Preliminary plans call for development of "Caesars Pauma" on more than 30 acres of tribal land on California Highway 76, off Interstate 15. The project would include approximately 500 hotel rooms, more than 100,000 sf of gaming space, a full complement of restaurants and live entertainment venues, as well as a spa.

Chris Deevers, tribal chairman of the Pauma-Yuima Band, says the tribe voted to choose Park Place as the developer, setting the stage for negotiations to begin on detailed development and management agreements. Those agreements must be concluded before construction can begin. The management contract is subject to approval by the National Indian Gaming Commission; other regulatory approvals also are required.

The Park Place development will join a growing list of Indian casinos and hotels in the Inland Empire, where establishments that started as small casinos-often operating in temporary buildings-have built expanded gaming venues and hotels in recent years. The 500-room Pechanga Hotel at the Pechanga Casino in Temecula was the largest hotel to open in California last year, and new hotels planned at Indian casinos in the Inland Empire rank among some of the largest now under construction or planned in California.

Park Place is one of the world's largest gaming companies. It owns, manages or has an interest in 29 gaming properties operating under the Caesars, Bally's, Flamingo, Grand Casinos, Hilton and Paris brand names with a total of approximately 2 million sf of gaming space, 29,000 hotel rooms and 54,000 employees worldwide. The company plans to change its name to Caesars Entertainment Inc., effective in January 2004.