The property will welcome guests as the tribe completes construction on the permanent $273m Catawba Two Kings Casino also located in Kings Mountain.
The temporary casino features 500 slot machines and encompasses approximately 29,000 square feet. The casino is located 35 miles west of Charlotte.
“Catawba Two Kings Casino represents the righting of a historical wrong for the Catawba Nation,” tribal Chief Bill Harris. “But it is also so much more. It represents a prosperous future and renewed kinship between the Catawba Nation and the many communities that now occupy Catawba ancestral lands.”
The South Carolina-based Catawba tribe signed a revenue sharing agreement with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper in January 2021, which allowed for Las Vegas style gaming at Kings Mountain.
Catawba Nation faced stiff legal opposition from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who operate two casinos in North Carolina.
The EBCI sued the US Department of Interior in 2020, arguing that the land where Catawba is building its casino historically belongs to the Cherokees. The EBCI said the DOI illegally put nearly 17 acres of land into federal trust for the Catawbas to conduct gaming properties on.
A federal court sided with the Catawbas this spring. The EBCI has appealed the judge’s ruling in the case.
The Catawba Nation’s permanent casino will eventually employ 2,600 jobs. The first phase of construction on the casino is expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
