From: slaven@iastate.edu (Dave Slaven)
Subject: Not Vegas, not Atlantic City, Onawa!
Summary: open now
Keywords: indian casino
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:36:49 GMT

[From the Des Moines Register]

Onawa, Ia. -- After performing an ancient ritual to seek the blessing
of the Great Spirit, the Omaha Indians began offering Las Vegas-style
gambling in a 30,000-square-foot casino along the Missouri River on
Wednesday.

	Speaking in his native  tongue, Lawrence Gilpin, an elder
statesman and tribal spiritual leader, sought good tidings from
"Waconda," an Omaha word for God.  [editor's note: i'm from Omaha,
and i've never heard that word used for God.  I always thought it was
an Omaha word for "junior high school on Curtis Avenue" :-)]  He also
blessed the hall with smoke from cedar wood, which his tribe considers
sacred.

	The Omaha religious rite was in stark contrast to the art deco
accents of the $6 million casino -- the second Indian gambling hall to
open in Iowa this year.  [the other is near Sloan, IA, which is about
halfway between Onawa and Sioux City. --ed.]

	The casino's plush interior features carpeting in teal, plum,
gold and black and 10-foot brass palm fronds with soft blue neon
lights.  [aren't neon lights by definition orange? --ed.]

	Tribal leaders and a South Dakota firm managing the casino
predict that it will be a huge success -- averaging 4,000 customers a
day -- more than any of Iowa's riverboat casinos.  [Of course they
do.  So did the horserace track in Des Moines, which has been steadily
losing money.  So did the two riverboats that recently sailed from
Iowa to Biloxi. --ed.]

[stuff deleted about how wonderful this will be for the economic
development of the tribe]

	The gambling hall, known as Casino Omaha at Blackbird Bend, is
40 miles south of Sioux City,  63 miles north of Omaha and west of
Interstate Highway 29.

	The Omaha Tribe is based in Macy, Neb., but the Indians are
able to operate the casino under Iowa's lowstakes gambling law because
the Missouri River changed course over the decades, placing a slice of
the reservation in Iowa.

	The casino offers 356 slot machinge, 11 blackjack tables, four
poker tables [After playing over 70 hands of Texas Hold'em during my
lifetime, i should be able to pretty much have my way with the
competition there :-)], one roulette table, one craps table and one
Big Six game.  There is also a 200-seat restaurant and lounge.

	The gambling hall will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday
through Thursday and 24 hours on weekends.

[Glowing optimism from mayor of Onawa and general manager of Casino
Omaha deleted, end of article.]


A little math here.  One thing i deleted was a statement by the
manager that their primary market would cover a 75-mile radius
encompassing 800,000 people.  (Recall, it's 63 miles from Omaha.)  At
4,000 a day, that means that everyone in the area will have to go
there every 200 days.  Of course, if only a tenth of these people are
interested in going more than once, then this means that they'll have
to go every 20 days.  We'll see.

-- 
Dave Slaven! 

"I'm not downhearted.  I am not downhearted.  
        I'm not downhearted, but I'm gettin' there."  --Mose Allison
Newsgroups: rec.gambling