PORT ANGELES — The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe hopes to open by Christmas a $4 million casino it is building on the tribal reservation.
The 7,000-square-foot building and parking lot will occupy five acres on the east side of Stratton Road south of the tribal center, which is west of Port Angeles.
It will have 100 bingo-style electronic slot machines that will accept amounts starting with pennies.
The casino — for which the tribe is conducting a naming contest among its members — will include a deli but will not serve alcohol.
How many people the casino will employ has yet to be decided.
It will be the second tribal casino on the North Olympic Peninsula.
A larger casino — 7 Cedars — is operated by the Jamestown S’Klallam in Blyn.
Revenue from the Lower Elwha casino will meet tribal needs that include housing, health care and social services, said Sonya Tetnowski, the tribe’s executive director.
Such things were promised to the Lower Elwha in the 1855 Treaty of Point No Point, she said, but never were delivered by the federal government.
