The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians is moving ahead with plans to open a temporary casino in Vallejo, California, possibly as soon as January 2026. According to the Daily Republic, the site would be located on tribal land near the intersection of I-80 and Highway 37.
The casino would be a small, short-term operation, described as a “preview casino,” built using modular structures. It would have Class II gaming machines, which are similar to bingo-style slots where winnings come from a shared player pool instead of the casino itself.
The plans have previously sparked pushback. In March 2025, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and the Kletsel Dehe Nation filed a lawsuit arguing the land sits within Patwin ancestral territory and that the Bureau of Indian Affairs failed to properly consult them before moving forward.
Scotts Valley Band temporary casino in Vallejo exercises ‘our gaming rights’
In a statement, the Scotts Valley tribe told the outlet: “The tribe plans to operate a limited number of Class II gaming machines on its sovereign tribal land, repurposing the existing modular buildings on site to serve as the casino.”
Tribal Chairman Shawn Davis said the project is about both sovereignty and opportunity. “This facility will allow us to exercise our gaming rights and provide meaningful economic opportunity for our members and all Vallejo residents while we work on our permanent facility. We are committed to working with the city and our neighbors to support and benefit the community as we develop our land.”
He also pushed back strongly against opposition to the project, adding: “We are moving forward despite the misleading opposition from a small handful of greedy casino operators led by Cache Creek. It has taken generations of struggle for us to get to this point, and we are looking forward to building shared prosperity. Vallejo is our home; we are here to stay and here to make a difference in our community.”
The temporary casino would operate while the US Department of the Interior reviews its earlier approval of the project, which was issued on January 10, 2025. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in November that the Scotts Valley tribe could continue moving forward during that review.
BREAKING: The U.S. Department of the Interior has advised the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians that the agency will complete its reconsideration of the Band’s Vallejo casino project “as quickly as possible” and that DOI’s original approval may have been based on “legal error.”
— Thomas Gase (@TgaseVTH) December 4, 2025
At the time, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation Chairman Anthony Roberts told ReadWrite: “As the Department stated in its letter announcing its decision to reconsider the project, this process will assess all facts and evidence – revealing what history already makes clear: Scotts Valley has no historical connection to this land.”
He continued: “For years we have worked with our federal, state, and local partners to shed light on the flaws in this process. We are grateful the Department can continue doing the right thing by evaluating all evidence. We are confident this reconsideration process will reveal the truth Scotts Valley has attempted to hide from the very start – their ancestral lands are not in Vallejo, and they never were.”
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