Businesses in Gallup, New Mexico, said they have seen a rise in traffic since the Navajo Nation opened its first casino on November 19.
The Fire Rock Casino sees about 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a day, an executive said.
Many of them stop on the eastern side of Gallup to eat and shop.
“My business is definitely up,” Ralph Richards, one of the owners of Earl’s Restaurant, told The Gallup Independent.
Casino traffic will increase starting in January 2009, the executive said.
Get the Story:'Its like the good old days' (The Gallup Independent 12/17)