Originally published Jamul Opens $270M Boutique Hotel on by https://www.sdbj.com/tourism/indian-gaming/jamul-opens-270m-boutique-hotel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jamul-opens-270m-boutique-hotel at San Diego Business Journal
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SAN DIEGO – When Jamul Casino Resort opens its new 200-room boutique hotel on Aug. 8, it will mark an important milestone on the tribe’s journey.
After fighting to establish a casino for decades, and enduring economic hardship in the meantime, the 2016 opening of the $450 million casino created a strong source of revenue and opportunity for the community. It was always in the master plan to open an accompanying resort.
Next week, the doors to the $270 million hotel will officially open.
“It’s a game changer for [the tribal community],” Jamul VP of Marketing Tom Malloy said. “This is about their legacy and having an investment to pass down to the future generations as a stable source of funding for their tribal government.”
The resort takes a high-tech, gaming-inspired approach to hospitality, emulating tribal history and culture. Among its most notable amenities are the luxurious Jamul Spa, vibrant rooftop Starlite Pool and speakeasy lounge Fly Room.
Over 350 new jobs were created with the completion of the resort, which was developed with C.W. Driver and JCJ Architecture.
“It’s really a boutique hotel designed by players for players,” Malloy said. “All the elements of the hotel, whether it’s the speakeasy or the spa, are really catered to our gaming customers.”
Diversifying Revenue
With the opening of the resort, Jamul is more focused on increasing gaming revenue than overall volume of visitors. Since the casino now offers a place to stay, Malloy said that the destination can attract players from drive markets further away, many of whom have a larger budget for gaming.
“It changes the type of customer we can attract now,” Malloy said. “San Diego is a big gaming market. There are 10 competitive casinos between East County and North County. We’re the only one without a hotel. That keeps our business model hyper local. The hotel changes that for us, because now visitors can spend the night.
“So we can get a lot more high-profile guests from North County, Orange County, all the way up the Temecula pipeline up the I-15,” he continued. “The prospect of getting new gamers in the door is going to be huge to us.”
Jamul, like others in the hospitality industry, has struggled with rising costs. However, Malloy said that the company tries its best not to push the burden onto customers and hopes to fade the impact with growth in revenue from the new hotel.
Within the past few months, many local destinations have seen a decrease in international travel and pivoted marketing efforts to drive market tourists. Malloy said that faltering international travel is more harmful for bigger destinations. Jamul already primarily caters to a drive market of visitors, so the trend has had little impact on the casino resort.
Designed to earn AAA’s Four Diamond designation, each room in the resort is equipped with a tablet-based DigiValet control system and Alexa voice command capabilities with multilingual support. LUCI Systems provides in-room multimedia entertainment enhancements.
“We feel like we’re cutting-edge,” Malloy said. “The only other casino in the United States that employs DigiValet and LUCI Systems is the Wynn Las Vegas.”
Forging Jamul’s Future
Before Jamul opened in 2016, the tribe struggled financially for decades, said Jamul Indian Village Chairwoman Erica Pinto.
“My mom, my dad and my uncles grew up on this reservation,” Pinto said. “When you look at past pictures, and then you look at the present state of Jamul – it’s so different. It’s gone through so many phases. We know what it was like to have nothing and have limited, minimal, or no resources to survive. There were not very many opportunities for my people.”
Having a casino at all inherently gives back to the tribal community, Pinto said. Not only does it provide jobs and revenue for the tribe, but it also contributes funds to the California Revenue Sharing Trust Fund (RSTF). The RSTF is a sum of money that California tribes with gaming businesses contribute a percentage of their revenue to, varying based on earnings.
RSTF funds are redistributed to limited or non-gaming tribes in order to provide economic support.
With revenue from Jamul, the tribe was able to purchase over 170 acres of land, monumentally expanding on the six acres they had before. Through the Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act in 2024, the land was put into trust for the tribe and will be developed in coming years to accommodate housing, administrative offices, a health clinic, grocery stores and other community resources.
The tribe’s old community center used to stand where the new hotel currently resides. As the tribe develops its land, rebuilding the community center is a top priority.
“The mission of the tribe [and the casino] is to make sure that our people are cared for and have opportunities,” Pinto said. “If you have that foundation of good, healthy employees and good, healthy tribal members, you can continue to grow.”
Jamul Casino Resort
FOUNDED: 2016
PRESIDENT: Mary Cheeks
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Hospitality and Gaming
EMPLOYEES: 1,450
REVENUE: Growth of employment – 1,450 current employees is a 20% increase over the 1,200 team members the team had previously
WEBSITE: jamulcasino.com
CONTACT: [email protected]
NOTABLE: The $430 million casino has nearly 1,700 slot machines, 46 live table games and a dedicated poker room.
Born and raised in San Diego, Madison takes great pride in local storytelling. Her coverage at the San Diego Business Journal includes tourism, hospitality, nonprofits, education and retail. An alumna of San Diego State University’s journalism program, she has written for publications including The San Diego Union-Tribune and The San Diego Sun. At the 2024 San Diego Press Club awards, Madison was recognized for her exemplary profile writing. She was also a speaker for the 2023 TEDx Conference at Bonita Vista High School. When she’s not working on her next story, Madison can be found performing music at a local restaurant or on one of San Diego’s many hiking trails.
Originally published San Diego Business Journal
