward.

The legislation was championed by rival tribes simply to protect their market shares, according to Tohono O'odham Chairman Edward D. Manuel.

"The special interests spent $17 million trying to rush this harmful bill through, but in the end it came down to the facts," Manuel said at the time.

"The more that members of Congress examine this legislation, the more they recognize how harmful it is for Arizona workers, the (Tohono O'odham) Nation and tribes across the U.S."

Franks told The Arizona Republic that he will continue to pursue any option available to him to halt the casino. He said Tohono O'odham leaders deceived Arizona voters by negotiating a gaming compact without disclosing their intent to build a casino at Glendale's edge.

"Our bill simply would require that the promises made at that time would be kept until there was a new compact discussion. People of Arizona voted on the compact. They voted to allow casino gambling on the reservations," Franks said.

The Tohono O'odham's claims about the casino's economic impact are similarly disingenuous, he said.

"They try to say what a tremendous economic boon this is going to be, but the nature of this type of business is to redistribute revenue rather than to actually create goods and services that bolster the economy long-term," Franks said.

The casino will make gambling more accessible for West Valley residents, including the estimated 2 percent to 3 percent of the population that has gambling problems, said Steve Feinberg, a member of the board of directors for Arizona Council on Compulsive Gambling.

The casino's proximity to Sun City is worrisome, because retirees have less ability to recover from gambling debt than people who still are in the workforce, he said.

"These people have kind of been … inundated by the lure of these casinos," Feinberg said. "They see these commercials on TV and you see an awful lot of smiling faces. You never see any disappointments. The image these casinos seem to exude is something that's different from reality."

Casino spokeswoman Parvello said the tribe will follow Arizona Department of Gaming guidelines concerning problem gamblers. Signs will be posted in the casino, and employees will be trained to spot and assist compulsive gamblers in seeking treatment.