10 year old casino is at center of tribes booming economy
For Kelso resident Jim Guenthner, the trip north to the Lucky Eagle Casino is a weekly event.
"This casino is a very nice casino, and it's a very well-run poker room," he said while taking a break from the tables at the facility between Rochester and Oakville on the Chehalis Indian Reservation.
Guenthner, who plays only poker at the casino, said he likes the Lucky Eagle because of the free coffee and the clean atmosphere. He said he usually spends $200 to $500 per trip to the Rochester-area casino.
It's gamblers like Guenthner who have brought the most business to the Lucky Eagle since it opened a decade ago. They come from Centralia, Chehalis, Olympia and elsewhere in southwestern Washington, plugging money into electronic gaming machines and betting on a blackjack or a straight flush.
The Lucky Eagle just marked the 10-year anniversary of its opening. The casino held a powwow to celebrate, and an ongoing game of tic-tac-toe against a live chicken is available to patrons.
But for the past 10 years, the Lucky Eagle has been about more than just games for the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, which owns the casino.
It's the foundation of the tribes' growing economy.
The casino is the reason the confederated tribes have been able to expand their business ventures to include a gasoline station, construction company and hotel. Profits from the Lucky Eagle also have allowed the tribes to develop a plan to build a new medical clinic and police station.
Ask Chehalis Tribal Chairman David Burnett about economic development on the reservation, and he won't start by talking about the Lucky Eagle Casino. No, he'll tell you about the new baseball fields, the proposed new public-safety building and the plans to build a new medical center.
It's not that Burnett doesn't recognize the casino's role in making those projects possible; he does. (baccarat rules) But Burnett hopes, in the long run, the Chehalis tribes will be known for something more than the Lucky Eagle Casino.
"I don't want to be known as a gaming tribe," he said. "I would like to have enough economic development that we're known as an economic-development tribe. My desire is to see that we have enough other business that the casino is not the sole source of revenue."
When the Lucky Eagle opened in 1995, the confederated tribes had one source of revenue: a small general store next to the tribal center. The casino didn't start making a profit until 1999, and it now devotes 85 percent of its profits to economic development, Burnett said.
The remaining 15 percent is doled out in payments to the roughly 700 members of the tribes, he said. About 700 people work at the casino, and about 300 of those employees are members of the tribes, Lucky Eagle general manager John Setterstrom said.
In addition to the gas station on Highway 12, the confederated tribes wholly own one construction company, Chehalis Tribal Construction, and partially own another, called Saxas.
Saxas (which in the Chehalis language means "to build") is building the tribes' economic-development crown jewel: the 69-room hotel across the street from the casino. It is to open at the beginning of July.
The tribes also have been in talks with the Wisconsin-based Great Wolf Resorts to build a convention center and water park in Grand Mound, though Burnett said that venture is still in the discussion stage.
"We are hopeful that an agreement could be reached to go into business together," he said.
The development is exciting for the tribes, but Burnett said he is happier with what they can do with that economic freedom. With worries of financial survival not the primary concern, the confederated tribes may focus on celebrating their heritage, such as holding classes in traditional basket making and the native Chehalis language.
Plus, tribal members may go to a public college and the Chehalis tribes will pay for tuition and books.
When that program began in 1999, fewer than 10 students took advantage of it, Burnett said. This year, the number has grown to 40 — both teenagers and adults, Burnett said.
"That, I think, is as satisfying as anything to know our tribal members' kids in high school — that if they go to college — the tribe is going to assist them," Burnett said.
The Lucky Eagle Casino opened its doors in 1995 with the Las Vegas-based Bally's Casino as a partner, boasting blackjack, craps and roulette tables, along with a small deli and a restaurant.
In 1999, after federal case law paved the way for electronic scratch games, the Lucky Eagle expanded, bringing in the events center, a buffet and a cabaret restaurant.
Now, the 85,000-square-foot facility offers 558 (of the 625 allotted) electronic machines and 20 table games. During the weekends, between 3,000 and 4,000 people come through the doors of a casino that, at the time of the expansion, was worth about $30 million, according to general manager Setterstrom.
And, Setterstrom added, the Lucky Eagle is sending out buses to bring in people from as far away as Seattle and Yakima.
"People are traveling past some of the larger urban casinos to come to our casino," he said.
The confederate Chehalis tribes are fortunate for what the Lucky Eagle Casino has brought them, Chairman Burnett said, but he doesn't want to count on that cash cow forever.
Last year's statewide effort to pass Initiative 892 — which would have allowed nontribal businesses to operate electronic scratch machines, shaving off the tribes' corner on the state gaming market — failed, but Burnett sees a time when a similar measure could pass.
"I try to operate under the idea that [gaming revenue] is not always going to be here," he said. "Either people will get tired of Indians getting special treatment, or the competition will increase."
Burnett is happy for what the casino has brought the Chehalis tribes for the past 10 years. But economic development for the future, he said, may lie elsewhere.
"In my opinion, those who are looking to diversify are being wise, but you just never know," he said.
