Tribal Casinos 3.0

By Roger Gros and Dave Bontempo

Those of us who can remember the birth of tribal government gaming recall the rudimentary buildings that housed the slot machines or a few table games. Some tribes used converted community centers. Others rented trailers and lashed them together, so finding your favorite machine was something like the Yellow Brick Road. Still others erected Sprung Structures, which were essentially large tents crammed with slots.

It didn’t take long for tribes to realize that these temporary facilities were holding them back, and they began to build more elaborate casinos, sometimes with small hotels and a few restaurants. As quickly as they upgraded, the market showed up, and those facilities were deemed outdated.

That happened quickly to the casinos nearest the most populated areas. Take Foxwoods, for example, the gaming effort of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. It started out as a bingo hall, and has expanded several times over the years. In 1990, the tribe won a high-profile legal ruling that held tribal gaming halls could offer the same gaming options that were permitted elsewhere in Connecticut. Since “casino nights” were a staple of charities in the state, that meant Foxwoods could install the table games that were the centerpiece of such events.

Instantly, Foxwoods added several buildings that would house the tables. But then-general manager Mickey Brown had higher aspirations. Visitors to the under-construction casino area were shown electrical conduits beneath the carpets, a sure sign the place was being wired for slots. And in just a year or so, Brown negotiated a deal with the state where the tribes (Mohegan Sun had begun its journey) would pay a 25 percent share of the slot revenue to the state— please don’t call it a “tax”—and the race was on.

It was something of an arms race between Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, as expansion at one property led to another at the competing property.

And even now, with fierce and abundant competition, the building goes on. Last summer during Foxwoods’ 30th anniversary, officials announced an $85 million expansion project that they call the “next-generation casino.” It includes:

• 50,000 square feet of gaming space to include both table games and slot machines

• A 13,000-square-foot celebrity chef branded restaurant to be revealed later this year

• New high-limit slot area

• An expansive 40-seat bar featuring over 35 slot machines

• New Grand Pequot Cage that will support both casinos

• A new 15-seat public bar

While this is modest compared to previous expansions, which included hotel towers and separate boutique hotels, meeting space, a zip line attraction, an outlet mall and many other amenities, it shows Foxwoods’ management understands that it must keep up with the new competition to maintain their market share.

And that’s not all. In February, Foxwoods broke ground on a $300 million Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor-outdoor waterpark with families as the primary target market. The partnership, similar to its deal with the Tanger Outlets, will expand the attractions that today reach far beyond gaming.

“For us at Mashantucket, it’s always been a vision of ours to have a resort beyond gaming, and councils long before any of us who are standing here today were dreaming about having an indoor waterpark here,” said Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

The facility will include over 550 family-friendly rooms, a 91,000-squarefoot waterpark and a 60,000-square-foot dry entertainment center with things like a ropes course, mini bowling, restaurants and an arcade, and is expected to bring more than 500 jobs to the region.

Loaded Gun

The Gun Lake Casino was just a glimmer in the eye of Michigan’s Match-EBe-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, better known as the Gun Lake Tribe, when the Mashantucket Pequots opened Foxwoods in the early 1990s. In fact, at that time, the Gun Lake Tribe had only just applied for federal recognition, often a long and drawn-out process. But the tribe had all the required history and could back it up, so five years later, it achieved recognition and began the equally arduous process of taking land into trust for a reservation.

Five years after that, the process was concluded and the tribe hired Station Casinos to build and operate the Gun Lake Casino, which opened in 2011, ushering in a new era of economic prosperity. Station built a serviceable casino for the tribe but it quickly realized something larger would be necessary, and the first expansion was under way. Now in phase five of its expansion project, led by current President and CEO Sal Semola, who was hired following the end of the Station management contract, the Gun Lake Casino is about to add a hotel and an “Aquadome,” an indoor swimming space with multiple pools and areas for banquets and entertainment.

Semola came on board at the end of phase four and is enthusiastically supporting the fifth. But even phase five is playing catchup, as the two closest competitors will still have larger properties than Gun Lake.

