Snoqualmie Casino Opens

The 170,000-square foot Snoqualmie Casino in Snoqualmie, Wash., opened Nov. 6 with a red-carpet party and a two-night concert by Jessica Simpson.

While Simpson showed off new country tunes from the September release of Do You Know celebrity DJ Momjeans, aka Danny Masterson, entertained the crowd at the SNO lounge during the launch party Nov. 7.

Including the cost of land, construction, staffing and promotion, the casino, located about 30 miles east of downtown Seattle, rang up at a price tag of $375 million, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“What we’ve tried to create there is a little touch of Las Vegas,” said Leonard Bergman of Las Vegas design firm Bergman, Walls & Associates, which has designed gaming resorts including The Mirage and Treasure Island.

The casino occupies a 57-acre site and although it lacks a hotel, it includes a nightclub and an 11,000-square-foot ballroom plus a cigar bar, a martini and wine bar, a high-end restaurant called Terra Vista, an eclectic buffet, an East-Coast-style deli, a sushi and noodle bar.

The 51,000-square-foot gaming floor includes 50 table games, eight poker tables and 1,700 slot machines.
There’s also a six-level parking garage.

There’s a big effort to give Snoqualmie a less smoky environment than other casinos as all restaurants on the north side of the facility are smoke-free and there’s also a ventilation system that can exchange all of the air in the building every 15 minutes, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Tribal administrator Matt Mattson says the tribe is “ecstatic” about the casino.

“The tribe and I have talked about this being a high-class place, and there’s a real concerted effort to keep that promise and to offer more sophisticated food and entertainment, as opposed to just aging rock stars,” Mattson told the paper.

The casino has dates on the books through May. Artists include Wynonna, Sergio Mendes, The Blakes, Hiroshima, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Darryl Worley, Jason Michael Carroll, Heidi Newfield, Terry Fator, Wilson Phillips, En Vogue, Shemekia Copeland, The Flying Karamazov Brothers and Shemekia Copeland.

There’s also LeAnn Rimes, Hal Ketchum, Gin Blossoms, Young Dubliners, Delbert McClinton, Little Big Town, Smash Mouth, Jewel, Raul Malo, Smokey Robinson, Julianne Hough, The Lost Trailers, Queensryche and Buddy Guy.

The Ballroom also may offer world-class boxing and national poker tournaments and SNO will feature “rockaroke,” aka karaoke with a live band, on Sunday nights.