The opening the Pokagon Band of Pottawatomi’s new casino in South Bend is being celebrated with local officials this week. Leaders of the Pokagon Band joined with South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and others for a ceremony for Tuesday’s opening day of the Four Winds South Bend casino, which is now open to the public. It’s the first tribal casino in Indiana and joins three that the Pokagon Band owns in New Buffalo, Hartford, and Dowagiac. The tribe says the casino has 1,800 electronic gambling machines, four restaurants and three bars, and employs about 1,200 people. It’s on South Bend’s southwest side, near the U.S. 31-20 bypass. The new tribal casino won’t pay state taxes, giving it a business advantage over Indiana’s 13 existing casinos.
