Sycuan Casino begins expansion

The San Diego casino is set to begin the construction process for a 300-room hotel.

US.- Sycuan Casino announced this week that a new 300-room hotel will be built next to the existing casino. The US$226 million expansion that is expected to be ready by 2019 was presented ten years ago but it was later stopped because of the economy.

Sycuan tribal Chairman Cody Martinez said: “We began this before the recession in 2008 but the plans were shelved. We took them off the shelf because of the recent Hollywood Casino Jamul opening (in October) and Viejas’ expansion, and Barona is rumored to be expanding. So the tribe felt it was the right time to get behind the plan to expand and grow to a full resort destination.” The tribe signed a new gaming compact with the state in 2015 and will have the rights to operate gambling facilities until 2040.

With the newest project the casino will also expand its gambling offer and feature 2800 machines, 800 more than the current ones, and 38 more gaming tables. “Some players will assume we’re tightening up the slots to pay for this, and we want to get in front of them about this misconception. So we want to let them know we’ve positioned ourselves to afford this,” said John Dinius, general manager of the Sycuan Casino.