The Mono Wind Casino is a small casino located near
Auberry, California
Auberry () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fresno County, California, United States. The population was 2,369 at the 2010 census, up from 2,053 at the 2000 census. Auberry is located on Little Sandy Creek west of Shaver Lake Heights, at an ...
.
The casino is owned operated by the
Big Sandy Rancheria
The Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono Indians of California is a ranchería and federally recognized tribe of Western Mono Indians (Monache) located in Fresno County, California, United States.Mono Indians. Mono Wind features slot machines and the Broken Arrow Restaurant. The casino is open 24 hours a day."Mono Wind Casino." ''500 Nations.'' (retrieved 17 May 2010)
History
The tribe entered into a compact with the State of California in 1998 which allowed them to operate a gambling facility. The Mono Wind Casino was built shortly after.
Mono Wind was shut down in 2005 by
Fresno County
Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...
Sheriff Deputies in order to collect $700,000 from a court judgment. The casino re-opened after an agreement was reached.
The tribe has developed plans for opening a second casino site, but the project has not moved beyond the proposal stage.
During the outbreak of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Mono Wind suspended casino operations on March 24, 2020, days after other Central Valley area casinos also closed. The facility remained open for gas and to-go food orders. The gambling floor re-opened on June 2, 2020, with safety modifications.
The casino was put under an evacuation warning due to the
Creek Fire (2020)
The Creek Fire was a large wildfire which started on September 4, 2020, near Shaver Lake, California, and became one of the largest fires of the 2020 California wildfire season. The fire burned and was declared 100% contained on December 24, 2 ...