A decade ago, the main news stories coming out of Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city just across the border from El Paso, Texas, were about drugs, cartels and violence.
The city, then a major drug-smuggling corridor where rival cartels staged bloody street battles, has worked hard over the past few years to clean up its act, with murder rates sharply declining and new tourist attractions springing up. Those attractions include half a dozen casinos, and the owner of one of them, Raul Rodriguez, has a new plan.
Rodriguez has announced a plan for a new casino in Ciudad Juarez, one designed specifically to lure tourists from across the border in Texas, where casinos are illegal.
The Room 802 casino, named for its own street address, will open in an upscale building that is already home to trendy bars and eateries. It will be the only casino on the Texas/Mexico border with a full complement of table games, including house-banked tables like blackjack and roulette and several poker tables, with the region’s only Texas hold ‘em offering.
“We expect a lot of tourists,” said Casino Manager Yajaira Yesenia Valtierra Casillas in an interview with Austin TV station KVUE. “Because we are just across from the U.S., we expect a lot of people from that country.” The casino is a 15-minute drive from El Paso.
The new casino is the latest to take advantage of Mexico’s liberalized gaming policy. The nation’s regulatory agency has issued hundreds of gaming permits under new rules recently upheld by Mexico’s Supreme Court.
In a separate interview with the TV station, Jose Arturo Ramos, director of special projects for Ciudad Juarez, noted that the new property will give Texans a viable alternative to traveling to Las Vegas. “It is another plus for the city, especially in Texas, where you don’t have to travel a long way,” he said. “If you don’t have the time or the money to travel to Vegas, you just cross the border.
Ramos was instrumental in opening a new tourism office in El Paso that will offer round-trip shuttle service to Ciudad Juarez’s historic downtown section, where the casino is located.