“When I first came on, I came on midway through what was characterized as the phase three expansion, which was rather modest in the sense it was maybe 100 slot machine additions to the casino floor,” Semola says. “But it was really about a connector building for a parking garage that was needed in anticipation of meeting the needs of future expansions due to the increased traffic and also the depletion of existing surface parking.

“And then phase four, which we just completed in September 2021, consisted of three new F&B outlets and began to set the table for phase five.”

Paul Bell, the lead architect for HBG Design, says the expansion was a reaction to the desires of Gun Lake tribal leadership.

“The Gun Lake owners have set their sights on creating a premier entertainment destination resort in the Midwest,” says Bell. “They want to expand their catchment zone to include larger cities as far away as Chicago and Detroit. I think this fifth phase will create that true super-regional resort with an expansion program designed to drive that traffic in from both of those metropolitan areas.”

Semola explains the location of Gun Lake Casino and why it has been necessary to constantly grow.

“We are just outside of Grand Rapids located off highway 31, which is the north-south artery for Western Michigan,” he says. “So it’s highly trafficked, and we’re equidistant between Grand Rapids, which is the secondlargest city in the state, and Kalamazoo, Michigan as well.”

Semola says that the area is growing quickly.

“Our area is somewhat rural—we’re in the town of Wayland—but in just the time that I’ve been here, we’ve seen a lot of growth and development in the area. Even the airport—Grand Rapids International Airport—is undergoing an expansion. And Grand Rapids itself is kind of moving south towards where the casino’s located. So, they’ll continue to benefit from that growth as well.”

Although phase five is the first project that HBG, which has 40-plus other tribal clients, is doing with the Gun Lake tribe, Bell is already impressed with the leadership.

“I and many of my colleagues here at HBG Design we’ve realized that competition in most markets continues to be intense,” he says. “Progressive owners are always elevating their amenity offerings to keep up with that. While the casinos will always have their bread-and-butter patrons at the resort, we also see a continuing trend of owners working to attract more diverse, multi-generational customers through unique out-of-the-box non-gaming amenities, the Aquadome being a prime example of this.

“In addition, retail, other non-gaming entertainment brings in all ages of people to fit this goal. Owners create through this, these opportunities, a lot more revenue and continue to stay relevant and top-of-mind in the market.”

Bell praises tribal leadership for bringing their vision to the tribal economy. They are currently developing a non-gaming mixed-use development on tribal land that will diversify the economy.

Semola agrees about the foresight of tribal leadership.

“The tribal leaders are extremely forward-thinking,” he says. “I think that when you take into account that they’ve only been on their own, outside of the umbrella of a management company for four years, they’re much further along in terms of that cycle of evolution, in terms of how they look at business and the future. So, as tribal gaming enterprises become more mature over time, they realize that there’s economic opportunities that they can comfortably participate in outside of the sovereignty umbrella, and they become more comfortable investing in that area.”

Bell also credits Semola as being a driving force behind the gaming expansion.

“He has been an absolute joy to work with,” says Bell. “He is a very fun, energetic leader. He’s extremely passionate, an entrepreneurial leader for Gun Lake. He has been engaged in the design process from the beginning. He’s really a key driver in Gun Lake’s long-term development vision.

“I believe beyond what we’re working on with him right now, the current phase five project, as he is constantly looking ahead for new opportunities to identify the next big thing that will attract the market to Gun Lake Casino Resort and maintain a cutting-edge position across the industry and marketplace.”

Semola says the idea for the Aquadome came to him while he was at a conference at Harrah’s Atlantic City, which has a similar facility, a dome over several pools and hot tubs. But the Aquadome is different, he says.

“The Aquadome is designed to be a multi-purpose atrium, and it has three pools. It has a family-oriented pool which is located adjacent to a concession snack bar and some locker rooms. It also has an adult pool that is tiered with a VIP-level pool with a swim up-bar. That creates this great vibrant environment during the day—hot or cold seasons—where their guests can come and enjoy the aqua elements.

“But at night, this facility then converts over to an entertainment facility that is able to provide live performances as well, and sell VIP cabanas and so forth around the pool for those live concerts or DJ dance events, whatever type of entertainment we would choose to engage in based upon their market feasibility and entertainment preferences.”

