The North Carolina tribal casino landscape looks to be growing after the Catawba Nation announced plans for two additional properties as part of a celebration on Wednesday for the opening of the first part of a $1.2 billion casino in Kings Mountain.
The Kings Mountain Two Kings Casino features 1,350 slot machines, 22 live table games, and a sportsbook. It will eventually house 4,300 slot machines, 100 table games, 11 restaurants, and a 385-room hotel.
King’s Mountain is located about 25 miles west of Charlotte.
Along with that property, the tribe has plans for other gaming properties in the coming years, according to Catawba Chief Brian Harris.
“We got two more casinos to build in this state, and goddamn we’re going to build them,” Harris told hundreds of tribal members and others in attendance for a ribbon-cutting for the first phase of the Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort.
Catawba Considering Other Locations
The sites of the two additional casinos weren’t revealed. However, Harris told the Charlotte Observer that tribal leadership had identified some locations and were currently in negotiations.
The first phase of the Two Kings property is being billed as an “introductory casino.” The completed facility is slated to be finished by 2027.
The casino doesn’t currently include a poker room. The tribe hasn’t said if the final property will eventually include a venue for card players.
The announcement of two more casinos in the state comes only days after another tribe chose not to build a casino. The Lumbee Tribe voted overwhelmingly against building a gaming property on 240 acres of land in Robeson County.
Tar Heel State Casino & Poker Scene
North Carolina has two other casinos, both operated by the Cherokees in the cities of Cherokee and Murphy. All of the state’s casinos are located in the western part of the state.
Efforts to legalize commercial casinos in the state over the last few years have been unsuccessful and met with opposition from some key political power players.
For poker players, Harrah’s Cherokee properties in Cherokee and Murphy both offer poker rooms. The casino in Cherokee has historically been a popular stop for the World Series of Poker Circuit.
The property held a WSOPC event in December, with Derek Sein-Lwin topping a field of 1,190 entries in the main event for a $281,514 top prize and his first championship gold ring.
