Four Winds Casino Resort
New Buffalo, Michigan

ARCHITECT: The Urban Design Group
CONTRACTORS: Kraus Anderson/The Christman Company
COST: $185 million
SIZE: 130,000 square-foot hotel

The casino’s name is a tribute to the heritage of its owners, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians; its look is informed by the natural surroundings of coastal New Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Four Winds Casino Resort, a 52-acre, $185 million casino, is the pride of the Pokagon, and an economic boon to the region along Interstate 94, 75 miles east of Chicago.

Managed by Lakes Entertainment, Inc., Four Winds Casino Resort is the newest addition to New Buffalo’s rich entertainment environment and the only land-based casino in all of southwest Michigan. 

With 130,000 square feet of gaming space (about 3,000 slot machines and 100 table games), the resort also includes a 165-room themed hotel, six restaurants and plenty of retail offerings.

Architects, contractors and designers carefully incorporated natural elements and Native American imagery into the structure and interiors. A flame-patterned granite rotunda floor is flanked by two massive fireplaces, in a nod to the tribe known as “keepers of the fire.”

A cedar arbor leading to the gaming floor depicts the totems and colors in the circle of life: eagle/yellow, otter/black, milky way/red, and bear/white, which is rich in meaning and significance to the Pokagon. Throughout the property, guests can see representations of long houses and wigwams.

“It has the look of a Northwoods lodge with all the amenities of a modern casino,” said General Manager Matt Harkness at the opening in August 2007.

The casino offers wide-area progressive games and a custom designed high limit slot area. Players can try their luck at blackjack, craps, baccarat and Pai Gow. Four Winds also features the Midwest’s only World Poker Tour poker room.