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When the Morongo Band of Mission Indians decided to pour $250 million into a new casino and hotel outside Palm Springs, some members of the tribe pushed to incorporate proud references to their culture - desert themes, local basketry, maybe even a museum.
But tribal elders had something else in mind: a hip, Hollywood-oriented hotel designed to attract young gamblers from Los Angeles who normally flock to Las Vegas. Taking aim at the Paris Hilton crowd, the tribe gave the Morongo casino a Sunset Strip-style nightclub with darkly lit VIP party rooms. A restaurant, called Belly, serves crudo, the Italian version of sashimi, while a gift shop, Stuff, sells clingy tees from the trendy House of Bimbo label.
What's lacking are the Native American touches and the mainstream glitzy decor that characterize many of California's more than 50 other tribal casino operations, which cater for the most part to local gamblers, seniors and middle-age folks. So while the Barona Valley Ranch Indian casino, outside San Diego, has gray-haired country singer Kenny Rogers for a spokesman, the Morongo hired pop music act Destiny's Child to headline its opening celebration in December.
It's all an aggressive bid on the Morongo's part to siphon off some of the growing number of L.A. gamblers, who have recently rediscovered Vegas as a hip weekend destination and helped send casino profits there soaring. "Like anything else, you start with the young people," says Maurice Lyons, the Morongo tribal counsel's 55-year-old chairman, who grew up on the reservation with dirt floors and paper stuffed in windows to prevent drafts. "When they walk in that door, they're going to think they're in Las Vegas. That's where the money's at."
It isn't clear yet whether the strategy will pay off. The tribe doesn't reveal financial results. Lyons says the first weeks have been "packed" with customers. But Michael Morton, co-owner of N9NE Group, a closely held company that operates the restaurants and clubs at the Morongo, says they haven't done as well as expected initially. It can take a while for word to get out, says Morton, whose company also operates trendy nightclubs and restaurants in Las Vegas and Chicago. And heavy rains in Southern California have hurt business.
The Morongo casino sits on the tribe's 32,000-acre reservation two hours outside of Los Angeles on Interstate 5, the well-traveled freeway to Palm Springs. Las Vegas, by comparison, is four or five hours from L.A. by car, depending on traffic. The 1,100-member tribe is hoping to benefit from the resurgence in popularity of Palm Springs, Hollywood's longtime resort getaway, as well as their casino's location next to a designer outlet mall with shops selling merchandise from Zegna, Versace, and Escada.
The casino's ultramodern design - the hotel rooms have a silhouette-revealing opaque glass window between the shower and the bedroom - sets it apart from other tribal casinos in California, which are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation. Other Indian casinos often opt to promote their native heritage: In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequots' Foxwoods casino calls its loyalty club "Wampum Rewards."
When the Bishop Paiute tribe in California last year considered expanding its casino, some tribal leaders pressed for a themed Native American resort. "We have to put our culture out there where we can. That's how we preserve it," said Paul Chavez, a former tribal official, during a debate last March. The tribe hasn't reached a decision.
Lyons says many members of the Morongo tribe similarly wanted to see their culture showcased in the resort. He talked them out of the idea. "When I explained it to them, they understood that this is a profit-making enterprise so we can spend the money elsewhere," he says.
The Morongo, actually a band of several small clans that have occupied the reservation since 1876, have been running gambling operations since opening a bingo hall in 1983. For decades, the tribe was better known for owning Hadley Fruit Orchards, selling dates and other produce at a roadside stand.
The tribe expanded their bingo hall into a casino and added a cavernous wing in 2000. The old casino - smoke-filled, warehouse-like and with chandeliers in the shape of arrowheads - was the cash cow that paid for the new casino next door and has enabled the tribe to buy up more land to expand its reservation around Palm Springs. Mr. Morton says the tribe told him the old casino brought in $360 million in revenue last year, putting it on par with major Las Vegas casinos such as Treasure Island.
The tribe's plan to boost revenue even more involves imitating the strategy of the Palms Casino, the Las Vegas hipster-hangout famous for parties attended by the likes of Britney Spears. The Morongo tribe brought in the N9NE Group because it runs Palms venues such as N9NE steakhouse and GhostBar, whose equivalent at the Morongo casino is called SpaceBar.
In fact, tribal counsel members, most of them with graying hair, studied the Palms closely over the past few years. They visited the edgy Las Vegas resort "repeatedly," says Scott DeGraff, Morton's partner at the N9NE Group. "They really did their homework."
The tribe also hired the Jerde Partnership, the Venice, Calif., architecture firm that designed the Palms. Thinking the tribe would lean toward Indian themes, Jerde initially offered the tribal counsel two designs. The first was "more earthy" with wicker and baskets, says Sharmila Tankha, lead architect on the project. The other option had ultramodern lighting effects and a glass-beaded water curtain surrounding a pit bar. The counsel chose the second after considering the options for about five minutes, she says.
To draw 25- to 40-year-olds, about 70 percent of the casino's slot machines uses video technology rather than the spinning-reel look of most Las Vegas slot machines. "We believe that customer is the gambler of the future," says Bill Davis, the Morongo casino's general manager. "They're younger - they're used to playing videogames."
To avoid offending its loyal gamblers, the casino uses low walls and pathways to segregate slot machines that appeal to older locals but might turn off young partiers from Hollywood. "Our customers don't have to wander past the 'Jeopardy' and the 'Beverly Hillbillies' " slot machines, Morton says.
Still, the gap between the tribe and its hoped-for customers was clear at the casino's two-night opening event. Performing for tribal members on the first night's Indian-sovereignty celebration were Jay Leno and rock elder Carlos Santana. Afterward, tribal members straggled into the casino's clubs, while at least one young band member frowned and left to hunt for action that, on that night at least, was absent.
Casino offiicals say the opening event wasn't for the hipsters they expect to draw going forward, but instead was for tribal members and their friends. "That isn't our crowd," says N9NE Group's Mr. DeGraff. Indeed, nearby that evening members of Destiny's Child were holed up in the casino's luxurious VIP suites. They appeared the next night at a glitzy celebrity event to which most tribal members weren't invited.
Still, the tribal counsel plans to cater to demands that their culture be showcased somewhere. Mr. Lyons says plans will soon be drawn up for a museum on the reservation, to be located about a mile behind the casino.
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