Betting on gambling
Thousands enjoy Fire Rock VIP night
Employees prepare food for guests at Chei's Grill inside the Fire Rock Casino which is opening on Wednesday. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Karen Francis

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

CHURCHROCK — With the Navajo Nation’s first casino set to open its doors to the public on Wednesday, VIPs flocked to a special preview of the Fire Rock Casino Sunday evening where they were treated to cuisine from the casino’s restaurants and had the opportunity to try out slots, bingo and table games.

Hundreds of invited guests and officials came out to get a glimpse inside the brand new casino, and the consensus seemed to be they were very impressed with it. The casino features slot machines, table games, a poker room, a 406-person capacity bingo hall, a restaurant and two fast food options.

The theme of the casino is the Four Sacred Mountains with renditions of the mountains in the appropriate directions. The entrance is to the east and a fire is in the center of the facility, such as in a traditional Navajo home.

“It’s out of this world compared to other casinos. It’s beautiful. Everyone is happy. They thought they’d never see this,” Churchrock Council Delegate Ernest Yazzie said.

“I think it’s great! It’s about time,” Roberta Arnold from Tohatchi said as she looked over some of the casino’s slot machines. “I’m really impressed. I’ll be here all the time.”

The casino has a total capacity of 2,800 people and about 2,000 were expected at the VIP event, including former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and National Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr.

The VIPs were given bags with silver mugs and vouchers to try out the machines. The machines weren’t taking cash though, and many were wishing that the winnings they were getting were real.

“Tonight is a fun play night but those vouchers allow people to test the machines. It gives us the opportunity to see how the machines are working, see how our slot attendants are doing, see how our employees are doing. This is meant to be practice,” Gaming Enterprise Chief Executive Officer Bob Winter said.

Currently, the Fire Rock Casino is employing about 240 people, of which approximately 92 percent are Navajo. When fully staffed, there should be about 270 employees, Winter said.

Budget and Finance Committee Chairman LoRenzo Bates said that the casino is one of the cleanest he has ever visited.

“The way it’s laid out with the mountains, it’s impressive,” Bates said as he watched a blackjack game.

Bates also said that he saw people smoking but he didn’t see any smoke in the air, which is usually noticeable in smoking areas.

Winter said that the casino has a ventilation system that is second to none.

“As you’re walking around, you’ll see vents on the floor. The floor is raised so that smoke is lifted out of the building from the ground up,” Winter said. “The table games have their own ventilation system that creates a wall of air between the patron and the dealer so that our dealers are basically in a smoke-free atmosphere.”

While smoking is allowed mostly in the slot area, the casino’s restaurant Chei’s Grill is non-smoking, as is the poker room. There are also non-smoking slot areas, and the bingo hall is half non-smoking.

With a spectacular view of the red rocks of Churchrock, Chei’s Grill, with a chef from Austria , served up steak and crab meat sandwiches, salad and appetizers such as fruits, cheese and crackers, and mozzarella sticks.

Winter said that the gaming enterprise has sent the application to serve alcoholic drinks to the Department of the Interior and is hoping to get a license for the restaurant by Thanksgiving.

“Alcohol is limited to the dining area, number one, and number two, you have to have some food in order to receive an alcoholic drink,” Winter said.

Guests also had more options to please their palates. Just off the casino floor is a food court with an Asian noodle bar and a place for Native foods. On Sunday employees served lamb stew and fry bread.

In remarks before the audience outside the casino, President Joe Shirley Jr. said, “We set out early on to make this a purely Navajo controlled operation by not entering into a development agreement with a management company which would have cost us 30 percent of our profits and an additional 18 percent in interest.”

“By establishing our own gaming enterprise and by hiring our own Chief Executive Officer, we ensured 100 percent of the revenues with our gaming operations and for our Navajo people. It is my understanding that no other native nation in the United States has been able to use exclusively their own tribal financing and their own tribal expertise and staff as we have here on Navajo,” Shirley said.

Phefelia Johnson, from the Navajo gaming enterprise, said that the enterprise is now looking to make the next casino with a resort and spa.