Kalispels Score Jackpot Even A Delayed Opening Doesn’T Keep Hundreds From New Casino
Curious and with money in their pockets, throngs showed up at the new Kalispel casino in Airway Heights on Thursday morning ready to gamble.
But a polite doorman in a red jacket waved them away, at least for an hour or so. The $29million gambling hall wasn’t ready for guests, despite a full-page ad in the morning paper, despite TV and radio news reports saying it was open.
“It’s like Christmastime. All the gifts are wrapped, the tree is decorated. We just need someone to say `You can open the presents,”’ said Marianne Guenther, the casino’s public relations coordinator.
Washington State Gambling Commission regulators were still making their final checks inside the building.
“We won’t approve an opening until all the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted,” said Mike Tindall, the Washington State Gambling Commission agent in charge of overseeing the Kalispel opening.
Tindall wasn’t kidding. When clear plastic tip boxes - meant to hang off the back of gaming tables - didn’t show up Thursday morning, the tribe had to come up with an alternative procedure for handling tips to the dealers, he said.
It was just one example of the hundreds of details the commission looked at before letting the tribe open the casino.
“In this business, the inventory is cash. We want to make sure the public is protected and the assets of the tribe are protected,” Tindall said.
Meanwhile, Lynn and Edna Baldwin sat in their idling car in the casino parking lot. The retired couple had driven from the Spokane Valley to see the casino. They arrived at 10:30 a.m. and were prepared to sit in their car an hour, waiting for the doors to open.
“We’re just nosy,” Edna Baldwin said. “We go to Worley a lot for bingo.”
Worley, Idaho, is home to the competing Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s casino, and the Baldwins were there for that opening as well.
“They don’t have bingo here, but we wanted to see what it was like,” Edna Baldwin said.
The Kalispel Tribe has been scrambling to open its casino during the holiday season. Last week, it sent out a news release saying it would open the day after Christmas. It missed that date, but many local media outlets didn’t hear. People have been showing up since Tuesday rattling the doors.
The Baldwins figure the false starts wouldn’t hurt the casino, and the day seemed to prove them right.
Around 10:45 a.m., the casino’s general manager, Bruce Didesch, opened the front door and waved those waiting inside.
About 100 people came in. Workers were still closing covers on electronic machines designed to mimic slot play. A man with an orange hard hat and matching orange ladder still worked in the poker lounge. Outside, a crane operator was working on two bare black poles where a sign was to hang.
By early afternoon, the place was packed with more than 1,000 customers, and there wasn’t a free phone line as the casino fielded the same question over and over: Are you open?
Standing amid the chaos of sounds and people, tribal councilman Curt Holmes looked around and said, “I think we were correct in thinking this area could use another entertainment venue.”
With just under 300 members, the Kalispel Tribe hopes to use revenues from the casino to fund a variety of social service programs. With its traditional reservation near Usk, the tribe has suffered generations of extreme poverty and high unemployment.
The response of gamblers on opening day was positive.
“I think this is fantastic. It’s cleaner, it’s newer, it’s got a more open feel,” said Senior Airman Louis Pak, from nearby Fairchild Air Force Base.
“I’ve been to all the big casinos in the area, and this is the best,” he said while playing roulette at a packed table.
Evie Sickels of Spokane said the Kalispel casino would likely draw her away from her usual haunt of Worley.
“This place is great,” she said, as she played one of the slotlike machines. “It’d be even better if I hit a jackpot.”