Upping the ante.

• Position: Statewide: WESTERN REGION - Caesars Entertainment creates jobs

Caesars Entertainment is making a $100 million wager that a second Harrah's casino in western North Carolina will lure in gamblers from new markets. The new Harrah's Cherokee Valley River Casino & Hotel opened in late September outside Murphy, in Cherokee County. That's about an hour southwest of the well-known Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort in the town of Cherokee, in Jackson County. Both projects are owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and managed by Las Vegas-based Caesars. But they have different business models, and economic-development leaders and company officials say the new casino should draw in a different client base.

The older casino resort boasts a 1,100-room hotel, conference center and golf course plus a 150,000-square-foot gaming floor. "This is the place they come to when they want to stay a couple days," says Leeann Bridges, regional vice president of marketing for Harrah's. The new project is being billed as more of a day-trip destination. It's one-third the size, with about 300 hotel rooms and 50,000 square feet of gaming space including 70 game tables and 1,050 slot...