first californian credit union soboba casino

“Twenty years ago, California Indian gaming was hotly contested and perceived as the unregulated ‘Wild West’ of the gaming industry, whereas today California Indian gaming is widely accepted as a great employer, a good responsible neighbor that is highly regulated and operated with a high degree of integrity,” Sirois said.Īs the casino has thrived, so have the tribe and the neighboring the communities of Hemet and San Jacinto.

The proposition authorized the governor to negotiate compacts with federally recognized tribes on Indian lands to operate casinos under specific rules that regulated the numbers and types of machines and card games.

The compact with the state that was created after voters approved Proposition 1A in 2000 has changed how Indian casinos are perceived. “Technology has really revolutionized every aspect of what we do here as opposed to 20 years ago.” “Facebook, Twitter and email and other Internet-driven communication has become an integral part of how we let everyone know what is going on here at Soboba,” Sirois said. He added that social media have changed the way the casino reaches out to players. “The variation of slots has really exploded as well as the themes.” Now we have ticket-in, ticket-out and have basically eliminated coin and tokens,” he said. “Twenty years ago, we had all coin-operated slots. Sirois, who has been general manager for 18 months, said the biggest changes at the casino are related to technology. Soboba Casino is a very different place than the original Legends at Soboba. “We’re not chasing the same big acts like properties around us,” Broderick said. While other Indian casinos book big name entertainers into their showrooms, Soboba relies more on cover bands and cage fighting in its open-air arena covered by an awning. “But the reality is we draw all ages and genders, occupations and socioeconomics from all over Southern California,” he said. “If you want to understand America, come to a property like this,” he said.Ĭasino General Manager Scott Sirois said that from a purely demographic standpoint, the typical Soboba visitor is a 58-plus-year-old Latina from the Inland region. “They have more blackjack tables than other casinos,” she said.īroderick calls the casino a melting pot, with players of all ages and from all walks of life.

Recently, she was playing two hands of 21 – and collecting a large pile of chips. Sherri Percival of Riverside said she comes to Soboba a couple times a week. The original bingo hall became Legends and the facility expanded by 25,000 square feet in February 1999 and 20,000 more in 2001.

But since the current casino opened in 1995, it has thrived and today boasts 2,000 gaming machines, 22 tables and nearly 700 employees.

First californian credit union soboba casino