The Coeur d'Alene Tribe plans to break ground later this month on a destination resort on its northern Idaho reservation, including a greatly expanded casino and a 110-room hotel.

Plans that tribal officials estimate will cost $32.5 million also call for a conference
center, golf course, indoor arena and recreational vehicle park, and expanding
employment from 450 to 700 jobs.

"We're going to keep a mountain lodge theme, and stamped into it a Native American identity -- in the tile, the carpeting, the fixtures -- all in a very elegant way,"
said David Matheson, the tribe's chief executive officer for gambling.

An expanded Coeur d'Alene Tribal Casino will add 1,000 video pull-tab machines, nearly doubling the existing number despite continuing objections from state leaders
who contend they amount to slot machines that are illegal under the tribe's federally
required gambling compact. The casino 25 miles south of Coeur d'Alene opened in
1993 with three of the disputed machines.

The larger casino also will feature new table games, possibly including a form of
blackjack with lottery cards and symbols and a racing game featuring mechanical horses, Matheson said.

The tribe paid off the original $2.9 million mortgage on its operation in three years.
Last winter it expanded the building to 120,000 square feet, including a restaurant, and built a gas station-convenience store.

The 1,600-member tribe reaped enough profits to pay for those $12 million in improvements and still put money into education, social services and land acquisition.

Plans now call for opening the hotel in late spring. The driving range also will be
ready then, but the golf course itself is scheduled for completion in 2001.

Gleaned from the Las Vegas Review Journal, Sept. 11, 1999.


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