Despite the slowdown in the U.S. economy, casinos in San Diego County continue to flourish.

In North and East County, new casinos have popped up and existing ones have expanded their offerings. Many of the casinos now call themselves "destination resorts," offering live entertainment opportunities, banquet spaces and meeting rooms along with the usual slot machine and baccarat table.

In East County, the Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino, owned by the Barona Band of Mission Indians, completed a $260 million expansion in January 2003. Barona's 300,000-square-foot casino in Lakeside occupies more than 7,000 acres of land. It now includes an eight-story, 400-room resort hotel with 34 luxury suites overlooking the championship Barona Creek Golf Club.

Barona spokeswoman Kelly Speer said the casino began planning an expansion in 1998, around the time that Proposition 5, which provided for various types of California's Indian lands, was passed. "Barona started planning for expansion before the proposition passed," Speer said. "It's a real visionary tribe, and it had the vision towards being a resort destination."

Bergman, Walls and Associates, the architects behind the Paris Hotel and Casino, Mirage and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, designed Barona intending to replicate the California Ranch architecture style of the 1930s. Barona's landscape design includes a functioning old mill waterwheel, a period footbridge and a restored barn.

Along with its casino, Barona's landscape design includes a functioning old mill waterwheel.

Barona's 33 luxury suites range in size from 836 square feet to 3,354 square feet, and all have golf course views with the exception of the C Suites, which have views of the Barona Valley. There are four D Suites (3,354 square feet), five C Suites (1,068 square feet), eight B Suites (1,254 square feet) and 16 A Suites (836 square feet).

Barona's Golf Club was ranked No. 4 in California and in the top 100 nationwide by Golf Week magazine, and the Audubon International Awards granted the course a bronze signature sanctuary award for its conservation, environmental quality, and land management. Architect Gary Roger Baird designed the golf course, which has 7,088 yards and nearly 100 multifingered bunkers, along with a series of lakes and ponds that are connected to the area's streams.

Another casino in East County that has undergone renovations in recent years or is considering future expansions is the Viejas Casino, located at 5000 Willows Road off Interstate 8 in Alpine, which is 250,000 square feet. In February 2001, Viejas finished renovations that increased its number of slot machines from 1,332 to 2,000. It moved its bingo hall to an outdoor tent and put its off-track betting and poker areas upstairs to make room for additional machines. Fiber-optic and copper lines were pulled from three telecom rooms to network the machines, allowing employees to automate accounting information and monitor the machines for tampering, cheating and theft.

Viejas also created a new bar-lounge area, a refurbished deli and 10 new cashier cages.

Located between the Laguna Mountains and the Tecate Divide on Interstate 8 is the Golden Acorn Casino, which opened in August 2001. Golden Acorn, a 40,000-square-foot property, features 750 slots, 13 table games and two restaurants.

Golden Acorn is considering an expansion. "We're exploring all avenues to build another hotel," said Barrett DeFay, Golden Acorn's marketing director. "Business has been growing steadily, and we're wanting to lock in financially ... we hope to announce plans in a couple of months.