 Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter! |
Gaming News
California Tribe Plans Casino on Racetrack Site5 July 2002CALIFORNIA – As reported by the Sacramento Bee: "Developers of a planned Yuba County auto raceway have joined with an Oroville tribal group and are now planning to develop a major Indian casino resort on a racetrack site that the rural county has looked to for economic salvation. "Officials and residents in the hard-pressed county north of Sacramento had pinned their economic hopes on development of the racetrack, which promised to pack fans into a 45,000-seat grandstand to watch Indy-style racing events. "But the $100 million racetrack venture -- supported by 86 percent of local voters who backed a ballot measure to rezone 900 acres of agricultural land as a `sports and entertainment zone' -- never got off the ground. "Officials of Chicago-based Forsythe Racing Inc. say they are still committed to developing the racetrack project. But Tuesday night, they appeared before Yuba County supervisors and announced plans for an $85 million to $90 million casino resort to be developed on 40 acres in partnership with a 500-member Oroville tribal group known as the Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe or the Enterprise Rancheria. "…Under development plans outlined by the Enterprise Rancheria and Yuba County Entertainment, LLC -- a Forsythe subsidiary -- the casino project would include a seven-story, 170-room hotel and a two-story, 150,000-square-foot casino. "The plans mark the latest in a series of Indian gaming proposals that could transform the greater Sacramento region into a gambling mecca. "…In Yuba County, the newest casino proposal got a cool reception from supervisors who still clearly hope to see a racetrack developed on the 900 acres five miles south of Marysville near the junction of 40 Mile Road and state Highway 65. "`It is my position that I will not give them my support (for the casino) unless I have some assurances that there is going to be some sort of motor sports venue on that 900 acres,' Yuba County Supervisor Don Schrader said Wednesday…" |