The third casino of the Aqua Caliente Band, the Agua Caliente Casino Cathedral City, opened November 25 during the Thanksgiving weekend. The others are in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage.
The Coachella Valley, California casino is midway in size between the first two. It has 30,000 square feet of gaming space, 500 slots and eight gaming tables. Its outdoor pavilion will, once the world reopens from the pandemic, be able to host live entertainment, food truck events and other gatherings.
Dining includes the 360 Sports bar, Café One Eleven, and the Java Caliente coffee, juice and salad bar. It has about 300 employees.
The band Tuesday before Thanksgiving quietly announced the opening and visitors began gathering in the parking lot that Wednesday waiting for the doors to open at 10 a.m.
The city had known the casino would open by the end of the month said Cathedral City Mayor John Aguilar, who added, “We’re incredibly happy and proud of our partnership with the tribe. What a great economic boost to our community, and especially now during the pandemic, to have that facility open.”
Revenue from the casino will be used to fund a tribal court system and tax commission and address homelessness on the reservation.
The tribe traded land with the city for land that was adjacent to the existing reservation and put it into trust. It broke ground on the project last November. The project replaced the $250 million sports and entertainment arena that had been planned in Palm Springs. The tribe withdrew its support from that project in April and refocused its attention on the casino and a cultural center in Palm Springs.
That project, the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza, will open before the end of this year.
