The following story was written and reported by Ernestine Chasing Hawk. All content © Native Sun News.

LARCHWOOD, Iowa — With more than 900 slot machines, 24 table games and an eight table poker room, the 250,000 square foot Grand Falls Casino Resort will officially open its doors June 9.

The hotel opens with 97 rooms and includes indoor and outdoor pools and an indoor/outdoor hot tub. It also has a 1,200-seat events center and three restaurants. The casino will employ 750 full-time and part-time employees, with average full-time wages of $27,500, plus benefits.

Kehl Management Co. developers of the casino, located just six miles southeast of Sioux Falls, estimate that it will bring in $70 million a year. The casino opens amid fears that South Dakota gaming revenues, which have already taken a hit because of a smoking ban implemented last November, might take another hit.

Gaming revenues across the state have dropped more than 17 percent from the same period last year. According to the South Dakota Bureau of Finance, November through May gaming revenues were $19 million less than last year. Iowa also has a statewide smoking ban but exempts gaming floors from the ban.

De Knudson Sioux Falls City Councilman said last year that South Dakota has 8,900 video gambling terminals in 1,470 establishments throughout the state and that more of those terminals are located in Sioux Falls than anywhere else.

Targeting the Sioux Falls market, Lyons County Commissioners unanimously passed Grand Falls Casino plan citing that it was not a threat to Iowa’s 17 other casinos because it would draw 80 percent of its revenue from other states.

Members of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe also expressed concern that the Grand Falls Casino would draw players from their Sioux Falls customer base.

According to a report they commissioned, a study by KlasRobinson QED, a Minneapolis-based hospitality-consulting firm the state will lose $18 million a year in video lottery revenues to the Grand Falls Casino.

In 2009, FSST leaders partnered with state legislators Sen. Gene Abdallah, (R-Sioux Falls), and Sen. Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem, (D-Sioux Falls), who co-sponsored a bill that would have allowed voters to decide whether the state constitution should be amended to allow a casino in Sioux Falls. The measured failed.

However Mike Long a member of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe said opening of the Grand Falls Casino does not pose much of a threat to the tribe’s Royal River Casino.

He said the smoking ban in South Dakota helped raise revenues at Royal River and that the tribe is being assisted by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Community to expand and upgrade.

“That’s why we are flourishing right now. Shakopee told us not to worry. They are the ones helping us. They told us to just fix the one that you have, don’t worry about building another one,” Long said.

He said plans include a water park, a shopping mall and expansion of their hotel, “They are trying to make it a destination place for families,” and that they’ve already broke ground on the water park.

Mable Tapio, a Sioux Falls resident who frequents the Royal River Casino said she plans to attend the opening of the Grand Falls Casino because they are offering free shuttle rides and great door prizes.

However she has heard rumors that Royal River has loosened their slots to attract more customers.

“They are definitely attracting more customers. One of my friends told me if you have twenty bucks you should go up there and spend it,” she said.

The FSST is also currently in litigation with the State of South Dakota over what they believe is a failure to negotiate their expired gaming compact in “good faith.” They are scheduled to go to trial July 11.

Federal law allows tribes to expand their casino operations without state interference once it is found that a state failed to negotiate in “good faith.”

The opening of the Grand Falls Casino in Larchwood seems to bear out that the market could have handled many more machines, but now South Dakota in their fight against the tribes stands to be the biggest loser in the casino wars.

(Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at managingeditor@nsweekly.com)