Spurred by the popularity of pai gow poker and baccarat, the Pala Casino Spa & Resort opened a new non-smoking Asian Gaming Room.
The glass-enclosed room, which debuted Sept. 4, has nine tables offering games, including minibaccarat, face up pai gow poker, double deck blackjack and queens dragon pai gow poker.
Designed using a palette of bamboo greens and earth tones with contrasting dark wood trim, the room features Asian decorative motifs including two central golden lantern chandeliers. Bamboo green felts with stylized lotus flower ornamentation top the gaming tables and complement the lighter green and earth-toned carpeting. Pala’s CEO Fred Buro led the in-house design team. The casino is owned and operated by the Pala Band of Mission Indians.
The former poker room’s redesign was prompted by changing player interests and patterns resulting from the pandemic, explained Coley McAvoy, Pala’s advertising manager.
“When we reopened in May, following our two-month closure, we noticed a growing interest in different table games, particularly pai gow poker and baccarat, which can be played with a limited number of players at a safe distance,” McAvoy said. He added that it’s much harder to provide safe spacing at tables of traditional poker players.
Initially they devoted more tables in the poker room to pai gow and baccarat, with socially distanced spacing. Once they realized players’ increased interest in these games was continuing, the casino responded by reconfiguring the room in a style inspired by the most popular games’ origins. The casino also brought in a new executive host, Chau Ly, who has broad experience marketing to Asians, to serve as the room’s “Ambassador.”
“Our goal is to provide an area with exciting table game action in a clean, safe and Asian-friendly environment, where guests can find all of their favorite games in one convenient and beautiful location,” Ly said.
Conversion of the more tightly packed poker room into the less dense Asian Gaming Room was only one of many design and operational changes Pala made because of the pandemic.
In addition to adopting the safety and sanitation protocols developed by the National Indian Gaming Association in conjunction with the governor’s office, during the spring closure Pala designed strategies that greatly reduced the occupancy of the casino, restaurants, entertainment areas and other public spaces.
They pulled numerous slot machines from the casino floor to create safe spacing and temporarily closed down their spa, dining buffet and their more intimate dining areas, The Oak Room and Sushi Sake. Pala also limited seating in their seven other restaurants and bars and restricted use of their pool, now closed for the season, to hotel guests only. (For latest updates on what’s open and what’s happening at Pala, visit their website at palacasino.com/property-updates.)
McAvoy explained that, in addition to gaming, they want to continue providing live music and other entertainment, both for their hotel and casino guests and for the local community as a break from the pandemic, but in a safe environment.
During the summer, Pala held outdoor concerts, but cut their maximum capacity from 2,000 to under 600, while rearranging their seating with different-sized group configurations to comply with minimum six-foot separations. They also expanded their security staff to ensure compliance.
With arrival of colder weather Pala has moved concerts indoors, with greatly reduced pre-positioned seating, safely spaced.
“We’re going to try to keep the entertainment going as we can, monitoring safety closely,” McAvoy said.
The programming has been adapted to broaden its appeal to a younger audience as well as seniors.
The Pala Band’s casino opened in 2001, the first in Southern California to debut in a brick-and-mortar structure rather than a tent. The four diamond-rated hotel and spa first opened in 2003. The hotel, which remains open, is currently refreshing and updating its room décor.
Las Vegas-based Klai Juba Wald Architecture + Interiors, which specializes in gaming resort and hospitality properties, designed the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired complex, one of the smaller, more intimate Southern California Indian casinos, set among rolling hills and valleys.
Because the tribe has a long-established tradition of fine-quality basket weaving, the designers incorporated display cases at each major casino entrance as well as the hotel lobby containing exhibits demonstrating the Pala Band’s award-winning, distinctive basket weaving skills. Other cases highlight the tribe’s history and prominent along with historical tools and artifacts of traditional games.
Sours Larson is a freelance writer.