Gaming Gets Serious

Isleta's and Sandia's multimillion-dollar casinos are attracting new customers and transforming entertainment.

WHEN YOU SHELL OUT upwards of $110 million to build a casino--maybe small potatoes on the Las Vegas Strip but serious money in New Mexico--you had better get everything right. So when the impressive Sandia Casino opened recently at the corner of Interstate 40 and Tramway, General Manager Steve Penhall was understandably anxious.

For the most part, Indian gaming in New Mexico has been, relatively speaking, small bore. Indian gaming is a $10 billion industry in the United States (all gambling amounts to $40 billion a year) and about $400 million here. But that is sure to change, and fast, which is why Penhall's anxiety has dissipated. "We're doing really well," he said. In fact, Sandia's casino revenues have just about doubled from what the tribe had experienced at its old, tent-like structure (now empty) just across the Interstate from the new facility.

Indeed, along the New Mexico "strip"--1-25 between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, which includes another newly opened casino, the 100,000 sq. ft., $50 million Isleta Gaming Palace--the action is heavy. Currently under construction is a major addition to the Santa Ana Star Casino, owned by the Santa Ana Pueblo, just north of Isleta. The ultimate expansion will include a 288-room hotel, 3 new restaurants, a 3,000-seat special events center, a 36-lane bowling center and plenty of conference rooms.

And although gambling is what these pleasure palaces are all about, the casinos, with a small nod in the direction of Las Vegas, are also becoming major entertainment venues. Isleta, for example, opened its new facility with Jay Lena; Sandia followed with Bill Cosby. Isleta is really opening the entertainment gates and has announced appearances by the Four Tops, Johnny Rivers, Kenny Loggins, Randy Travis, the Temptations, Willy Nelson and Las Vegas's very own Wayne Newton.

That's about as close to Vegas as New Mexico casinos are likely to get. Do not expect to see scaled-down renditions of Paris, New York or Venice here. There won't be volcanoes, sinking ships or knights in armor to please crowds wandering down the New Mexico strip. The latest casinos here actually look as if they belong in New Mexico with the emphasis on earth colors, faux adobe and structures that maintain low profiles.

And at the Sandia Casino, there's a clean break with the Vegas variety: it actually has big picture windows that allow patrons to gaze at the glorious Sandia Mountains when they aren't glued to the slots. "Our guests are just thrilled," said Penhall, "especially those who thought there was some kind of law against windows in casinos." Of course, in Vegas, one would get to look at other casinos and hotels, not landscapes. There are no landscapes in Las Vegas.

And suddenly, casinos are big business here. Among the state's largest employers are Sandia, with 900 employees, and Isleta with 700. Sandia's annual payroll is approaching $25 million, with benefits.

But some municipalities that rely on gross receipts taxes to manage their budgets are fretting because they attribute a falloff in revenues to the casinos, which, because they are on pueblo lands, pay no gross receipts taxes. Sandia's Steve Penhall thinks the attitude is short-signed, pointing to that $25 million payroll and that $110 million construction bill that has helped spread the wealth. It might also be noted that cash from gaming is helping tribes build housing, clinics, schools and roads and is being used to create nongambling businesses like fiber-optic networks, electronics manufacturing and retail, from hardware stores to supermarkets.

In 1999, according to Robert Robinson, an economist with the Center for Applied Resources in Denver, some 41,000 jobs can be directly or indirectly attributed to Indian economic activity. One of the recent spinoffs is the luxurious Hyatt Tamaya Resort and Spa owned by the Santa Ana Pueblo. This $80 million resort, the first major destination resort in the state, sports a 350-room hotel, three restaurants and recreational facilities on a 500-acre site. It also employs more than 400 people.

The folks at nearby Sandia are watching carefully since they have plans for a hotel, golf course and convention center that could run $115 million or thereabouts, paid for by gaming receipts. Indeed, casinos and hotels seem to go together. The San Juan, Pojoaque and Tesuque pueblos north of Santa Fe all have casino hotels and the Mescalero Apaches near Ruidoso had a resort hotel--the Inn of the Mountain Gods--many years before they had a casino.

Casino employees have discovered a cornucopia of benefits available to them. At Isleta, for example, the package includes medical, dental, vision and life insurance; a 401(k) plan; free meals during work; discounts at area health clubs and daycare. And the casinos are hiring. The Isleta website says the casino is looking for craps dealers, lab technicians, shift supervisors, waiters, cooks, security officers and clerks. It also has jobs unique to casinos: cage cashiers and supervisors, soft count and hard count members and slots audit clerks.

There may even be some independent training available. Northern New Mexico Community College in Espanola is thinking about creating a casino management program not unlike a successful program managed by a community college in--where else?--Las Vegas (the one in Nevada). That shouldn't be surprising. Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute runs a "call center college" for the industry (which currently employs about 10,000); the golf course management program at New Mexico State University, which leads to a bachelors degree, is quite successful.

Gaming's Economic Impact, 1999
Economic Variables        Direct Impact  Secondary Impact
Employment                        4,671             6,594
Salary Income (millions)           84.2             142.1
Total Personal Income              91.2             244.3
General Fund Revenues              77.9              90.6
Fiscal Variables
General Fund Revenues              30.3              34.4
Economic Variables        Total Impact
Employment                      11,265
Salary Income (millions)         226.3
Total Personal Income            335.3
General Fund Revenues            168.5
Fiscal Variables
General Fund Revenues             64.7
Source: New Mexico Indian Reservation Economic Study
Group, 1999

COPYRIGHT 2001 The New Mexico Business Journal
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