The Pascua Yaqui Tribe will open the doors to its third casino in southern Arizona this November, with construction nearing completion at the Tucson site.
The new gambling facility will be named the Casino Del Sol Vahi Taa’am and will feature approximately 4,830 square meters of gaming floor space, the media outlet AZ Central reported.
The Casino Del Sol Vahi Taa’am will house more than 900 slot machines, as well as high-limit games, a dedicated sports betting lounge, and dining facilities, the tribe said.
The development comes as tribes throughout the US look to open new land-based casinos. Last month, North Carolina’s Catawba Tribe launched the first phase of the $1 billion Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain, near Charlotte.
Tucson Casino Will Be a Money-Spinner for State, Says Tribe
The tribe bought the site, once the largest drive-in movie theater in Arizona, in 2011. But it faced a long legal struggle in its bid to add the plot to its reservation.
The tribe made a breakthrough in late 2022, when the Joe Biden administration approved the Old Pascua Community Land Acquisition Act.
The legal change allowed the tribe to expand the Pascua Yaqui reservation by 121,406 square meters and to expand its Casino Del Sol brand in the Grand Canyon State.
Speaking in 2023, Kim Van Amburg, the former CEO of Casino Del Sol, said the new casino would be “a game-changer for the tribe.”
“I think from an economic development, […] it’s going to be a beautiful improvement,” she explained.
Construction began at the site in January 2025, with the casino originally slated to open on November 11. The tribe has since pushed back opening day to November 15.
The Arizona Department of Gaming says tribal gaming has boosted state revenues to the tune of about $2.5 billion since 2004.
Tribal casino contributions are on the rise, delivering $46.23 million in the first quarter of 2026, a rise of 5% year-on-year.
The tribe says its new casino will create 500-600 jobs for Tucson residents.
Addiction Fears
Despite the purported jobs and tax revenue boost, anti-gambling advocates have expressed concern about spiking gambling addiction rates in Arizona.
In addition to the new casinos, Arizona also legalized sports betting in 2021. By 2025, the state was already in the top 10 for US average sports betting spend.
Les Bernal, National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, told Fox 10 Phoenix last year that “everyday citizens, especially young males in Arizona, are losing thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars” on sports wagers.
The Arizona Department of Gambling estimates that almost 3% of adults in the state are at risk of developing gambling problems, with 1% suffering from severe gambling disorders.
The department has also waded into the recent controversy surrounding prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
In March, Suzanne Trainor, the department’s Communications Manager and Public Information Officer, said: “Prediction markets are a form of gambling, so they also carry the same risks. [They] are not working by the same rules, the same framework as others.”
Trainor said the state regulator is “not opposed” to prediction markets operating in Arizona, but said the department “really believes that [they] should be state regulated.”
The federal markets regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has hit back against states that have tried to apply their own gambling laws to prediction markets.
The CFTC refutes claims that Kalshi and others run sportsbooks, insisting they deal in “swaps.”
The post New Tucson Tribal Casino to Open in November appeared first on CasinoBeats.
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe will open the doors to its third casino in southern Arizona this November, with construction nearing completion at the Tucson site. The new gambling facility will be named the Casino Del Sol Vahi Taa’am and will feature approximately 4,830 square meters of gaming floor space, the media outlet AZ Central reported.
The post New Tucson Tribal Casino to Open in November appeared first on CasinoBeats.