Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento is working on a 2,500-seat Hard Rock Live music venue to open in 2022 . RENDERING COURTESY OF HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO
abrogation of the rancheria system in the 1950s and ’ 60s . Both land and recognition are necessary for tribes to game , which is allowed federally under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 and in California through the 2000 voter initiative Proposition 1A , but it can take decades for individual tribes to win the right to do so .
Still , even as sovereign governments are fiercely protective of handling their own affairs , each tribe faced a new and unique challenge with COVID-19 . Take Enterprise Rancheria ’ s Hard Rock Sacramento , which shut its doors at 5 p . m . on March 20 , 2020 . The decision to close was easy , with the frightening and uncertain early days of the pandemic . The harder decision at the casino was how to actually secure the building .
Hard Rock Sacramento had to install locks on its doors , since casinos don ’ t typically close . Two days before Hard Rock Sacramento shut its doors , Thunder Valley did likewise , with UAIC Tribal Chair Gene Whitehouse telling the Sacramento Bee , “ This was not an easy decision , but it is absolutely the right decision at the right time .” Red Hawk and Cache Creek casinos also shut their doors in mid-March 2020 , according to statements from each tribe .
For the next two months , all four casinos and others throughout the country stayed closed , with Hard Rock Sacramento reopening on May 21 , 2020 and Thunder Valley , Cache Creek and Red Hawk reopening on June 8 , 2020 . Red Hawk had to briefly close again in August of this year due to the Caldor Fire , according to a statement from the casino . In September , Cache Creek postponed grand opening plans for its completed resort expansion “ out of an abundance of caution ,” according to a statement from the casino , temporarily halting concerts by acts including the Beach Boys and Boyz II Men .
Times haven ’ t been easy for Hard Rock Sacramento since its reopening , despite the casino installing plexiglass and a $ 500,000 air filtration system as safety measures . “ The pandemic ’ s been nothing but a challenge , every single day , and we ’ re looking forward to coming out of it in the near future ,” says Mark Birtha , president of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento .
The pandemic also forced UAIC to temporarily pause plans to build The Venue , which will supplant its
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