It Happened Here: Legends Casino opened to the public 25 years ago
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Twenty-five years ago Monday, what is now Legends Casino Hotel opened its doors to the public.
Since then, it’s proved to be a bet that has paid off well for the Yakama Nation, as a source of revenue and employment of tribal citizens and for various community groups that have benefited from its annual grant program.
“Any business that starts out and survives a recession and pandemic, and is still here, that says a lot,” said Letisha Peterson, Legends general manager.
The opening day represented the culmination of years of discussion on expanding the Yakama Nation’s economy beyond agriculture and lumber.
In some ways, a casino was almost a logical extension of Yakama culture. Peterson said the Yakama have done stick games and Waluksha, a type of dice game, for centuries.
And several tribes on the East Coast had opened their own casinos, competing with the casinos in Atlantic City, and proved that tribal gaming could be profitable.
The discussions started about 30 years ago, at a time when unemployment on the Lower Valley reservation was at 83%. A casino was one of several economic development options on the table, one favored by younger Yakama.
Others were a bit wary, noting how casinos were associated with the Mafia and crime, particularly in the early days of Las Vegas’ ascent to becoming the nation’s gaming capital.
There were also questions as to where to locate it, with some preferring a spot closer to the Columbia River, while keeping it in Toppenish was a second choice.
The pro-casino side prevailed and, in 1994 the tribe’s General Council — which consists of all voting-age Yakama citizens — directed the Tribal Council to draft a gaming ordinance, which it did that year.
In 1996, the tribe signed an agreement with Gov. Mike Lowry that would allow Class III gaming at a tribal casino, such as card games, roulette, craps, keno and sports betting.
The tribe partnered with Hollywood Park Inc., which invested $9 million in building the casino on Fort Road.
In February 1998, the first casino employees started a 90-day training program to learn how to operate the casino, including working the games. They also had to get through background and credit checks, as well as get licensed as casino workers.
Of the roughly 300 original employees, about 62% were either Yakama citizens or Yakama descendants. A non-Yakama management team was put in place with the goal of training Yakama people to run the casino on their own.
While the casino officially opened at 11 a.m. May 15, 1998, crowds were assembling hours before that. An account in the Yakima Herald-Republic described people coming to the site at 7:30 a.m.
By noon, the parking lot and the gaming floor were jammed as people pressed their luck at the card tables, keno or the pull-tab machines.
Eventually, the casino would add slot machines and other games to the mix.
The casino was also different from many casinos in that it was “dry” with no alcohol served on the premises, keeping with Yakama policy at its other properties and the Treaty of 1855.
In 2000, Legends was the site of a nationally televised boxing match hosted by Sugar Ray Leonard and attended by 4,000 people. That led to one of the first expansions, a 3,500-person event center, for which ground was broken in 2001.
The casino was expanded in 2017, with a new buffet and expanded gaming floor, as well as the addition of a six-story, 200-room hotel and conference center, which Peterson said was “a great move” for the casino.
In 2000 and 2020, Legends hosted mass weddings on Feb. 29 for the leap year, with 47 couples either getting married or renewing their vows at the most recent one.
In addition to the gaming and the buffet, the casino also highlights Yakama culture, from its décor to a replica of the fishing stands used at Celilo Falls before it was flooded by The Dalles Dam. There is also a facsimile of the Treaty of 1855, including the marks placed by Kamiakin and the other leaders of the 14 bands and tribes who formed the Yakama Nation.
One of the major challenges Legends faced was a five-month shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to slow the disease’s spread. When second gentleman Douglas Emhoff — husband of Vice President Kamala Harris — visited the Yakama Nation in 2021, then-Tribal Chairman Delano Saluskin said that Legends’ revenue decreased 60% in 2020.
Peterson said one of the lessons of the pandemic was improving communications with staff and the public, and that during the closure the staff continued to work toward the time when the casino was reopened.
And the cleaning procedures that were first implemented in the pandemic remain in place to ensure guest and employee safety.
Today, the casino employs more than 700 people, with some of them second-generation employees who first came to the casino’s day care center as children.
And since 2002, the casino has provided grants through its Charitable Contribution fund. The Yakama Cares grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations, while Community Impact funds go to law enforcement, health care and other groups.
Legends' silver anniversary celebration will begin at 11 a.m. Monday, the exact moment the casino first opened.
It Happened Here is a weekly history column by Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Donald W. Meyers. Reach him at dmeyers@yakimaherald.com. Sources for this week's column include Legends Casino Hotel, Legends General Manager Letisha Peterson and the archives of the Yakima Herald-Republic.
