In El Dorado County, Red Hawk recently opened a 150-room hotel and The Apex and Apex Grill, its 85,000 square-foot family amusement center and sports bar. The Lincoln casino resort debuted The Venue at Thunder Valley, its 4,500-seat, 150,000 square-foot music and entertainment center, last week. The 100,000-square-foot Sky River Casino features 2,000 slot machines, 80 table games and 12 restaurants and bars. Longtime players United Auburn Indian Community’s Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln and Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians’ Red Hawk Casino near Shingle Springs have answered newcomer Sky River with splashes of their own. The Wilton Rancheria tribe is considering its options for an expansion of its Sky River Casino, near Highway 99 and Kammerer Road. Plans for both date back to Las Vegas-based. The only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County, Wilton Rancheria’s casino is also the closest to the capital city, its vast 100,000 square-foot gaming floor, restaurants and rows of slot machines and table games landing squarely in the middle of one of California’s most competitive tribal gaming markets. Better than expected business at Elk Grove’s new Sky River Casino could soon lead to a hotel and convention center on the site. Wilton Rancheria fought for years first for federal tribal recognition, then for the gambling pact with the state that was approved in 2019 by the federal Department of Interior.
