Actually, the story is maybe a little more complicated.
Prior to any Indian Casinos in New Mexico, there was the very popular resort
“Inn of the Mountain Gods” run by the Mescalero Apache.
When gaming was legalized, the Mescalero opened a slot token casino. The tokens have the name “Inn of the Mountain Gods” imprinted on them. Concurrently, or very shortly thereafter, the Mescalero also opened a small gaming room with table games. The chips were labeled “Casino Apache”. But it was in a totally different building than the slot casino (Although both were part of the Inn of the Mountain Gods complex).
As I recall, the Table Gaming room was in the basement of the old resort lobby. It almost looked like an afterthought. On the other hand the slot Casino was on two floors of one of the other buildings.
Then the Mescalero built the Casino Apache Travel Center, several miles from the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort complex. The slot machines were TITO, and the chips said “Casino Apache Travel Center”.
Finally, the Mescalero demolished the old Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort, and built a new Resort which houses the Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino (From the start, the machines were TITO and the table games were collocated with the slot machines.)
My opinion is that the Mescalero wanted to differentiate between the early slot casino (Inn of the Mountain Gods) and the table gaming area (Casino Apache). But with the new resort, they reverted back to the traditional “Inn of the Mountain Gods.
Mike
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