Pechanga Casino rivals the Las Vegas locals market

TEMECULA, Calif. – It’s a Friday night and the joint was jumping. The slot machines and gambling tables were packed with boisterous customers and a party atmosphere prevailed throughout the casino.

We just weren’t in Las Vegas.

On an early April weekend, a youth soccer tournament brought us to Temecula, a bedroom community about 275 miles from Las Vegas on the southern end of California’s Riverside County.

A decade ago, Temecula wasn’t anything more than a San Bernardino suburb and fuel stop for travelers along Interstate 15 on the way to San Diego.

Then the Pechanga Casino came along.

The 517-room hotel-casino could easily be mistaken for any property in Las Vegas’ locals casinos market. Its amenities and casino floor rival those offered by Station Casinos, Boyd Gaming and Cannery Casinos.

But Pechanga has also become a focal point in Temecula’s emergence as a weekend getaway for Southern Californians, possibly to the detriment of Las Vegas.

Old Town Temecula has more than 60 antique shops, specialty stores, restaurants, and bars. The nearby Temecula Valley Wine Country has grown over the past 10 years and is home to 30 wineries with tours and tasting rooms, giving Southern California a boutique version of Napa Valley.

In any Temecula visitation brochure, all avenues toward tourism point toward the Pechanga Casino.

Operated by The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, the 200,000 square foot casino is larger than the MGM Grand and has the biggest gaming space among California’s 65 Indian casinos.

Tribal gaming in California produced $7.34 billion in gaming revenues in 2008, according to the most recent Indian Gaming Industry Report produced by economist Alan Meister on behalf of Casino City.

California accounted for more than 27 percent of the $26.775 billion in Indian gaming revenues nationally in 2008 according to Meister’s report.

Gaming revenues are not broken out by individual casino. However, its clear Pechanga has been a good bet for tribal leaders.

The property has more than 3,000 slot machines, 130 table games, and a 54-table poker room. Like all of California’s Indian casinos, Pechanga’s table games are card based. Specially designed cards, rather than dice or a ball, determine craps and roulette wagers.

Pechanga offers eight restaurants and a food court. The casino has a varied upcoming entertainment schedule that includes Las Vegas headliner Paul Anka, comedians Ray Romano and Brad Garrett, and rock ‘n roll icons the Steve Miller Band, Pat Benatar and Billy Idol.

Rounding out Temecula’s status as a weekend getaway is Journey at Pechanga, a 7,219-yard championship golf course designed by Arthur Hill with signature holes that take advantage of the Southern California hilly terrain.

The Pechanga tribe has some 5,500 acres for additional development centered near the casino. The tribe operates a convenience store, gas station and a 168-site recreational vehicle park adjacent to the casino.

Pechanga is one of several Indian casinos populating Riverside County, including popular resorts in Palm Springs area. To the south, San Diego County is home to hotel-casinos along its northern and eastern edges.

Indian gaming in California isn’t the Strip, where customers can easily hop from resort to resort. California gaming is spread out, so when you’re inside one property, you are there to stay.

Still, Las Vegas has taken notice. Pechanga and its Southern California cousins are continually adding attractions to grab their share of the gambling consumer market.