Glendale Arizona and Metro Phoenix Area local Gamblers will have a new venue to shake hands with Lady Luck starting December 20th, 2015 when the Tohono O'odham Nation opens a casino in the West Valley.
The Tohono O'odham Nation is a southern Arizona tribe who is scheduled to unveil its fourth casino in Arizona in Glendale, about a mile north of the Westgate Entertainment District near the University of Phoenix Stadium.
The Desert Diamond Casino West Valley marks a turning point regarding the limits of gaming compacts that have governed American Indian casinos in Arizona since the 1980's. The tribe has prevailed in a ruling over opponents that include other casino-operating tribes, city, state and federal officials and entities which have used the courts and public opinion to challenge the new casino.
Those that sought to quash the casino, claimed that agreements reached by the state and tribes during the purchase of the land don't allow the Tohono O'odham to open a casino on the land it purchased miles outside of its reservation boundaries. The Tohono O'odham fought back claiming that federal law allowed it to replace flooded reservation land and the state agreements do not prevent the tribe from building a casino on purchased land.
The tribe has prevailed in the legal battle and the tribe's temporary casino is set to open to the public on Sunday 12/20/15 and will remain open 24/7 while the fight continues to go from Class II Bingo Style Gaming Machines to a Class III Vegas Style gaming facility.
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.
Currently 16 different tribes operate 24 Class III gaming facilities in Arizona. Those Class III casinos may offer “Las Vegas style” gaming activities (slot machines, house-banked poker, and blackjack).
The Desert Diamond West Valley Casino and Resort will be built in phases. The Tohono O'odham are developing 135 acres at Northern and 95th avenues.
The first phase of the development is a low-profile building that will serve as the Class II casino.
The temporary casino is set to open with 1,089 gaming machines, which by cosmetic appearances look and operate like slot machines. The devices' mechanisms differ from true slot machines internally. They're actually bingo-based gambling devices, but the odds of winning are approximately the same as the odds of winning on traditional random number generated slot machines.
Some few machines in the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino will be linked to a network of other casinos nationwide and offer $1 million jackpots, which tend to pay out somewhere in the country 4-6 times a year.
Later, the tribe will convert the current building into a warehouse and a larger permanent Class III casino, hotel, shopping and convention center complex will be developed. If it is successful in court in overturning the state's ruling.
The Arizona Department of Liquor also has not yet granted a liquor license, it is expect to obtain it's liquor license around February 2016.
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