Chin’an Gaming Hall

The Vision

How was such swift action possible? Wanting to open as quickly as possible if approval was granted, the current Chin’an Gaming Hall is a temporary structure that was partially assembled nearby and then moved to the allotment when NVE got the green light. “It was a mad dash of finishing,” recalls Chin’an Gaming Hall General Manager Ryan Walker. When the joined modular sections were moved, many interior finishes and all the furnishings needed to be completed quickly. “[For example,] every chair in the building came in a box, so it was just a big revolving door of materials going in and out to get things going,” Walker recalls. The gaming hall had been decades in the making, “so we wanted to assure it moved from dream to reality as fast as possible,” said Leggett.

In a matter of days the Chin’an Gaming Hall was open to invited guests, and on February 3, 2025 it opened to the general public—except for NVE members, who are not allowed to game at the facility. According to Leggett, this decision was based on observations from Lower 48 gaming facilities and to avoid the appearance of unfairness if in fact a Tribal member were to hit a big jackpot.

Even with that restriction, the Chin’an Gaming Hall has been popular. Soon after opening to the public, the Chin’an Gaming Hall was populating waitlists with those who wanted to enjoy the facility but could not, since it was already at capacity. By May 2025, the Chin’an Gaming Hall saw its first addition, which allowed for more space and 50 more gaming machines.

At present, the Chin’an Gaming Hall has 135 electronic bingo machines and serves a modest selection of snacks and non-alcoholic beverages. It is a Class II operation under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which limits the types of games the Chin’an Gaming Hall can offer. A Class III casino, the kind abundant in Las Vegas with a variety of games such as slot machines or roulette, would require an agreement with the State of Alaska, an option that NVE is not currently pursuing.

Including Walker as the manager, the Chin’an Gaming Hall has thirty-two employees, approximately half of whom are tribal members (including NVE and other tribes). Of those, six are NVE members. The facility will continue creating much-needed jobs for Tribal members and others from the region seeking opportunities, although hiring more NVE members at the operation’s present size is challenging, as gaming regulations prevent employees from supervising their own family members. “We have to be strategic in the placement of those positions,” Walker says. “Even still, right now we’re at 50 percent, and our goal is to have the majority [of our employees] be tribal members—not necessarily Alaskan or NVE, but tribal members.”

That goal will have an even more widespread effect if NVE accomplishes its ultimate vision for the Chin’an Gaming Hall.

“What we look forward to is in the neighborhood of a 50,000- to 60,000-square-foot, permanent structure on the allotment,” says Leggett. “Up to 800 or 900 machines, restaurants—a really high quality product.” The larger facility would employ approximately 200 people, not including twice that many additional jobs during construction. “We see it as a major driver for the Anchorage economy,” Leggett says. “When you look around Anchorage, there’s not too many things like this that are on the horizon.” I was shocked this fall when I saw a crane in Downtown Anchorage; I don’t know the last time I’d seen a crane in Downtown.”

The Chin’an Gaming Hall is already drawing talent. Walker is an example: he’s a transplant from the Lower 48 who was attracted to the opportunity to build a historic project from the ground up. His experience with the gaming industry extends back to when he was 12 years old and his parents opened one of the first commercial casinos in Deadwood, South Dakota, shortly after gaming was legalized there. His career eventually took him to Nevada for many years, then California and his introduction to tribal gaming in the Coachella Valley.

That experience was a boon when Walker communicated with a local bank, which was naturally curious about this new-to-Alaska business model. “The bank was meticulous,” Walker says, asking questions about the number of accounts needed, types of deposits, and other details. “I went down to the bank in person and met with their executive compliance manager to familiarize her with transactions that are standard in the casino industry,” he says.

Other business partners are already working in concert with the Chin’an Gaming Hall. Since it is a temporary mobile structure, it has a self-contained water and septic system, both of which require daily service from local vendors, and other businesses are also seeing increased opportunities. “[The Chin’an Gaming Hall] just lifts all ships in this little area of Chugiak/Birchwood,” says Walker. “This is probably the economic stimulus that’s going to make lives in this area better not just for [NVE] but for everybody that lives and makes their living here.”

