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Northern Winz Casino opening this week
By KIM SKORNOGOSKI
Tribune Staff Writer
The Northern Winz Casino is ready to lay its hand on the table.
Roughly 1,000 tribal members are expected to attend opening-night festivities Wednesday for the more than 20,000-square-foot casino located six miles northeast of Box Elder on Highway 87.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m., tribal members can tour the casino, eat a free dinner in the Starlight Steakhouse & Café and have a chance to win $1,000 in a poker tournament. Prizes will be given away at the door, along with drawings for cash prizes of $500 and $1,000. The evening ends with a bang as fireworks will be set off at around 9 p.m.
The casino will open to the public with less fanfare Thursday at 9 a.m. A more extravagant grand-opening ceremony is planned for March 30-31.
Bob Swan, business manager for the Chippewa Cree Community Development Corp., said he gets calls day and night from people wanting to know when the casino is opening. He's expecting a group from Canada to visit within the first week.
"It's the most beautiful casino in the state of Montana," Swan said. "Everybody's excited. Those who have seen it are just totally amazed. They can't believe it."
Anticipation has been building since construction crews broke ground in May. Employees are being trained this weekend as construction crews wrap up detail work.
The casino has hired all but 20 of the 148 employees that will staff the restaurant, sports bar and casino.
Casino Manager Jon Rider previously ran tribal casinos in Michigan and Oklahoma.
The casino floor holds 350 slot-style bingo machines and 10 Montana keno and poker machines. A separate poker room called Cubby's Den, after the late Jon "Cubby" Morsette, features four live poker tables.
The Starlight Steakhouse & Café seats as many as 110 people and has separate menus for lunch and dinner.
Alcohol will only be served in Rattlesnake Bob's Sports Bar.
The casino will be open 24 hours a day Thursday through Sunday and from 9 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. the rest of the week. Swan said that depending on the number of customers, casino management would consider running Northern Winz 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The project cost roughly $16 million. A second phase, to be launched this spring, will include a hotel, bringing the total cost to roughly $26 million.
"Once the public sees it, they'll see we're running a top-notch casino," Swan said. |
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