As workers in hard hats hauled in and fired up colorful, neon-bordered slot machines, officials with the Catawba Indian Nation’s North Carolina casino project gave a first look inside their soon-to-open gaming facility this week.

“This is the beginning, just the beginning,” Chuck Kilroy of casino project consultant Delaware North told The Charlotte Observer during a media tour of the tribe’s “pre-launch” gaming facility Thursday morning.

The single-story facility, off Interstate 85, about 35 miles west of Charlotte, is scheduled to open in early July, Kilroy said. July 1 is the target, but that’s still uncertain, he said.

Open 24/7, the facility will feature 500 slot machines by seven manufacturers, a snack bar and a service bar.