They have a hard time at Chinook in the wintertime. "Many Oregonians have summer homes in Lincoln City, so they spend the warm months on the beach.
"We do share some customers with Chinook," says Moore. A drive from Portland to Chinook Winds would take two to three hours - too far to bop down there on a weeknight - and Spirit Mountain no doubt picks off a lot of motorists who get 60 miles down the road and decide, "Why drive any farther?" Since most of the business is from Portland, Spirit Mountain has the advantage of being the most convenient place to gamble in the state. Offering virtually nothing that a Vegas casino offers - not even complimentary cocktails due to a tribal rule -Spirit Mountain is still the most profitable casino in a state that has six other Indian gambling joints, including the rival Chinook Winds Casino and Convention Center, which is another hour down the highway on the beach in Lincoln City. If employees get sick here, the customers actually send them cards and flowers." The same kind of casual, informal feel, where everyone is family. "You know what it reminds me of? Harrah's Tahoe in the 1960s. (They do get a funbook worth about $20, including a food discount.) We give no credit. "We have very loyal customers and we spend very little money to get them. "When I got here, I was amazed at how efficient this operation is," says Moore, a veteran casino executive who's worked in Reno, Nev. (In Las Vegas, by contrast, the trays are designed to be as noisy as possible, on the theory that it stimulates more gambling.) Spirit Mountain is one of the first casinos in the country to go all-coinless, all-the-time, so that its 1,500 slot machines hum and gurgle and buzz, but you never hear that satisfying sound of 1,000 quarters plummeting into the noisy steel tray.
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