The casino has become the means to a restoration of self-sufficiency, prosperity and renewed hope.
In 1994, the tribe, with the consulting guidance of Venture Catalyst, opened the Barona Casino 'Big Top.' Until the early 1990s, the Barona Tribe lived on their own land but were still struggling economically in the backwoods of San Diego County. In 1932, without a homeland but with money in their pockets, members of that tribe bought the Barona Ranch which today is the Barona Indian Reservation near Lakeside, about 30 miles northeast of San Diego. The Executive Order of 1891 forced the Barona Band to move to a reservation area that is now El Capitan Reservoir. In 1870, President Grant set aside land in the Pala and San Pasqual Valleys for the first two reservations in San Diego County.
