Pauma Indians Propose Big Casino in North County

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 9, 2007 at 1:45 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The Pauma Band of Mission Indians wants to build a new resort and expand its gambling operations in Northeast San Diego County. A tribal gaming expert says the casino will have to do something special

The Pauma Band of Mission Indians wants to build a new resort and expand its gambling operations in Northeast San Diego County. A tribal gaming expert says the casino will have to do something special to attract gamblers. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has the story.

The Pauma Band wants to build a 23-story, 400-room hotel as part of a new casino-resort on tribal lands near Highway 76. The tribe already operates a modest casino. But the proposed 66-acre resort project would put it on a par with three Indian gaming resorts a few miles away.

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Randy Baker is the chair of the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming at San Diego State University. He says the Pauma's will have to come up with some sizzle to compete with those other casinos.

Baker : Their biggest challenge will be to differentiate themselves from Rincon and Valley View and Pechanga. I have no idea how they propose to do that. Obviously they're going in a big way. I hope they don't put up a standard box that's just another boring casino that looks like every other one.

The Pauma tribe has scheduled a public meeting later this month on the proposed resort.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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