Blackjack games hit Arizona Indian casinos

Beth DeFalco

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

SALT RIVER-PIMA MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY, Ariz. -- With dollar signs in their eyes, gamblers began saying "hit me" as Arizona Indian casinos offered their first day of live, Las Vegas-style blackjack.

The table games became legal Wednesday morning and by midday, there was standing room only at Casino Arizona at Salt River, one of two casinos on this Indian reservation just outside Phoenix.

"It's packed," said Mark Preston, chief gaming officer at Casino Arizona. "The tables will bring a whole new clientele of people who haven't visited Arizona casinos before."

Businessman Ralph Castine, 42, played hooky from work Wednesday and got in a few games of blackjack.

"I don't play anything but blackjack," he said.

It was only Castine's third time in the casino, but he said the tables make a 10-minute commute from his Mesa suburb more appealing than a five-hour road trip to Las Vegas.

The new games are the result of Proposition 202, which was approved by voters in November. The ballot measure allows Arizona tribal casinos to add more slot machines and to offer house-banked blackjack with betting limits of $500. In exchange, tribes will give the state up to 8 percent of their gambling revenue, depending on how much the tribes take in.

Ex-Gov. Jane Hull began signing new gambling agreements under Prop 202 in December. The Department of Interior activated gaming compacts by publishing them Wednesday in the Federal Register.

Two Phoenix-area casinos, one operated by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and the other by the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community, started dealing blackjack at around 6:45 a.m., as soon as the compacts became legal. The Salt River tribe's other casino, also called Casino Arizona, began offering blackjack at noon.

Casinos are allowed a maximum of 100 tables at each location. Both Salt River locations have 10 tables so far and Fort McDowell opened with five.

It's not quite clear how many casinos will eventually offer blackjack, said Christa Severns, an Arizona Gaming Department spokeswoman.

"A number of them are in planning stages and haven't come online," she said. "They're all on their own schedules, but the urban tribes seem to be moving the quickest on the tables."

But not everyone was pleased at the response to the blackjack tables. Irma Allen, a 59-year-old daily gambler, said she was disappointed that tables were all full and bets started at $15.

"I've been playing for a while, but I ain't that good," she said. "I'll still go to Vegas or Laughlin until the table bets are lower."

Preston said that both of the Salt River tribe's casinos hope to have their 100 table maximum up and running by November, including lower betting tables.

On Wednesday about 50 percent of the blackjack dealers at Casino Arizona were "break-ins," dealing their first hand since going through a four-month training program. Preston said that about 20 percent of Casino Arizona's employees at both locations are American Indians.

In accordance with compacts, state regulators and Indian community regulators will oversee the blackjack tables.

"Good regulation is good for tribes," Severns said. "A dual regulation system is the industry gold standard for regulation."