Desert Diamond Casinos is set to begin construction this week on a new casino in the “Far West Valley,” to be located off Loop 303 near Glendale, Arizona. The Tohono O’odham Nation, which runs the casino company, announced Monday it would be holding a private groundbreaking event for the upcoming property on April 5.
The gaming venue, to be built on 110 acres on the southeast corner of the intersection of Loop 303 and Northern Parkway, directly north of the Wildlife World Zoo, will become the tribe’s fifth casino upon completion.
In January, the U.S Bureau of Indian Affairs acquired the land, which is referred to as the “Far West Valley Site” for the Tohono O’odham Nation for “gaming and other purposes,” according to a notice from the Federal Registry, retrieved by Phoenix Business Journal.
The Arizona Republic first announced the groundbreaking and said in its report there would be 900 slot machines at the new casino, as well as table games and “other amenities.”
The property will further mark the second Desert Diamond Casino in the West Valley. The first one opened in 2015, located off Loop 101 just north of the Westgate Entertainment District; while the tribe’s other casinos are in Southern Arizona, near Tucson.
The Tohono O’odham Tribe is able to expand into the metro Phoenix area after the U.S. government said it was able to extend its reservation by 10,000 acres after flooding at the Painted Rock Dam destroyed farming land and several communities in the 1980s.
The new project comes amid Desert Diamond Casinos’ efforts to gain further visibility in the community. In 2022 it acquired the naming rights to the former Gila River Arena in Glendale and the enterprise has been a frequent sponsor of NASCAR events at Phoenix Raceway, notes Phoenix Business Journal.