Even casino is going "GREEN"

Step inside any casino and you'll find the typical blackjack tables, slot machines and loosen-your-belt buffet. However the newly rebuilt Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel is one of it's kind with many , unusual features.

During daytime, half the casino's lighting comes from skylights.
Drinks are served only in glasses: no cans or bottles.

Some gamblers are smoking, but the air isn't thick with smoke.

And, outside, the roof of Bourbons 72 restaurant sports day lilies, ferns and leafy hostas.
Turtle Creek, near Traverse City, bills itself a "green" casino, designed to make the lightest possible footprint on the landscape without sacrificing profitability.

Its owners, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, are among a growing number of casino builders and operators interested in environmental stewardship.

The 360,000-square-foot, $116 million Turtle Creek opened Tuesday and replaces a smaller casino that will be torn down and mostly recycled.

It's especially hard to limit tobacco use in a tribal casino, given its iconic status in American Indian culture. But Turtle Creek developers tried to do the next best thing by installing a purifying system.

Outdoor air is pumped continuously into the gambling area through vents in the raised floor. Smoky air rises to the ceiling and is piped through filters, cleansed and sent back outside.

The resort has its own well and a sewage treatment system that purifies 90,000 gallons daily before returning the water to the ground almost as clean as before.

It also uses nature's cleanup crew: trees and other plants. The 2,400-square-foot "green roof" over one section of the building will filter storm water contaminants and provide insulation. In slight depressions on the grounds will be about 100 black willows.

If the trend catches on, green casinos could be ideal showplaces for environmental stewardship..are you listening GENTING?