That level of enthusiasm has continued for decades and the Casino now welcomes more than 6 million guests annually. A capacity crowd arrived to welcome this new entertainment venue to the community. On March 7, 1991, the then-Potawatomi Bingo opened its doors for the first time. The development was Potawatomi Casino Hotel (then Potawatomi Bingo), the first off-reservation casino in the country and still the only one of its kind in the state of Wisconsin. This remained a desolate area until the Forest County Potawatomi regained some of this territory and became the first to invest in refurbishing the land, bringing new development to the Menomonee Valley. Many years later the Valley served as an industrial center, and later became blighted and deteriorated into toxic brown fields.
At that time, the Valley flourished with natural resources and provided a bounty for many Native American tribes. The Potawatomi tribe first occupied the Menomonee Valley hundreds of years ago.
