Two Arizona tribes recently expanded their gaming operations. In April, the Tohono O’odham Nation broke ground on its new $450 million Desert Diamond Casino, located on unincorporated land near Glendale and Surprise in Maricopa County. And in June, the Gila River Indian Community’s $180 million Santan Mountain Casino opened just south of Chandler.
Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG) Public Information Officer Max Hartgraves said this mini-building-boom probably is related to amended tribal-state gaming compacts signed by then-Governor Doug Ducey in April 2021. The compacts expanded the type of games and number of table games and slot machines each casino can offer, within a certain area of Phoenix.
Under the amended compact, the ADG authorizes a maximum of 1,400 gaming machines, 100 card game tables and 150 table games at facilities located more than 40 miles from any municipality with a population of more than 400,000, such as Mesa, Tucson or Phoenix. As of January 1, 2022, about 550 card and table games were in operation.
Hartgraves said the Tohono O’odham Nation and Gila River Indian Community projects are the only casino construction activities he’s aware of in the state. But, he said, tribes typically don’t provide much advance notice about casino groundbreakings.
Currently, according to the ADG’s website, 16 tribes operate 25 Class III gaming facilities in Arizona, regulated by both the gaming entity of the tribe that owns the casino plus the ADG. “That’s a sort of 2-tiered regulation system, where each tribe regulates internally and is also subject to state regulation,” Hartgraves said, according to Pechanga.net.
Two Class II facilities in Arizona are regulated by the tribe that operates the venue, with oversight from the National Indian Gaming Commission under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Another six tribes do not have casinos but have slot machine rights they may lease to other tribes with casinos.
The 2021 amended compact also adopted technical standards for gaming machines; authorizes the ADG to inspect casinos; requires background investigations and licensing of casino employees and vendor companies; and requires tribes to contribute a portion of their net gaming revenue to state and local governments.
Also in 2021, the Arizona Legislature passed and Ducey signed a bill legalizing sports betting. While not limited to tribal casinos, this change reshaped the types of business and marketing each casino can do.
