![]() The $215 million casino went live in 2003 with nearly 2,000 employees, more than 2,700 video-slot machines, 98 gaming tables, a fancy steakhouse, a 500-seat buffet room, a Starbucks and a Fatburger. It was designed to resemble a Tuscan villa, although ended up looking like a Costco. The tribe owns the casino and gets a cut of the take, but the boys from Vegas paid for it, built it and control its operations. Located a short drive from Sacramento, Calif., Thunder Valley Casino is owned by the United Auburn Indian Community, a small tribe of about 250 members who had been living in poverty on a three-acre reservation until Station Casinos of Las Vegas lent it a couple hundred million bucks to buy 50 acres of wetlands and sponsor a casino. Her mother, Cheryl Dalton, worked in the casino's marketing department. She worked six days a week, helping to hire, train and oversee 264 bartenders, cocktail waitresses and bar-backs, including many people she knew from around town. When the stately doors of Thunder Valley Casino first swung open, says Elizabeth Ward, an energetic mother of two, working there was "all fun and games." Ward put in 10-hour days as the casino's beverage supervisor. ![]()
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