TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The new Vahi Taaʼam Casino aims to be a beautiful place to play. A special video mural is one of the first things visitors see as they come in the front doors.
It’s under a dome designed to give a taste of the desert sky
The casino has a wide selection of places to eat. But the early VIP visitors really came to play.
“I'm hoping to get all the gorillas.”
Lining up Gorillas is how Lillian Rivera will win the game she’s chosen. She was happy to have an early chance to experience the new casino.
“I think that everybody is going to be totally impressed and really uh amazed at how gorgeous this place is.”
The Casino sits on the site of an old movie theater. The Pascua Yaqui tribe was able to make the land part of its reservation and use the site to create a casino close to the city, and easy to reach on I-10.
Casino General manager Lesah Sesma says it was exciting to see the new casino rise from the old theater site. She says the casino brings more to the community than a place to play.
“Tribal gaming, you know, we have a compact and in the compact we are able to give back to the communities so it goes to tourism, it goes to wildlife, it goes to public safety, it's so much more than just tribal gaming and a casino that's going to help out our specific tribe, it helps the whole state of Arizona, cities, counties, communities, so it's very important for the whole state of Arizona.”
And she says the casino creates about five hundred jobs for tribal members and people who are not in the tribe….and there are jobs that still have to be filled.
