Will San Diego County get an 11th Indian casino?

La Jolla tribe has filed documents outlining a small facility in the northern backcountry

By J. Harry Jones
November 18, 2010

PALOMAR MOUNTAIN — San Diego County is home to 10 Indian casinos, many of them quite large and prosperous, and now an 11th is in the planning stages for the northern backcountry.

To be situated at the base of Palomar Mountain on the La Jolla Indian Reservation, the small casino would be open for business by 2012, then later expanded. Whether the plan is moving forward, though, is unknown because the tribe and its partners are remaining mum.

This summer an environmental study was filed with the federal Indian Gaming Commission outlining a proposed 480,000-square-foot gambling and hotel facility. The hotel would have 200 rooms, separate villa suites and a parking structure.

It would be built just south of state Route 76 where tribal administration buildings now sit as well as a nonoperational water park and a defunct off-road-vehicle use area.

The tribe has tried to build a casino before, without success. It operated a tiny slot machine room for a few years until it closed in 2002 and later teamed with a Texas-based management company that announced big plans that never came to fruition.

This time, the La Jolla Indians have partnered with a Boca Raton, Fla., limited liability company called Panther Partners, which says on its website the casino will be operational by 2012.

Calls to the phone number listed on the website went unanswered for more than a week.

Some have questioned the economic viability of a casino so deep in the backcountry. Patrons coming from just about anywhere in the county would have to pass by or near up to four other casinos before reaching the new one.

The only casino farther away in North County is a small one run by the Santa Ysabel Indians that by some accounts has been having financial trouble since opening in 2007.

Bill Eadington, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno who specializes in the economics of gaming, said he doubts the tribe would be able to get financing given the current economic climate.

The recession hit the gaming and resort industries harder than most, he said, as Americans have opted to save more and reduce debt.

“That may change, but from what I’m seeing it’s not going to change fast,â€