Non-aboriginals like myself all too often stereotype Native American casinos as generators of instant wealth. Not so. Take the San Carlos Apache Nation, which operates successful Apache Gold Casino Resort near Globe, Ariz. The lucre from Apache Gold hasn’t been sufficient to lift the tribe out of a poverty-level economy, not even with a golf course and a Best Western Hotel.
So the San Carlos Nation is trying a second casino — as well as spending $10 million to spiff up the new one. But they’re also moving ahead with the Apache Sky Casino, destined for the “Copper Corridor,” described as a sparsely populated highway through small mining towns. It won’t be on the highway but a short drive off the main drag. The San Carlos Nation has been sitting on this project through the Great Recession but is preparing to break ground, in hopes of opening in April 2015. The $300 million project is meant to support 600 jobs. It’s meant to be, at first anyway, a pure gambling place, with 500 slots.
That all might sound a bit pie-in-the-sky but it’s in an area that’s short on hotel rooms. So if Apache Sky makes it to Phase II (150 hotel rooms), it might really be able to cash in on all those lonely drivers. But there’s a tragic irony: “We anticipate a good number of hires will come from off-reservation, perhaps half the new employees or more, because of the home-to-work travel distance involved for many Apaches currently living in San Carlos,” says Pinal County Economic Development member Tim Kanavel. So, even when trickle-down is meant to benefit tribes, it doesn’t always work.
