Big day yesterday eh? After years of trying to get a casino in the West Valley, the Desert Diamond finally opened in Glendale just down from the Cardinals stadium. I say casino, but this is just a small building that is the precursor of a full fledged Vegas type structure that will eventually grace the landscape. The grand opening was at 1pm Sunday and apparently people were backed up far and wide. My wife went to dinner with some tennis friends who tried to go...operative word, tried. Seems it would have taken a good hour to get near the building, let alone inside of it. There's a little over 1000 machines and no table games yet. A bunch of scummy politicians have taken so much money from the casino's in the East Valley they've spent the past couple of years trying to block the opening. Apparently they felt it was better for their constituents to drive for an hour rather than allow one to open in our back yard. Love to see it, if for no other reason than to stick it up Trent Franks and John McCain's backside. And really, having yet another amenity within 10 minutes of Sun City is a good thing. By chance, does anyone know the hours its open? Couldn't find anything on their website.
The reason the hours aren't posted is that I've been told it is a 24 hour business like all the rest of the casinos. Anybody heard otherwise? Let's see how long the politicians drag out granting a liquor license and the right to have table games. We've only ever been to one AZ casino, Cliff Castle in Camp Verde because of bowling tournaments. We head up to Laughlin once a year if we need a short trip to see our money fly away.
Now that I've served 6 years and am term limited off the Sun City Home Owners Assn. board of directors I feel more comfortable expressing my opinion on certain subjects. With Sun City being an unincorporated area within a large county, it has been a challenge getting improvements to the Sun City infrastructure as we have to compete with other County projects. I am happy that several projects that I recommended have been implemented by Maricopa County Department of Transportation(MCDOT). We are very pleased that the Desert Diamond Casino finally has opened despite the efforts of Trent Franks to stop it. When the casino-resort complex is finished it will provide hundreds of jobs and be a big boon to the northwest valley economy. Maybe when large events are held at the stadium near Westgate we can keep more people from going to the east valley for all their entertainment needs. Trent Franks is supposed to represent and support the interests of the West Valley, but apparently the pull of the East Valley big shots was too strong. He's lost my vote. Merry Christmas all- Jim Powell
Hey JP, great to see you free from the battles. Here's the good news for Trent, at least from me...he didn't lose my vote, he never had it. What he did lose was my respect as a politician. Anyone who gives his/her service should be afforded the respect of the office. That is until they become nothing more than a paid lackey of those buying his or her votes. Shameful. On a brighter note, great to see the casino doing well. We'll visit once things die down.
We were in the area last evening about 6 p.m. so thought we'd pop in to check out the casino. It was packed with people of all ages and not many vacant machines. The machines are the sort you'd see at any casino and the overhead music was loud. Smoking is allowed and is most noticeable when you first walk in the front section. The bar area is set up but no alcohol yet. There are many servers walking around with trays of free beverages. There are many ATM/bill exchange machines. Yes, they did get $10 from us because this was an expedition of all facets of the casino. It was gone in the blink of an eye but there were sounds of payoffs all around us. Our tour lasted about 45 minutes and we'll return once the actual casino is built with more non-fast food offerings.
We went too one night aggie, nice place. I must be getting old as i used to love the energy of the casino's and all of the noise associated with them. Today not so much. It's great to have close by, but i suspect trips to it will be few and far between. Way better thought than traipsing off to the other side of the world to make a donation.
