500 jobs expected at new casino

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Expect five to six hundred new jobs in the area of Grant and I-10. That’s the workforce the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is expecting for a new casino complex it’s now able to build there.

The Pascua Yaqui tribe has Casino del Sol and Casino of the Sun to the Southwest of Tucson Now an act of Congress has declared land the tribe owns near I-10 and Grant as official tribal land. That allows another casino to go up there.

Casinos owned by the Pascua Yaqui and the tohono O’odham provide entertainment and plenty of jobs throughout southern Arizona.

Now the site of an old movie theater near Grant and I-10 will be cleared to become the home of a new casino for the Pascua Yaqui tribe.

Tribal Chairman Peter Yucupicio is looking forward to creating jobs for tribal members and Tucsonans in general on land he remembers from back in his childhood.

“Now it's in the possession of our tribe and I used to go there when it was Olson Dairy and also a bunch of shops towards the north west corner of that property and now you know, what a blessing as we move forward and try to figure out how we can develop that area so everybody in the Tucson area, and the adjacent barrios can have a place they can call their own.”

The new casino should provide a boost to the Pascua Yaqui community nearby; and its location close to downtown will offer opportunities for people who might have a hard time reaching work at casinos farther from the center city.

Kim Van Amburg is CEO of Casino Del Sol. She expects groundbreaking in a year or year and a half, with an operating casino in two to three years. A hotel may come later.

And she expects to hire at least five hundred workers.

“I think most people think of casinos. They think of dealers, and they think of slot attendants. Right. But really in a casino, you have food and beverage, you have gaming, you have hospitality, you have finance, right. So the number of opportunities and the breadth of those opportunities is pretty amazing.”

We should have a better idea of how the new casino will look in maybe three months after tribal leaders meet with team members and the community.

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