Owner Raul Rodriguez said, “I have to report anyone who bets or wins $10,000 pesos to Hacienda, Mexico’s IRS.”
Ciudad Juarez is one of the most notorious cities in the world. The Mexican Drug War has made Juarez one of the most dangerous cities to live. During the height of the war in Iraq, it was more dangerous to live in Juarez than in Baghdad.
Despite that fact, a new casino in Ciudad Juarez hopes to attract American gamblers. The gaming venue is found 15 minutes south of the U.S. border, on the line between Mexico’s Chihuahau state and the state of Texas. Juarez is just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, so it is believed it could attract many gamblers–much like casinos in Oklahoma and Louisiana attracts Texas gamblers.
Room 802 Casino
The casino is inauspiciously named “Room 802“, for the address the gaming establishment can be found. When one arrives, they’ll find an upscale building which houses trendy clubs and restaurants. Businesses in the area have names like “Pan & Oli”, “La Juarez”, and “Barezzito”.
Inside Room 802, one finds young dealers who have been training for months to handle the expected clientele. The staff looks and acts the way one would expect from American casino employees. English is a second language, but it is spoken by the staff.
Just Across the US/Mexico Border
Yajaira Yesenia Valtierra, the manager at Room 802, told KVUE ABC, “Because we are just across from the U.S., we expect to have a lot of people from that country.”
Room 802 offers most of the classic casino table games, including blackjack, craps, and roulette. The casino offers several variants of poker, including Omaha and Texas Hold’em.
Speaking about the gaming environment in the surrounding area, owner Raul Rodriguez told the ABC affiliate, “We’re the only ones who will offer Texas Hold ’em.”
The idea makes a certain amount of sense. Americans love to gamble, and Texans are casino-starved, because their state is run by social conservatives who believe casinos are immoral. Even more so, Texas Native American tribes like the Coushata Tribe were betrayed by the lobbyists they paid to have casino gambling legalized on their reservations–such as Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed. Widespread, honest moral concern has combined with political skulduggery to keep casino gambling out of Texas.
Why Room 802 Won’t Be the Winstar Casino
The idea of putting a casino just across the border from the anti-gambling state of Texas has occurred to other gaming entrepreneurs before, such as the Chickasaw Indian Tribe which owns the Winstar Casino. The Winstar, found about 10 minutes across the border into Oklahoma, has the biggest gaming space in the world and is a highly profitable casino–mainly from rich Texans coming to gamble. Texans love gambling, even if their political leaders don’t.
That being said, not everything is comparable between Room 802 and the Winstar Casino. El Paso is a metropolitan area of 674,000 people. It does not represent the kind of population center the Dallas/Fort Worth area represents. The DFW Metroplex has a 6.4 million people in its metropolitan area–roughly ten times the population of El Paso.
Gambling in North Texas
Dallas and Fort Worth supply the population which makes the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma, the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, and the Shreveport/Bossier City casinos in northwest Louisiana such a big success. Room 802 won’t be able to draw on such a demographic.
Gambling in Juarez & El Paso
The danger posed to those traveling across the border is significant, too. Despite having an 80% Hispanic or Latino population, many people living in El Paso find it too dangerous (or frightening) to travel into Juarez. While many people living in El Paso have kinfolk living in Juarez, many others say the differences in style of clothing and accents marks one as a different or “American”–and thus a target for trouble.
Gambling in underground casinos can be dangerous, even in American suburbs. If disputes over money arise and you are gambling in a place where such games are illegal, the aggrieved party cannot go to law enforcement to complain. It’s left to the individual, who must confront the other gambler and risk confrontation, or walk away in sullen silence. The decision in Juarez might have higher stakes, because one could never be certain the opponent was not affiliated with a cartel.
