If you live and LA and you want to do the Vegas thing without having to do the drive, Fantasy Springs Resort Casino offers a convenient, engaging alternative. Located in Indio, just miles away from Palm Springs, Fantasy Springs caters to a wide range of guests. Whether you’re looking for babes (the resort hosts an annual Playboy golf tournament), family entertainment (they have bowling!), entertaining concerts with quality headliners, fun in the sun, slots, adventure games, bingo, off-track betting or a golf getaway, Fantasy Springs Resort Casino has something for everyone.

Focus on Entertainment

Opened in 2005, Fantasy Springs has over 2,000 slot and video poker machines, 40 table games, and some pretty serious Bingo action. The resort has 250 rooms, seven restaurants, an improv comedy club, a bowling alley, one gorgeous golf course and a massive special events center.

“We built the resort on entertainment,” said Paul Ryan, the general manager of Fantasy Springs Resort Casino.

The special events center has featured headline artists like Fergie, Snoop Dogg, Earth Wind and Fire, Harry Connick Jr., Yes, Jethro, Tull, Lionel Ritchie and Alice Cooper. Upcoming concerts at the special events center include Rob Thomas, Meat Loaf and Don Henley. No matter what the events center schedule looks like, you’ll always find some fun, free weekend concert action at the Rock Yard.

“It’s always live, it’s always free and it’s always outdoors. Every weekend. It’s become so popular that we call it mini-Woodstock, because you can’t even move down there, ” said Ryan.

If you prefer a more mellow entertainment experience, check out the 12th Floor Cocktail Lounge. You can sip on some well-crafted cocktails and catch some live jazz every Friday and Saturday night. The patio seating on the 12th Floor is a great place to relax and unwind. If you like wine tasting, be sure to check out the Weekly Wine Down.

The Eagle Falls Golf Course

The Eagle Falls Golf Course, located just a short walk away from the resort, is an 18-hole, par 72 course that spans 6,715 yards. The course is home to the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament and the Annual Palm Springs Playboy Golf Scramble.

“When we decided to build the golf course, we said we’re building the 138th golf course in the area, so what do you do?” Ryan explained. “We didn’t have any land costs because its tribal reservation land. So we said you know what, we have to do something completely different, completely unique. So we brought in Clive Clark, who is part of the British Ryder Cup team, and we said build something that doesn’t exist in the desert. He said you know what, I’m going to build a classic coastal links golf course without the ocean. And it turned out great. The course has been exceptionally well received.”

Clive Clark’s creation features plenty of elevations, lush foliage, water features and a distinctively non-desert feel. “We started with an absolute flat piece of desert,” Ryan said. “We just put this army of tractors out there for a couple of years until they created this landscape that was incredible.”

Origins of Native American Gaming

Fantasy Springs is owned and operated by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized tribe of the Cahuilla Indians, located in Riverside County. The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, as Ryan explained, “opened the door for all Native American gaming.” The Cabazon tribe had card rooms and introduced high-stakes bingo to the state of California. Through their legal battles with the state of California, the Cabazon tribe helped shape Native American gaming across the country. In the seminal 1987 Supreme Court case California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, the Court issued the following ruling:

If a form of gaming is illegal in a state, Indian reservations may not engage in that form of gaming, and if a form of gaming is legal in a state, Indian reservations may engage in that form of gaming.

So if the state of California did not outlaw high-stakes bingo everywhere in the state, then it could not regulate bingo in Indian country. This ruling led to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which created three classes of games (Indian games, low-stake games and high-stake games). This was the first piece of legislation that established a legal framework for Native American gaming. So if you like gambling in California, remember that the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians and bingo helped pave the way.

The Ultimate Fantasy Weekend

Fantasy Springs prides itself on having a certain sex appeal. They have a solid relationship with Playboy, and for four years running, they’ve hosted The Ultimate Fantasy Weekend, an early kick start to the summer that features a bikini contest, golf tournament and the National Bikini Pillow Fighting Championships:

So this is the type of stuff that goes down at Fantasy Springs. If you want to hit up some quality entertainment, fun slots (The Sex and the City slot is awesome – Miranda bonus!), chill poolside, play some table games, hang out with the family or have some adult play time, Fantasy Springs is a quick, convenient and affordable way of getting your Vegas fix on while still keeping it local.

(Lead image via: Fantasy Spring Resort Casino)