With as little fanfare as possible, the Poarch Creek Indians are continuing their determined efforts to bring casino gambling into Alabama.
According to Tribal Chairman Eddie Tullis, the Poarch Creek Indians’ gaming board is about to take the next step in a proposal to work with Harrah’s Entertainment to build a $100 million gaming complex in Wetumpka. The facility would include a restaurant and hotel.
The tribe owns land in Elmore County and 50 acres of it has been allotted for the construction of a multilevel gaming center that would house 1,000 high stakes video gaming machines. This would include progressive jackpots as high as $60,000.
Tullis recently told the Montgomery Advertiser that the Poarch Creek’s five-member gaming board, which is comprised of himself and four other tribal members, will vote sometime in October on whether to go forward with the corporation’s proposal to build the complex in Wetumpka.
He is quoted in the paper as saying, “I can’t say how they will vote, but I’m very optimistic about us moving forward with this project.”
Tullis said the vote will take place after a presentation by Harrah’s, which will include an artist’s renderings, architectural and engineering plans and a market study.
Travel by boat
The tribe’s land for the proposed site is located in a pine forest north of downtown Wetumpka between a high-bluff bank of the Coosa River and South Main Street and U.S. 231. Because of the close proximity of the river, a riverboat landing is also planned so that customers can travel by boat from Montgomery.
Although the casino is a high priority for the tribe’s long-range development plans, they have not been idle in their efforts to establish other gaming locations.
On Sept. 28 the Poarch Creeks opened their third gaming establishment, the Tallapoosa Entertainment Center in northeast Montgomery County. It houses 158 gaming machines in nine modular units.
Eleven months ago the tribe opened the Riverside Entertainment Center in Wetumpka, which houses 118 gaming machines and bingo tables in 12 modular units. The tribe reported a gross revenue of $10 million at this facility and a gross revenue of $20 million at their Atmore facility, Creek Bingo Palace.
This gaming establishment was the first permanent structure the tribe built in 1985 and has a seating capacity for 1,500 people.
Like all Native American Indian tribes, the Poarch Creeks are immune to the cash caps and other regulations that apply to bingo and video gambling establishments in Alabama because of their sovereign nation status.
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