The Gila River Indian Community of Arizona has announced plans to build a fourth casino near Chandler. It will join the existing Wild Horse Pass, Lone Butte and Vee Quiva casinos and be complete in 2024.
The plans worry some Chandler residents, who would be south of the tribal land where it would be built. The casino project will take two years to complete. It will join the existing Wild Horse Pass, Lone Butte and Vee Quiva casinos.
The Chandler residents’ main concern is traffic. But if new roads are built, the tribe will foot the bill.
Gila Community Governor Stephen Lewis made that plain when he said the new casino “will bring additional revenue, security, and critical services to community members. In addition, we anticipate being able to add hundreds of new jobs that community members can take advantage of, and we expect that many of those will be filled by community members, just as was the case at the Vee Quiva Casino.”
The south Chandler casino will reportedly be built on 580 acres that will also include a golf course, hotel and spa. Sunbelt Holdings President John Graham said it will fill a “missing corner” in the region when it comes to entertainment.
In announcing the casino the community said it “gave up its fourth casino in the 2002 gaming compact, based on the promise that there would be no new casinos in the Phoenix metro Area. That promise was broken, as you know, and we fought hard to ensure that we could reclaim our right to build a fourth casino as part of these recent negotiations.”
The reservation spans 372,000 acres and is home to the O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) people.
Chandler City Councilmember OD Harris promised to “communicate residents’ concerns and share plans for city infrastructure so tribal officials can make informed decisions regarding the development of the site.”
He added, “We will coordinate with the Gila River Indian Community, as we would with any new development, to address improvements that may be necessary to roadways owned by the city. As we obtain more information about the project, we will share it with Chandler neighborhoods and residents near the site.”
