Washington’s Yakama Nation, owners of the Legends Casino Hotel, opened the hotel a year ago as a way to increase traffic at the property.
The 200-room hotel appears to be fulfilling that goal. According to General Manager Letisha Peterson the facility is book more conferences and events and players are staying longer.
“We are definitely living up to expectations,” Peterson told the Union-Bulletin. She plans to up the resort’s game further with live entertainment. She declined to release any numbers, but experience shows that hotels do make casinos more marketable.
The tribe has operated Legends since 1998. The property was a casino that included a buffet. In 2014 the tribe began a $90 million expansion that included a six-story hotel, a pool, spa, events center and expanded dining and gaming. Now the casino has more than 1,500 slot and poker machines.
Although the tribe doesn’t share how much money it makes, it’s contributions to local emergency agencies and community groups has increased from $800,000 five years ago to $900,000 leading some to speculate that the casino makes $5 million more in net revenue that it did before the expansion opened.
The new lobby employs elements of Yakama culture, such as a replica of the fishing stands that the tribe used on the Columbia River in the previous century. Another room shows off tribal history and crafts and a copy of the Treaty of 1855, when the tribe ceded 10 million acres to the U.S.
Now the resort draws on a Seattle and Portland market, as well as tourists. It is one of 27 casinos in Washington. Peterson says the casino plans to launch an advertising campaign aimed at residents in both of those cities.
She declares, “We are a destination location.”
