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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2020)
sNok signflz SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 7 Sports betting kicks off at Spirit Mountain Casino By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor Spirit Mountain Casino started accepting wagers on college and pro- fessional sporting events on Friday, Aug. 28, becoming the third Tribal casino to offer the amenity in Oregon after Chinook Winds in Lincoln City and the Mill Casino in Coos Bay. Spirit Mountain Casino selected Roar Digital LLC, a joint venture between MGM Resorts Internation- al and GVC Holdings, as the Grand Ronde Tribe’s sports betting partner earlier this year. Roar Digital opened the BetMGM Sportsbook at Spirit Mountain Ca- sino. The 2,590-square-foot sports betting area includes 30 seats, 16 large-screen TVs, including a 14-footer, and is adjacent to the Peak Bar so that guests can access sports bar-type food, such as pizzas (whole and by the slice) and Na- than’s hot dogs. Spirit Mountain Casino General Manager Stan Dil- lon said the advantages for the casino over the Oregon Lottery’s sports betting option are that people do not have to set up and fund The sports betting area at Spirit Mountain an account beforehand and they can wager on college Casino features eight self-service kiosks on which guests can wager on college and sports. “If you’re out here at Spir- professional sports. it Mountain, the basis for this is if you decide you want to self-service kiosks with “very sim- make a bet, you can simply walk ple software” on which people can up to a counter and place a wager place minimum $5 wagers as well, on a multitude of different types he added. of sports,” Dillon said. “I think it’s In general, Dillon said, wagers will just going to be a good amenity be limited to a maximum of between for us that we have to have in our $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the position as the largest casino in the game and previously placed wagers. state. We really cannot not have a Despite the COVID-19 corona- sports book.” virus pandemic canceling PAC-12 In addition, there will be eight Conference fall sports, Dillon said Photos by Timothy J. Gonzalez Work continues on the Odds wall in the new Spirit Mountain Casino sports book in preparation for it opening on Friday, Aug. 28. Guests are now able to place wagers on national and international sporting events, as well as college sporting events. the silver lining is that it gives Spirit Mountain a “soft opening” during which employees and guests can be- come familiar with the new offering. “Unfortunately, at the time we started planning and building this, there wasn’t a virus,” Dillon said. “We really couldn’t stop. We really had to go forward, but that works well for us because it becomes a soft opening so the guests get to know how to use the equipment and ev- erything.” Dillon said there are no restric- tions on which sports casino guests can wager on, adding that he expects college football’s bowl season and college basketball’s March Madness tournament to be very advantageous for the casino once they return. BetMGM Sportsbook also will roll out an onsite sports betting app by the end of the year that will be lim- ited to people on the casino property. BetMGM has 13 other sports books in Nevada, Mississippi, Mich- igan and New Jersey. The Grand Ronde Tribal Council approved a compact amendment with the state in October 2019 that allows Spirit Mountain Casino to offer betting on sporting events. “This will be the place to meet your friends and watch a game,” Dillon said. “The idea is that this is an amenity that says you don’t need to stay home and watch the game. You can come out here and we’ll have it, and you can bet on it.” Grand Ronde Road was last significantly reconstructed in 2009 ROAD continued from front page Grand Ronde Road was last signifi- cantly reconstructed in 2009 and com- pleted in 2010 for $4.8 million using a mix of Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service and Polk County funds. The two main culprits of continuing potholes are a combination of moisture issues with Grand Ronde-area soil and heavy trucks using the road as a shortcut to Highway 18. In other action, Tribal Council: • Approved applying to the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency for a grant not to exceed $100,000 to fund Tribal staff participation in overseeing two specific cleanup ar- eas of the Portland Harbor Super- fund site on the lower Willamette River; • Approved applying for the Tribe’s annual $118,845 allocation of Low AMERICAN INDIAN TEACHER PROGRAM Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Planning and Grants Manager Kim Rogers said during the Tuesday, Aug. 18, Legislative Action Committee hearing that the “routine” funding helped 190 Tribal households in 2019 with a majority of the money paying for heating costs; • Amended a previous enrollment resolution that included one more roll number than was necessary; • And approved the enrollment of four infants into the Tribe because they meet the requirements out- lined in the Enrollment Ordinance and Tribal Constitution. The entire meeting can be viewed by visiting the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and clicking on the Government tab and then Videos.