Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon, Southern California is in the midst of a renovation and expansion that will add 800 slots, increase the gaming floor by 30 percent, add a nonsmoking section and create 400 jobs to join the existing 2,500. The tribe broke ground in January and work is expected to be completed next summer.
The gaming floor will be expanded by 65,000 square feet, with the addition of a new bar and lounge and dedicated nonsmoking area. The first floor will get new paint, carpets, lighting and interior features. Dining areas are being entirely replaced.
Some first floor work has already been completed with some eateries already open, including Pink Coffee, a Parisian-style café, and a sports bar and restaurant dubbed Good Times Café. An Asian fusion restaurant has almost completed construction.
The Morongo Band of Mission Indians claims the expansion will generate $3 billion in collateral economic activity. Tribal Chairman Robert Martin called the tribe “the real economic driver” for the Banning Pass area. Before the casino many local residents had to commute to San Bernardino, Riverside or Palm Springs for work. Now many of them work at the casino. “That’s satisfying to be able to do that. And they’re good paying jobs,” he told the Desert Sun.
Ultimately the band hopes to develop the area surrounding the casino with dining, tribal offices and perhaps a hotel, Martin said. According to the casino’s marketing department, it attracts about 1.5 million unique visitors annually.
Reflecting the times, the parking structure will set aside more than 70 “premier parking” spaces for electric cars.
At the January groundbreaking Martin declared that the tribe had “come a long way from the tiny bingo hall we operated on the reservation back in the 1980s.”