The tribe chose the right designer for this kind of element—Bell says that

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although the idea for the Aquadome came from the tribe, HBG has lots of examples.

“We have done massive atriums in the past for Gaylord resort properties,” Bell says. “One in Orlando, the Gaylord Palms, and we did another one in Grapevine, Texas called the Gaylord Texan. Those were much larger than this. So we have learned through those project experiences how to design a dynamic atrium environment.

“Now while those were designed for a completely different purpose than what this one is designed for, we went to the school of hard knocks on both of those projects. The shape of the Aquadome really is derived from all the sun angles and site analysis to create an optimal environment for indoor swimming and aquatic activities during the day.”

Semola wanted more from the Aquadome than just swimming, however.

“We were focused on building a hotel convention space and the Aquadome, all three of those pieces, from a construction standpoint, from a financial performance standpoint, and without question, the Aquadome modeled the best,” Semola says. “But what it didn’t give us was that even playing field as it pertains to some of the other casinos in the area, where they could do a sit-down concert or a large banquet. We needed a 2,000-capacity event type of space. So looking at the Dome, the challenge was how, do we get as much versatility in that space as possible?

“Ultimately working with the HBG design team, we came up with the idea of the pools being pushed out of the center, not just one pool, but multiple pools pushed out, which opened up the center. So now we can have that sight line for those types of concerts, or we can just make it a party with a DJ—your typical nightlife. For banquets, we built a production kitchen where we can easily accommodate up to 800 people. We are just looking to try to create as much versatility and utility value out of the space as possible. And I’m really happy with the way that it’s evolved thus far.”

Muckleshoot Magic

The Seattle area is very competitive when it comes to tribal gaming. Lots of the reservations where the casinos are located are land-constrained, but recently, there has been a rush of expansions on the books, including the Muckleshoot casino. And this one will be worth the wait.

Muckleshoot’s four-year, multi-phased expansion project speeds toward a fall 2023 completion. The final piece will be a transformative 18-story resort tower, rising to a prominent 198.8 feet with a definitive glass exterior.

The elevated vantage point will provide a priceless view, including a panoramic look at Mt. Rainier, the Olympic Mountains and the Seattle skyline.

Design changes that pushed back the opening from 2022 to 2023 will enable the property to make a more grandiose entry into the marketplace—and it will be grandiose indeed.

The new tower will be the tallest building between Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, according to company officials. The casino is located in the Seattle suburb of Auburn.

The immense glass edifice will be adorned with several cutting-edge features, such as:

• A steakhouse on the roof of the building

• An indoor-outdoor pool

• A spa with 5,500 square feet, including 10 private rooms

• Numerous restaurants

Along with the building’s height, it will represent the Muckleshoot Tribe’s growing presence in the gaming world.

It will be similar in profile to the statement made in Connecticut over the years by the aforementioned Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casino expansions. The new buildings are a sign of economic health, vitality and the intent to accommodate larger gambling throngs.

Officials hail the finished expansion project as an inducement for adult getaways that span attending a concert, eating at high-level restaurants and getting a massage, all with a view that won’t quit.

Once the tower is completed, Muckleshoot will have 157,000 square feet of continuous gaming, 29,000 total square feet of event space and almost a dozen dining choices.

The hotel is the final phase of construction in a huge expansion project announced in February 2019. The expansion plan included a redesigned casino floor with 10,000 additional square feet of gaming space, three new restaurants and a new center bar, a 20,000-square-foot Events and Conference Center, a new exterior facade and a Muckleshoot Tribe History Cultural Center.

It celebrated the grand opening of its new Caesars Sportsbook just two days before the Cincinnati Bengals played the Los Angeles Rams in the 2022 Super Bowl.

The impact accelerated during the 2022-23 season, as the book operated for the entire season. That meant six months of substantial weekly betting action on professional and college football, sports wagering’s two highest revenue sources during that time.

Features at Caesars Sportsbook at Muckleshoot include:

• Video wall (12-by-24-feet) showing multiple games

• 20 big-screen TV monitors

• Seating capacity for 92 guests

• Four live betting windows and nine self-service betting kiosks

Tribal officials say that Muckleshoot also offers the largest smoke-free gaming area in Washington state.