Tribal Casinos Aim for Events Jackpot

Think it'd be a stretch to hold your next tradeshow or conference in an Indian bingo palace? Before you banish the idea, think about this: Today's tribal casinos aren't smoky shacks at the end of dirt roads, but modern gambling empires with all the comforts of many tradeshow destinations, albeit on a much smaller scale.

In the roughly two decades since tribes embraced gaming, industry growth has been brisk. Regulated by the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and governed by state compacts, gaming has proven an effective economic development tool and major employer for federally recognized tribes.

The most well-established casinos are furthest along in evolving from casinos to resorts, pumping proceeds back into their operations to fund roads, golf courses, spas, restaurants, shopping areas – and, of course, ballrooms and breakout rooms. And as they make the leap from casinos to full-fledged resorts, they naturally seek bookings for those shiny, new digs.

A prime example of the trend is Mohegan Sun, which opened in October 1996 and finished a $1.7-billion expansion in July 2002. Located on 240 acres in Uncasville, Conn., the resort is within driving distance of New York and Boston, as well as Providence, R.I. and Hartford, Conn. That puts potential customers – and potential competitors – in close proximity.

"Usually it's casinos first, meetings second. We are the complete opposite," said Patrick Sullivan, the resort's director of hotel sales and marketing. "We have all those city amenities and we're just as beautiful, and yet we're at 35 to 40 percent of the cost of doing an event in the city."

Sullivan said Mohegan Sun's expansion, which brought meeting space to 100,000 square feet, was carried out with conventions in mind. Its 40,000 square foot ballroom has 25-foot ceilings, full production facilities, is divisible into 10 smaller rooms and can accommodate up to 180 10'x10' booths. The Mohegan's 10,000-seat arena, home to the WNBA's Connecticut Suns, can be used as exhibit space too.

During a recent meeting of the Northeast Human Resources Assn., for example, the arena housed 160 exhibits and a general session for 1,500 was held in the ballroom, Sullivan said.

The resort, operated by the Mohegan tribe, can hold up to 5,300 people in its meeting space, and boasts 14,000 square feet of pre-function space, group registration suites, a staffed business center, an audiovisual company and airport transportation.

Mohegan Sun offers 1,200 hotel rooms, a theater that seats 300 and a live-music venue that accommodates 350 people. An indoor pool, 30 restaurants, a 20,000 square foot spa and 130,000 square feet of shops round out the amenities. Oh, and of course there are roughly 3,000 slot machines and 300 gaming tables.

Another venue eyeing the convention and meetings market is Turning Stone Casino Resort, the Oneida Nation's decade-old central New York state facility where a $308-million expansion project is underway. The venue currently hosts more than 700 meetings per year and can seat 2,000 people in its convention center. Total meeting space measures 30,000 square feet. Once the expansion is completed in September, seating capacity will increase to 5,000 and meeting space to more than 90,000 square feet.

The expansion will also add a 287-room hotel, a 98-room all-suites lodge, two golf courses, a 2,400-car parking garage, a spa and a 5,000-square-foot events center. The resort currently has one championship golf course and two 9-hole golf courses, in addition to a 285-room hotel, 62-room inn and a showroom that seats 800. It counts among its amenities a spa, salon, fitness center, pools, shops and seven restaurants.

Turning Stone began courting a few meetings in 1997, after its hotel was built. The volume picked up when the Oneida Nation added a convention center in 2000 and a golf-course clubhouse and more meeting rooms in 2002.

Hotel rooms were a critical piece of the puzzle, said spokesman Mark Emery. After the expansion, Turning Stone will offer 700 rooms. Groups that have met at the resort include the Society of Broadcast Engineers, Maine's Food Shows, Kinney Drugs and Nationwide Insurance's Sales College.

"It's worked out great," said Tom McNicholl, convention chairman for Chapter 22 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. "Their facility is fantastic. We've had absolutely no facility problems."

The chapter has held its annual convention, which includes more than 100 exhibitors, at Turning Stone for five years. Previously, it met at a facility in Syracuse.

Turning Stone – which is changing its name to Turning Stone Casino Resort in recognition of its new resort status – is just one of the Oneida Nation's business enterprises. The tribe also operates a 175-site RV park, 92-site campground, convenience stores and gas stations, two marinas, a car-care business and a national weekly newspaper, in addition to producing textile designs and gaming software.

The Pechanga tribe's Temecula, Calif. location was remote when the casino was established in 1995. But now that Temecula is a bedroom community of San Diego, it is better positioned to fill its full-scale casino resort, which opened in June 2002. The resort features 522 hotel rooms and suites, 2,000 slot machines, a 1,200-seat theater, seven restaurants, a health club and 40,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

Indian casinos may be trotting out meeting space left and right. But Dianne Wyss, the Natl. Indian Gaming Assn.'s director of casino and industry relations, said they have a ways to go before they can fly with the municipal convention center eagles, since they aren't yet big enough to host their association's annual event.