Arizona
The Navajo Nation has secured financing for its casino development venture in the form of a $100 million line of credit from banking powerhouse JP Chase Morgan. The tribe’s first casino will be built east of Gallup, N.M. Another may be in the works along Interstate 40 in northeastern Arizona. As of CEM’s press time, the proposal still needed an OK from the Navajo Nation Council.
California
The long-awaited and recently ratified Tribal Gaming Compacts in California are facing new opposition. The political director for UNITE HERE — the union that lost its fight for card-check neutrality concessions during compact negotiations — has filed four referendum measures, one against each of the new compacts of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. If the union can gather the approximately 434,000 signatures needed for each issue to appear on February’s ballot and a majority of voters cast their support at the polls, the referendums would overturn the new gaming compacts.
Massachusetts
The Mashpee Wampanoag are a step closer to opening a casino in Middleborough. Residents have voted (2,387 to 1,335) to sign a deal with the tribe and play host to its $1 billion casino. In exchange, the town will receive at least $11 million per year in gaming revenue and $250 million upfront for road, sewer and other infrastructure improvements. The tribe still needs land trust approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior before it can move forward, and tribal leaders still hope to reach a Class III gaming agreement with the state.
Michigan
The Sault Tribe has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction from the U.S District Court to allow gaming on the main casino floor of the new Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace without interference from the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). Last September the NIGC officially ruled that the new casino was not constructed on lands eligible for gaming. Hence, the casino, which opened last summer, has been forced to house its slots and table games in a separate structure connected to the main venue. The casino straddles two parcels of land — one that is considered reservation and one that is not. The tribe continues to contest the NIGC’s ruling and filed a lawsuit on Nov. 8, 2006. An opinion released this summer by Magistrate Judge Timothy Greeley is favorable to the tribe and offers a recommendation to order a preliminary injunction to allow the tribe to move its slots to the main venue while litigation continues. As of CEM’s press time, the final decision was still pending and the tribe was still pursuing a legislative solution to resolve the land dispute.
Nationwide
Casino City Press has released the 2007–2008 edition of the Indian Gaming Industry Report by Dr. Alan P. Meister, an economist with Analysis Group Inc. Following are some of the report’s key findings:
• Even though Indian Gaming revenue grew at a robust pace of 11 percent in 2006, the growth rate was down from prior years (15 percent in 2004 and 2005).
• Class II gaming revenue grew twice as fast as Class III gaming revenue, but Class III gaming still generated the lion’s share of revenue.
• The top two states generated approximately 40 percent of total gaming revenue at Indian Gaming facilities.
• Nebraska, followed closely by Alaska, led the other Indian Gaming states in revenue growth.
• Indian Gaming continued to make significant contributions to the U.S. economy in terms of output, jobs and wages.
New York
An anti-gaming group is trying to shut down the recently opened Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino’s temporary facility in downtown Buffalo. Keeping in line with recent court allegations that stalled the casino’s opening, Citizens for a Better Buffalo says Seneca Gaming Corp. opened the casino illegally and that the nine-acre track of land the casino sits on is not sovereign. The group has filed a complaint in federal court to shut the casino down. Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino opened to the public on July 3. The $6 million temporary casino is located at the corner of Michigan Ave. and Perry St. in the Inner Harbor area of downtown Buffalo. Plans for the permanent casino include 220,000-square-feet of gaming, and approximately 2,000 slot machines and 50 table games. The finished property will transform close to one-third of the contested site — including the land where the temporary casino sits — into green space with a creek running through it.
NIGC
The NIGC has selected Cesar Valdez Jr. to become its new director of enforcement. Valdez had been serving as director of security at the Oneida Tribe of New York’s Turning Stone Resort and Casino since September 2005 and joined NIGC August 6. Valdez has more than 30 years of combined military and civilian experience, including enforcement and administration of laws, rules and regulations governing the four racetracks and 20 off-track betting facilities in Pennsylvania. He was responsible for 217 employees while director of security at Turning Stone Resort and Casino, which includes a four-star hotel and two other hotel properties, five golf courses, 14 restaurants, a convention center and an events center. He received numerous medals and awards for his service in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.