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\tSANTA YSABEL \u2014 The Santa Ysabel Casino, which has been struggling financially for years and has debts of more than $50 million, has shut its doors.<\/p>\n
\tSanta Ysabel Tribal Chairman Virgil Perez confirmed the closure early Monday morning but declined to answer further questions. He issued a news release in which he said all 115 casino employees had just been informed of the shutdown.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis very difficult decision for the Tribe was made after considered and careful consideration of the current economic climate in gaming in this region, and insurmountable challenges which have plagued the enterprise from the outset of operations,\u201d Perez said in the written statement.<\/p>\n
\tThe Santa Ysabel Casino \u2014 the smallest Indian gaming center in San Diego County, with just 349 slot machines \u2014 opened in April 2007 in North County, atop a hill a few miles south of the intersection of state Routes 76 and 79.<\/p>\n
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\tIts remote location far from population centers, and the existence of several much larger Indian casinos in the area, appeared to have doomed the venture from the beginning.<\/p>\n
\tWhen the Great Recession hit in 2008 and gaming revenues plummeted throughout the region, Santa Ysabel found itself in dire straits.<\/p>\n
\tCourt documents show that in its first three years, the casino lost $24 million.<\/p>\n
\tThe tribe tried to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012, but was denied by the court. The tribe\u2019s many creditors include the County of San Diego, which struck an agreement with Santa Ysabel in 2005 that allowed the casino to open as long as it gave money to the county to pay for off-site improvements and services such as an additional deputy sheriffs.<\/p>\n
\tThe tribe made very few payments and still owes the county more than $3 million, Senior Deputy County Counsel Thomas Bunton said Monday.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe casino never fully realized its full potential, and confronted by an intransigent county government unwilling to renegotiate its financial agreement with the tribe in the face of economic hardship, was forced to seek bankruptcy protection,\u201d Perez said in the news release. \u201cThe bankruptcy request was denied by the court and the casino did what it could to remain solvent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCounty Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose District 2 includes Santa Ysabel, scoffed at the idea that the county played a role in the casino\u2019s failure.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe claim by tribal leaders that county government was a factor in the casino closure is absurd,\u201d she said in a statement released Monday afternoon. \u201cWe simply asked them to live up to their financial obligations and honor the agreement they struck with the county in 2005. Taxpayers deserve nothing less.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe tribe also owes the Yavapai Apache nation of Arizona tens of millions of dollars in loans.<\/p>\n
\tThe casino was funded with a $26 million primary loan from JP Morgan and a secondary loan of $7 million from the Apache nation, In 2009, the Apaches purchased the JP Morgan note.<\/p>\n
\tBunton on Monday said he was not surprised the casino has gone out of business.<\/p>\n
\tThe casino was originally conceived as a full-service resort, hotel and casino. But it cost much more to build than anticipated and there wasn\u2019t enough money left to build a hotel, or to properly advertise the casino\u2019s grand opening, which coincided with the 2007 wildfires that forced it to close for a week.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOne of the most difficult things for me is the casino employees who will now be unemployed as a result of the closure of our casino,\u201d Perez said. \u201cI am committed to the Tribe\u2019s exploration of other business ventures, including gaming on a more limited scale, in order to provide as many employment opportunities as possible for those affected by the casino\u2019s closure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe casino also helped fund the Santa Ysabel Reservation Fire Department.<\/p>\n
\tThe Santa Ysabel Casino becomes the second local Indian casino to fail in the past two years. In late 2012 the La Posta Casino in Boulevard, just a mile from the larger Golden Acorn Casino off Interstate 8, also folded due to lack of business and mounting debt. La Posta also owed millions to the Apache nation.<\/p>\n
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SANTA YSABEL \u2014 The Santa Ysabel Casino, which has been struggling financially for years and has debts of more than $50 million, has shut its doors. Santa Ysabel Tribal Chairman Virgil Perez confirmed the closure early Monday morning but declined…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}