CACHE CREEK

CACHE CREEK
Our Quail Creek “Outing” today (Wednesday, January 13, 2010), was to Cache Creek, a Native American Casino, and Resort, in Brooks, CA. There are six residents on board, plus Tony, Kelli and Uaei, a cna. We left Quail Creek, in Fairfield, at 0915, and arrived at Cache Creek at 1005.The weather is cool, overcast and threatening. It rained during the night, and the standing water in the fields is the evidence. I am sure the orchards and planted fields are happy. There are many English walnut and fruit orchards along the way. This area is known for growing sugar beets.
Traffic was light on I-80 and 505. We passed Genenetech’s nice looking facility in Vacaville. The weather has cleared, and we have very nice blue sky. The fields and orchards are dormant this time of the year. The associated farmers are probably lounging on the beach at Waikiki. A Pacific Diamond Tour bus passed us, and I am sure that Tony was driving at the 70mph speed limit. Time is money I guess, because I later saw the same bus parked in front of the Casino.
There are Call Phones still installed along 505. In the day of cell phones, I guess you could call them “Plan B”. We exit Highway 505, and head west on #16 towards Esparto. What a drop down in highway quality - from a very nice divided freeway to a two lane -bumpy -country road. The road condition is reflected by the reduced speed limit of 45mph. We pass a nice pastoral scene of four good looking horses eating their breakfast.
We are entering Esparto. We are in Yolo County now. While Esparto is a small town ( the 2000 census lists the population as 1858), it is really spread out. It is run down, although they have a nice looking high school. The town reminds me of a western movie set. The next village is Copay. There are a few “fixer-uppers’’ here. This is still a very pretty area butting up against the Lake Berryessa hills. We pass a roadside sign, “Report Drunk Drivers - Call 911” (There are “Call Boxes” along Highway 16W, too.) The Casino is so far from a commercial area, I can’t imagine hauling all of the building materials and equipment, so far! Tony pulls up in front of the Cache Creek entrance at 1005. What great service!
While they did a very nice job designing and building this complex, it just seems out of place in such a rural setting. But, again, that’s why they chose this spot. It is landscaped nicely, too, including an 18 hole championship golf course ($85 a round to play!).
This project was started in 1985 by the Yocha Dehe Wintun (“Home by the Spring Water”) Nation. The tribe opened a bingo hall in Brooks. In 2002, they announced plans to build a $200,000,000 property. The tribe named it Cache Creek- Casino Resort. This is a huge complex! The property covers 415,000 Sq. Ft. - nine and one half acres. The Resort opened in 2004. It consists of:
9 restaurants
600 seat Club
75,000 Sq. Ft. of casino floor area
200 room hotel, and an adjacent garage
2400 slot machines
122 game tables.
The complex provides 2500 jobs, and is the largest employer in Yolo County.
One can get lost, easily, in there. I didn’t see a single Native American employee while I was there. There were a lot of people inside the Casino - mostly Asian-Americans and Caucasians. Yet, it wasn’t crowded. You can thank the Recession, and our mid-week visit, for that. I was surprised that smoking was allowed inside - private property, I guess. As a former industrial engineer, and still interested in cost control and cost reduction, I can’t fathom how the revenues would even cover the high utility bill for heating/air-conditioning; lighting; powering the machines etc., let alone make a profit.
I walked by the black jack tables, They were abut half occupied - with a $5 minimum bet to play. Then, I noticed a large separate room of tables. The sign said “High- Stakes Black Jack Room”. It didn’t define “High”. I was surprised to see as many players in there as at the $5 tables.
Then, I saw a large group of people surrounding a table. I couldn’t figure what was going on. I asked a bystander, and he said that they were playing Baccarat. He added, “the Chinese like this game”. It was pretty obvious to me that he was right. Baccarat is described as a simple game, but I couldn’t tell, not knowing anything about the game. It must have been a Mini Baccarat game, because there wasn’t any security. I assume that the stakes weren’t too high.
The Casino had an ingenious system for playing the electronic slot machines. As a newcomer, I signed up to get my “Club Card”. This came with 2500 points imbedded. This represented a $25 credit at any of the restaurants. I also needed to insert the card in the machine to play. Then, you can play by adding an amount to the card beforehand, and using the card or “folding money”, or money remaining on a “Cash out ticket".
I played the nickel machine for about an hour, before we gathered for a nice lunch, on site, at Kung Fu Fat’s. A large variety of dishes on the menu. I settled for a cup of won ton soup, steamed rice and egg plant. (I had so much egg plant, when I was stationed in North Africa, I never wanted to see that purple vegetable again. The cook would use powdered eggs and powdered milk to make a batter to camouflage it. It's funny how soon one forgets. That was over 65 years ago!) The food was very good. The prices were reasonable, and we received good service.
The slip in my fortune cookie said, “A movie would be a great place to relax this weekend.” Do you think that Hollywood marketing has penetrated the fortune cookie mystique?
After lunch, I went back to the same machine that I played in the morning,, and sat there pushing the button for another hour.
When you decide that you have had enough fun for the day, you can “Cash Out” any money remaining on your ticket. The slot machine produces a ticket which prints out the amount still available. You can use this ticket to play any of the machines, or take it, and your Club Card, to a “Cash Out” machine (a mini -ATM machine), and get the cash amount. What was so interesting was my ticket had 190 points printed on it. I inserted it into the machine, and the screen read-out said that I was due $9.50 (still left from my original $10 “investment”.) But, it didn’t produce the cash. Then, I
re-read the screen and the message said “Insert your other ticket”. I forgot that I had it, as it was for only $.10, and I had put it in my pocket for a “souvenir”. I inserted it and sure enough, $9.60 was ejected. Amazing!
I wonder what happened to the “one armed bandits” that I grew up with? You pull the handle on those for a few hours, and your arm would ache. With these electronic machines, you just hit a button to spin the reels. Of course, you could end up with a “trigger finger”. I can see how one would get addicted to gambling. It is so easy to sit there pushing a button and getting mesmerized by the spinning symbols rolling by - especially when the friendly lady comes by and asks you if you would like something to drink?
Too, it’s you against the machine’s mentality. I kept thinking that I was going to hit the “Big One”, after all my “near misses” from the 7’s nearly lining up- across. Just one more push of the button! I think that I was probably right. About 5 minutes after I left my nickel machine (they even have one, and two cent, machines!), I thought I would return to “my” machine to see if anyone was playing it, and how they were doing. That was a mistake. I left the machine with 190 points. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The fellow playing the machine had over 5,000 points ($250) showing on his screen! I am sure he didn’t start playing with a large sum. Apparently, he had hit a jack pot. My theory is that he was stalking me, and watching me play so long without hitting it big. He probably reasoned that the machine was about due to pay off big., so he sat down. I think that he was right. That is the difference between an amateur and a professional gambler!
I missed the “money scroungers” from the old days. With no coins in use today, it put them out of business. I would like to watch them walk around the slot area, looking for coins left in the money holders of the machines, or dropped on the floor.
We left Cache Creek at 2:45, and were back at Quail Creek at 3:40. It was an uneventful trip back. We passed many newly planted row crops. The plantings (probably sugar beets) had just emerged from the ground. The fields looked very healthy, as they should planted in such fertile looking soil.
Ray L’Amoreaux
January 14, 2010.