Two decades ago, The Pass was a mostly bare stretch for commuters traveling on the I-10 from Los Angeles to Palm Springs. Billboard advertising of upcoming prominent entertainment acts at Southern California tribal casinos was virtually nonexistent compared to today, but a promising investment was just around the corner.
On Dec. 10, 2004, the $250 million 27-story Morongo Casino Resort & Spa opened its doors. The casino tower became Riverside County’s tallest building, marking a new era of economic prosperity for the tribe and its surrounding labor force.
“My predecessors had a vision to expand our business,” said Morongo Tribal Chairman Charles Martin in a phone interview. “It just kept getting larger, and we needed a larger facility to serve our customers and employees.”
Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, will celebrate its 20-year milestone on Tuesday, Dec. 10 with live special performances by DJ Kid Jay and local R&B artist Eevaan Tre from 6 to 10 p.m. Guests will also be treated to food and drink specials at select restaurants, as well as belly dancers, jugglers, a plush disco couch, stilt walkers, magicians and a firework show at 9 p.m.
As part of the celebration, the casino will sell three commemorative chips set in denominations of $5, $25 and $100 to highlight its 20th anniversary milestone. The collector chips feature an image of the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa against a flourish of colorful fireworks.
Martin said he had just graduated high school when he first heard talks about the Morongo resort tower. After he finished college, he moved back and managed Casino Morongo, which served as the tribe’s gaming facility from 1995 to 2004. The property featured a dance hall, bowling alley, and diner but closed the same year that Morongo Casino Resort & Spa opened. Casino Morongo later reopened in 2018 as a separate property and part of an expansion project.
The opening of the tower and its ushering in economic prosperity is part of a more extensive history that extends far beyond a single California tribe. On Feb. 25, 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians that granted tribes sovereignty, allowing them to thrive economically by limiting the state’s ability to regulate gambling on reservations.
The landmark decision helped establish the infrastructure for reservations to use tax dollars for sewer systems, housing and other needs that were sparse for reservations at the time. That impact helped pave the way for tribes to experiment with bingo halls and card rooms as revenue opportunities to fully embrace a casino-resort hybrid that rivals Las Vegas while increasing revenue to invest in their tribes and its neighboring communities.
“We’re getting ready to complete a new fire station, and it looks great,” Martin said. “We’ve created a new tribal government administration building and a tribal police department and expanded those services and others like tribal health care. Within the last few years, we got a deal to provide helicopter services. Those services don’t only impact the tribe; they also serve the unincorporated surrounding areas and anybody who needs to be flown out of this area to a hospital. So much of what we do is not just for my community, but for the surrounding community as well.”
The resort tower has been an ongoing project that has included many renovations since it first opened 20 years ago. It includes 272 hotel rooms, a casino with nearly 4,000 slots, more than 80 table games, an in-home entertainment venue, a spa, a lazy river and a pool with a makeshift sandy shoreline surrounded by cabanas.
Morongo has also invested in its in-house eateries including fine-dining restaurants such as Cielo and full-service ones such as Mozen Asian Kitchen, and “Top Chef” contestant Fabio Viviani’s The Marketplace which replaced the property’s buffet. The property also includes various fast food and quick-service options such as Fiesta Taco, Ruffled Feathers, Good Times Café and Pink Coffee.
Despite all the investment over the years, Martin said he and other tribal members will continue to keep their hands on the pulse of innovation.
“I’m constantly vigilant and looking at what’s next, not only in gaming, we’re constantly looking for other ventures to go into so that going forward, the goal is to have a healthy community and business structure, not only just for the people here in Morongo but for the community in which we do business,” he said.
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