The Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians held a grand opening last week for its renamed Sycuan Casino Resort, so-called because it now includes a 12-story $260 million 302 room hotel.
The expansion also includes a lazy river pool feature, a top-of-the line steakhouse along with other eateries, including Hodad’s, Phil’s BBQ and Lucha Libre. Also added was a 1,200 seat entertainment venue and 60,000 square feet of additional gaming floor. This gives it room for 2,800 slots and 54 tables.
It also created jobs for 850 new employees.
The VIP list at the ribbon-cutting included San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Sycuan tribal leaders and casino executives.
Tribal Chairman Cody Martinez declared, “Just two years ago, we broke ground and we committed to becoming the premiere gaming destination in San Diego County and today, we delivered on that promise.”
The Sycuan Band, which opened the first tribal bingo parlor in 1983, becomes the last gaming tribe in Southern California to open a Las Vegas style resort. It thus joins eight other Indian casinos in the region that have undergone extensive expansions.
But this expansion has had its casualties. Pala Casino Resort & Spa gave up its planned second hotel tower and booted its chief executive officer. Its new CEO Fred Buro told the San Diego Union Tribune “The casino market condition in Southern California is severely predatory and promotionally over-heated.”
Some experts call the Southern California casino market saturated but Howard Stutz executive editor of Las Vegas-based CDC Gaming Reports told the Union Tribune he disagrees. “It’s a very competitive market … that’s why you change up what you have, like with Pechanga’s expansion and with Sycuan,” he said.
Sycuan’s general manager, John Dinius, agrees with Stutz: “We’ve operated a very successful casino for years and it just felt we maximized everything we could do with this property,” he said. “In the past, we didn’t have the amenities to attract anyone not particularly interested in gaming.”
Now they will be able to attract people who want more from a night on the town than playing slots or the tables. Dinius says Sycuan’s new resort, which is 100 percent smoke free, will make it competitive with its nearest rivals, such as Barona Resort & Casino and Viejas Casino & Resort—which also completed recent expansions.
Dinius said the expanded space means that they won’t be overcrowded as they were becoming on weekends. “I’m very excited that we can accommodate more players,” he said. “From a business perspective, it’s the additional 800 slot machines we have on the floor that’s going to repay that investment. … It really opens the potential to drive an incredible amount of revenue.”
The youthful members of the tribal council drove the decision to create an integrated resort that brought on Clique Hospitality, a Las Vegas-based group that developed the steakhouse Bull & Bourbon and the luxury Elicit lounge, which are all geared towards Millennials.
According to Dinius, “It puts us on a level playing field not just in San Diego but also Las Vegas.”
