The Muckleshoot Casino celebrated its 20th anniversary on Tuesday, commemorating the occasion with events for dignitaries and guests.

Eric Durban, the casino’s chief financial officer, talked about the casino’s accomplishments, and what the tribe hopes to achieve as it moves forward.

“As a casino, we want to continue to be known as innovators,” Durban said. “We were about the fourth casino to open in the state, out of about 25 that are open now. We weren’t the first then, but since then we’ve been the first to open with (gaming) machines in 1999. The first in the state. And we were the first in the world, the entire world, to open the entire floor with ticket-in, ticket-out, cashless technology.”

Since then, Durban explained, other casinos from gambling meccas such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City have toured the Auburn casino to mimic the Muckleshoots’ move to cashless machines.

“They all realized that was where they wanted to be also,” he said. “They had to deal with coin, and it’s such a problem on so many levels. It’s dirty, it’s heavy. You have L&I claims. You have to control it. It’s loose and hard to control.”

Durban said the casino’s innovation continues with the recent revamping of the facilities’ electronic gaming platform, a project that has been in the works for the past six months.

To highlight the upgrade, the casino will present a series of promotions over the next four months.

“We’ve got eight new electronic gaming promotions we’re going to roll out. We’re going to be the first and only in the state to do it,” Durban said. “We just did our first stress (test) on that, and it was successful.”

Among the promotions, interactive gaming opportunities will be available to all players at the same time.

“People will be sitting at their machines, and all of a sudden a promotion will show up on a screen,” Durban said. “And it will be a horse race, and everybody in the casino is picking a horse. It will be a graphical display of horses, and they’ll pick the silk colors of the horse they want. They’ll watch the whole thing, the walk up to the paddock. It will be just like Emerald Downs. The race will go off on monitors at the same time for everybody. And the players will be able to continue playing, or not play, depending on what they choose. And if they pick the right horse, they’ll win a certain amount. Second or third, you’ll win a little less.”

Innovation is also alive and kicking at the casino in many of the new machines on the gaming floor.

Among them are newly-arrived machines offering a full sensory experience.

“The ‘Willy Wonka’ and the ‘Wizard of Oz’ machines feature a chair that will shake and surround sound,” Durban said. “They’re exciting games. They’ve been on our floor for a couple of months. We have more types of games on our floor than any other casino in the state, and we’ll continue to lead in that.”

Although there are no plans in the works for an actual expansion of the casino, Durban said, the tribe is always looking for bigger and better.

The success of the business side of the casino is important to Durban, who has worked for the Muckleshoot Tribe for more than 25 years, five of them as comptroller, 20-plus as the casino CFO. Durban is most proud of the effect the casino experience has had on its employees and customers.

“What’s most amazing is to walk in and talk to the employees and get a feel for how many lives have been touched by this building in two different directions,” he said. “One, it’s the building and the business as a whole that’s touched them, and the family lives, and what has gone on for them in the past 20 years. But it’s also about how they have touched this building by what they brought to the business. We really have folks who understand guest service. There is not a day that goes by that doesn’t have a problem, some kind of hiccup, that they have to figure out on the fly how to solve and correct. That comes with some incredible team members.”