All-in on Community

The economic benefits are good. But what matters is the people.

“We’ve watched Anchorage grow, and although we’ve had a little bit of success, we feel that we’ve given up a lot,” explains Leggett of NVE. “Ninety percent of Anchorage’s drinking water comes from Eklutna Lake; 3 percent of Anchorage’s power and 6 percent of the Matanuska Valley’s power are generated from the Eklutna River that cut off our historic salmon runs; we’ve given easements (through our village corporation, Eklutna, Inc.) across our lands; we’ve given back to the Anchorage School District; we sold, against our policy of selling land, a piece of property to the Anchorage Police Department for their tactical training center.”

NVE has given a lot and has simultaneously struggled to find the level of income that would better benefit its members and community. “Because we’re not rural, we were cut out from a lot of federal funding,” Leggett explains, which limited the NVE’s ability to launch several projects. “We took years and years of scrimping and saving to build our own little clinic. We currently don’t have a building that we own that’s big enough to hold all of our Tribal members to meet and gather as a Tribe.”

The Chin’an Gaming Hall, in its current temporary phase and in future iterations, is a long-dreamt opportunity to change that trend. “We really believe that it will empower our people and create opportunities and good, high-paying jobs near Eklutna for our Tribe and the broader region,” Leggett says. “It will build an overall sense of pride.”

It will simultaneously build community.

“We accumulated debt during our endeavor,” Leggett says. “Because of the uncertainties with this [project], we really wanted to retire that debt as fast as possible just to give us some certainty.”

But even with that temporary priority, funds have already been allocated to directly benefit NVE’s members and neighbors. For example, NVE has built new bus shelters in the village; it is expanding its food bank (which is open to all community members, not just the Tribe); and money is being earmarked for nutrition, housing, and employment assistance, as well as a long-awaited community gathering center.

“The plans for the gathering center had been in the works for many decades but really got kicked into high gear in 2023.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, NVE received CARES Act funding, some of which it was able to set aside for the architectural blueprints and other design work. The plan to fund the rest was federal grants.

Then the federal administration, and the grant environment, changed dramatically in early 2025. “It became very clear… that the way things had worked in the past are not how they’re going to work in the future,” Leggett says. “The Tribe had a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for an endangered language project that was cancelled our third year into the project. So we had to pivot… so revenues coming in as we speak are going to be dedicated to building the gathering center. Our people remain unselfish in their individual needs and have been steadfast in their collective focus on a facility serving the whole Tribe and the local community.”

Giving Nature

“Chin’an” means “Thank You” in Dena’ina Athabascan, and in that spirit—even as NVE looks forward—it is working now to spread gratitude throughout the Anchorage area.

NVE and its partners have donated more than $100,000 to local charities that support a range of community services in the Anchorage area and across the state.

NVE directed funds last year to the Mountain View Community Center. The money filled a month-long gap in funding for a program that feeds children in one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in Anchorage. “It was really kind of a no-brainer,” Leggett says.

In late 2025 NVE donated $25,000 to the Municipality of Anchorage to support public safety to ensure that the Western Alaskan refugees displaced by Typhoon Halong felt safe in their new community and had sufficient transportation resources.

NVE donated $5,000 to Alaska Public Media in support of its statewide news coverage, particularly vital in rural and underserved areas of the state. It has also donated to the First Alaskans Institute and the Anchorage YWCA.

Late in 2025 it participated in the Toys for Tots drive and was able to donate twenty-eight gifts to teenagers in foster care in Eklutna and sixty-one toys for distribution throughout the rest of Anchorage. “It shows you the giving nature of the people who work here,” says Walker.

The Chin’an Gaming Hall is a community project generations in the making that has finally been brought to life. The allotment on which it sits was originally secured by Leggett’s great grandmother in the early ‘60s. She wanted to protect the land and her family, who had lived in the area since the ‘30s, so no one could force them out. Speaking about his grandmother who grew up on the allotment, “I wish she was here to see it,” Leggett says, adding with a laugh, “I am glad that I did not have to break the news to her that she would not be able to game here.”