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SANTA YSABEL — The Santa Ysabel Casino, which has been struggling financially for years and has debts of more than $50 million, has shut its doors.

Santa Ysabel Tribal Chairman Virgil Perez confirmed the closure early Monday morning but declined to answer further questions. He issued a news release in which he said all 115 casino employees had just been informed of the shutdown.

“This very difficult decision for the Tribe was made after considered and careful consideration of the current economic climate in gaming in this region, and insurmountable challenges which have plagued the enterprise from the outset of operations,” Perez said in the written statement.

The Santa Ysabel Casino — the smallest Indian gaming center in San Diego County, with just 349 slot machines — opened in April 2007 in North County, atop a hill a few miles south of the intersection of state Routes 76 and 79.

Its remote location far from population centers, and the existence of several much larger Indian casinos in the area, appeared to have doomed the venture from the beginning.

When the Great Recession hit in 2008 and gaming revenues plummeted throughout the region, Santa Ysabel found itself in dire straits.

Court documents show that in its first three years, the casino lost $24 million.

The tribe tried to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012, but was denied by the court. The tribe’s many creditors include the County of San Diego, which struck an agreement with Santa Ysabel in 2005 that allowed the casino to open as long as it gave money to the county to pay for off-site improvements and services such as an additional deputy sheriffs.

The tribe made very few payments and still owes the county more than $3 million, Senior Deputy County Counsel Thomas Bunton said Monday.

“The casino never fully realized its full potential, and confronted by an intransigent county government unwilling to renegotiate its financial agreement with the tribe in the face of economic hardship, was forced to seek bankruptcy protection,” Perez said in the news release. “The bankruptcy request was denied by the court and the casino did what it could to remain solvent.”

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose District 2 includes Santa Ysabel, scoffed at the idea that the county played a role in the casino’s failure.

“The claim by tribal leaders that county government was a factor in the casino closure is absurd,” she said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “We simply asked them to live up to their financial obligations and honor the agreement they struck with the county in 2005. Taxpayers deserve nothing less.”

The tribe also owes the Yavapai Apache nation of Arizona tens of millions of dollars in loans.

The casino was funded with a $26 million primary loan from JP Morgan and a secondary loan of $7 million from the Apache nation, In 2009, the Apaches purchased the JP Morgan note.

Bunton on Monday said he was not surprised the casino has gone out of business.