California | Opinion

Editorial: Tule River Tribe invests gaming revenues in community

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

The Tule River Tribe owns and operates the Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, California. Photo by Tamara Evans

With the Eagle Mountain Casino in California celebrating its 20th anniversary, a local newspaper praises the Tule River Tribe for creating jobs and putting gaming revenues back into the community:

Eagle Mountain opened its doors 20 years ago last month. It began as a small, three-trailer operation with just 300 slot machines, four tables and about 100 employees. While the tribe would have liked to open that facility along Highway 190 above Success Lake, it settled on its current location on the reservation. In 2000, the tribe took the giant leap and constructed a 20,000 square-foot, full-fledged casino.
Since 2000, the casino has been added on to several times and today it has 1,200 slot machines, 11 table games and employes approximately 500 full and part-time employees.
What stands the Tule River Tribe apart from many others is how it has used the revenue from the casino. While tribal members do benefit, much of the profits are put back into the reservation and other economic endeavors, such as the Oak Pit restaurant in Porterville. The tribe has created hundreds of jobs, not all just for tribal members.

Get the Story:
Editorial: Casino has been a good neighbor (The Porterville Recorder 7/6)