The Catawba Nation is not done building. Just as the tribe was cutting the ribbon on its massive $1.2 billion casino in Kings Mountain, Chief Brian Harris dropped a bombshell. Two more North Carolina casinos are coming, and the sites are already picked.
Chief Made It Clear: More Casinos Are Coming
On Wednesday, July 1, 2026, the energy in Kings Mountain was electric. Crowds packed the facility as the Catawba Two Kings Casino officially opened in Kings Mountain, marking a milestone for the Catawba Nation and bringing new economic opportunities to the region.
But it was what Chief Brian Harris said after cutting the ribbon that really turned heads. Speaking to a crowd of roughly 500 tribal members and guests, Harris made a declaration that few saw coming. “We got two more casinos to build in this state, and goddamn we’re going to build them,” Harris told the crowd.
When reporters from The Charlotte Observer pressed Harris on which locations the tribe had selected, the chief held his cards close. “I can’t tell you that right now,” he said, walking away without another word on the subject.
This was not entirely a surprise to those who had been paying attention. As far back as October 2025, during the casino’s topping-off ceremony, Harris told hundreds of tribal members the Catawba Indians planned to build a second casino. “We have a spot,” he said at the end of his speech, just before a ceremonial final beam was placed on top of the tribe’s $1 billion North Carolina casino. Many in the audience laughed, thinking he was joking. He was not joking. And now it is not one more casino. It is two.
Inside the Kings Mountain Casino Today
The Kings Mountain ceremony was also a celebration of just how far the Catawba Nation has come. The Introductory Casino, which replaced the temporary facility on May 20, 2026, features an 80,000 sq ft gaming floor with 1,350 slot machines, 22 live table games, a sportsbook, a high-limit gaming room with 60 slots, a restaurant, a full-service bar, and 1,600 parking spaces.
The venue includes 250 more slot machines and eight more table games than the temporary casino, which had operated out of connected trailers. For many visitors who had been to the old modular building setup, the difference was immediately clear. “It was very refreshing, just seemed energetic and fresh,” one visitor said. “It smelled good in here too,” she added as she and her mother sat down together to play a new slot machine.
But the current floor is just a fraction of what is coming. The completed complex will span approximately two million square feet and include a 24-story, 385-room hotel, more than 4,300 slot machines, 100 table games, 11 dining outlets, 11 bars, and 3,500 parking spaces. The full Two Kings Casino Resort is projected to open in spring 2027.
Here is what the full Kings Mountain resort will look like once complete:
- 4,300+ slot machines and 100 table games
- 24-story hotel with 385 rooms connected to the casino
- 11 dining outlets including a steakhouse, Italian restaurant, marketplace, and café
- 11 bars including a center bar and a dedicated sports bar
- 3,500 total parking spaces
- Entertainment center and retail shops
- Total footprint: 2.2 million square feet
The Catawba Nation has already hired around 600 employees, with plans to reach more than 2,000 jobs when the full resort opens.
What Two More Casinos Would Mean for North Carolina
North Carolina currently has a small but significant tribal gaming footprint. The state currently has only three casinos. All are owned by Native American tribes and regulated by the federal government. The Eastern Band of Cherokee own Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, NC, and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino in Murphy, NC. The Catawba Indian Nation owns the Catawba Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain, NC.
If the Catawba Nation builds two more casinos, the state’s total tribal casino count would jump to five. That would be a seismic shift in North Carolina’s gaming landscape.
The Two Kings Casino Resort is one of the largest casino development projects currently underway in the eastern United States and represents a significant investment in the Catawba Nation’s economic future. The project brings substantial gaming capacity to a market that is within driving distance of Charlotte, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country.
The path forward will not be simple, though. Any new Catawba casino would require federal approval to take land into trust. The Catawba tribe first filed an application with the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs for a land trust and casino rights in September 2013. The ancestral homeland of the Catawba stretched from South Carolina, through North Carolina and into southern Virginia. There were five years of delays and no action from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Getting two more sites approved could take years. But if anyone has proven they can survive delays and setbacks, it is the Catawba Nation.
The casino expansion comes at a time when gambling laws across the United States are shifting rapidly. North Carolina already legalized mobile sports betting, and industry analysts believe lawmakers could eventually explore broader online gaming options.
A Tribe That Built Everything From Almost Nothing
To understand what this moment means, you have to understand where the Catawba Nation started.
The Catawba Indians have lived on their ancestral lands along the banks of the Catawba River for thousands of years. It is South Carolina’s only recognized Native American tribe and has approximately 3,300 members. For decades, the tribe tried to build a casino in South Carolina. The state refused every time. South Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe, the Catawba Nation, spent decades seeking permission to operate gaming in the state. The Legislature repeatedly refused, blocking even limited bingo operations. Eventually, the Catawba pivoted to North Carolina, opening their Kings Mountain casino just across the border from their South Carolina reservation.
For the Catawba Nation, the casino opening represented the culmination of three decades of seeking to finally benefit from the federal service area of six North Carolina counties assigned by Congress in 1993 to recognize the tribe’s aboriginal and historical ties to the state.
The personal weight of what this tribe has built is best captured in the words of Assistant Chief Patricia Leach. “You know, really just a few years ago we had no economic development,” Leach said. “So this has brought a lot of like general welfare benefits, scholarships, like opportunities to our tribal citizens.” Growing up poor, she said she did not even have a bathroom as a kid. “So just to start from there and to see, like all the growth and like we just built 30-something houses for our tribal citizens, like we haven’t built houses in over 20 years,” she said.
The Catawba Nation Foundation recently announced $800,000 in grants for nonprofit organizations serving the Catawba Nation, Cleveland County and Native American communities throughout North Carolina. The casino is not just a business. It is the engine that is funding a generation’s worth of change.
Harris himself has said it best. “These economic dollars will help sustain housing, healthcare, education,” he said. “That way, our tribal members will be able to grow up with the things I never had or had the opportunity to see.”
The Catawba Nation built one casino against enormous odds, survived legal battles, survived years of federal delays, and emerged with one of the most ambitious tribal gaming projects in the entire eastern United States. Now the chief is telling 500 people they are going to do it two more times. The sites are picked. The intention is clear. And based on everything this tribe has already accomplished, it would be a mistake to bet against them.
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