Yet perhaps most problematic for the health of the property was a continued turnover of senior management and leadership positions which plagued any real progress. Keno would not return to the floor and it would still be some time before the golf course would recover from a full shutdown. At the same time, they launched several new construction projects, which had been put on hold including a new resort-sized swimming pool and gym, a new BBQ restaurant in the Pavillion and improvements throughout the Hotel property. When the economy started to improve a year after the layoffs, the Casino announced to the SilverBelt in a January 2010 article that they had hired back 85% of those they had let go and revenues were on a modest upswing. Arizona was particularly hard hit with an unemployment rate of 10.8% and the mining industry in a stall from falling copper prices. In 2008 during the worst of the financial meltdown the country has seen since the Great Depression, gaming revenues were reportedly down nearly 20% and showed that gaming was perhaps not the recession-proof industry many had thought it to be. So in 2009 when the Casino announced that due to a worsening economy they would be shutting down their golf course and keno games and laying off 45 people there was an audible gasp from the community-at-large. The Apache Gold Casino and Resort sits just 5 miles outside of Globe on land owned by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and has played a key role in the economic health of the region since it’s inception in 1994.

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