Hundreds of tribal citizens, community members, and Station representatives witnessed the ceremony on the tribe’s federal trust land about 25 miles northwest of Fresno.

Construction was delayed by several legal challenges from activists, nearby businesses, and competing casino interests between 2013 and 2017. Those cases were overturned by the California Supreme Court in August 2020.

“Today’s groundbreaking culminates over 20 years of careful and respectful collaboration between our sovereign nation and governmental partners at all levels,” North Fork Rancheria tribal chair Fred Beihn said on Saturday. “Today, we stand on the shoulders of many tribal leaders who came before us and wish to thank the numerous regional leaders who respected our cause, our approach, and our ambition to improve the quality of life for our citizens as well as our surrounding community.”

Preconstruction is already underway on the 100K-square-foot facility, which will be located at 17770 Golden State Blvd. in Madera, Calif.

The North Fork Mono Casino will feature 2,000 slot machines and 40 table games open 24/7, as well as two full-service restaurants and six quick-serve dining options, 3,000 parking spaces, and free valet parking.

Station initially managed three other tribal casinos:

1. Thunder Valley Casino Resort near Sacramento, Calif., owned by the United Auburn Indian Community
2. Graton Resort & Casino near Santa Rosa, Calif., owned by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
3. Gun Lake Casino near Grand Rapids, Mich., owned by the Gun Lake Tribe of Pottawatomi Indians.

In each case, the tribes opted to take over management themselves after their contracts with Station expired.

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The Pamunkey Indian Tribe and billionaire gaming industry veteran Jon Yarbrough were picked by Norfolk government officials ahead of a local ballot referendum in November 2020 to develop a commercial casino resort in the Hampton Roads city. City voters signed off on the casino plan, but numerous delays and a slew of hurdles have resulted in the project still not breaking ground.

The latest timeline suggests that Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming is entering the picture. Per planning documents submitted to the Norfolk City Council and Architectural Review Board, Boyd is set to become a majority investor in the Norfolk casino undertaking.

Boyd to the Rescue?

Originally to be called HeadWaters Resort & Casino, the project has suffered repeated setbacks.

Questions about whether a temporary casino could operate at a different mailing address than the permanent resort resulted in one outline being scrapped. The federal and state governments’ more recent announcement to embark on a $2.6 billion infrastructure project in Hampton Roads that includes constructing a 17-foot-high floodwall along the Elizabeth River forced the casino developers to go back to the drawing board and scrap a planned marina.

With fewer than 500 members on its 1,200-acre reservation in King William County, the small Pamunkey tribe is incapable of garnering loans for a $500 million scheme. As a result, gaming industry veteran Yarbrough had agreed to help secure financing and to provide expert insight into designing and managing the resort.

Planning documents reveal that Boyd is to assume an 80% ownership stake in Golden Eagle. The tribe would retain the remaining 20%.

No financial terms were disclosed, though that could change because Boyd Gaming is a publicly traded company. Boyd operates 29 properties across the nation in 19 markets.?

New Timeline

With Boyd seemingly entering the development team, the newest timeline for the resort suggests opening a “transitional casino” by early November 2025. The provisional gaming space would operate on the same 13.5-acre site where the permanent resort would stand.

Construction on the permanent casino and resort hotel would begin on Jan. 13, 2025, and would be expected to be ready for guests in September 2027. The latest blueprint includes 200 hotel rooms — 100 fewer than previous scopes.

The casino remains unchanged at 65,000 square feet with 1,000 slot machines, 25 live dealer table games, and a 180-seat sportsbook. The overall budget has been slashed from $500 million to $300 million.

The Norfolk City Council is expected to vote on September 10 on whether to allow the development team to amend its partners to include Boyd. The next progression would be presenting the project to the city’s Architectural Review Board for approval.

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The tribes claim the card clubs offer games that violate their own exclusivity on house-banked casino games. But they have previously lacked the legal recourse to challenge the clubs. That’s because, generally speaking, state courts lack jurisdiction over tribes, which are sovereign nations. And meanwhile, federal courts prefer not to interfere with California’s internal gaming laws.

The Senate approved the Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act by a resounding 32-2 on the final day of the legislative session. The bill authorizes the tribes to seek limited declaratory and relief action to determine whether the card clubs’ games violate their rights. They cannot claim monetary damages.

California Games

California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) Chairman James Siva described the legislation’s passage in a statement as “a new day in California history in regard to the civil rights of this state’s tribal nations.”

For over a decade, California tribes have engaged in considerable efforts to defend our exclusive gaming rights guaranteed in the California Constitution,” Siva added. “The Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act gives tribes access to justice that has been denied not only in this case, but throughout California history.”

At the heart of the matter are so-called “California games” offered by the state’s cardrooms. These are versions of popular casino table games that circumvent the ban on house banked games by taking a rake from each hand while allowing players to play in a rotating dealer position — just like in a regular poker cash game.

But the cardrooms also hire state-licensed third parties to “shill” in the dealer spot because players don’t always want to act as the dealer. The tribes argue that these companies, known as TPPPs, are a de facto “bank.”

Jobs on Line, Say Cardrooms

Cardroom advocacy group the California Gaming Association (CGA) has said the bill could cost the industry around 32,000 jobs. That’s because an unfavorable court ruling stemming from the bill would force many of the clubs to downsize or shut down.

“This bill will only throw government budgets into uncertainty and make a mockery of our judicial system,” according to an August 20 statement by the CGA editorial board. “Weaponizing the legislative process so that one special interest group can try to drive out perceived competition is silly on its face.”

The post California Legislature Passes Bill to Let Tribes Sue Cardrooms appeared first on Casino.org.

Three horses died and many more were injured when the category EF-3 tornado hit on May 25, Memorial Day weekend.

But now, the reels are spinning again on the newly carpeted gaming floor and the track will be ready to go when the racing season starts on September 9.

‘Back to Work’

On Wednesday, Cherokee officials, casino employees, and the Claremore Chamber of Commerce all attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the reopening.

“Finishing this project, even in the short period of time, means the workforce that we maintained during this downtime means they can get back to work,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told 2 News Oklahoma.

It means the economic impact that we have through Will Rogers Downs in the community and the Cherokee Nation will continue. So, it’s a very proud day. I am glad to see it,” he added.

Hoskin said that during the downtime, the tribe was able to move all employees to other businesses. The tribe owns 10 casinos on its 7,000 square-mile reservation in northeastern Oklahoma.

“We made sure that people continued to get a paycheck, and that’s the most important thing,” Hoskin said. “Having them back in what is their work home, it is a real family here, it is real special to them.”

Speedy Recovery

The local horse racing industry praised the speed at which the Nation worked to get the track back up and running, a feat that required significant manpower, according to Hoskins.

“I think we had major concern initially,” Krissy Bamberg, executive director of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association, told News on 6 Oklahoma. “When you looked at the damage, there was no way you could really fathom that they would have it back so soon.”

“This is the livelihood for our guys,” she added. “Most of our guys are Oklahomans and want to stay in Oklahoma. So, without Will Rogers running this time of year, they have to go to other states like Louisiana and Texas.”

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In a letter to US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland this week, Newsom argued that the casinos, proposed by the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians for Solano County and the Koi Nation for Sonoma County, are “proceeding in a manner that would sidestep the State [and] ignore the concerns of tribal governments and other local communities.”

The Scotts Valley Band has been seeking approval for its proposed $700 million casino resort near Vallejo since 2016. Meanwhile, the Koi Nation announced its plans for a $600 million project near Windsor in September 2021.

Controversial Projects

Both tribes have applied to the Department of the Interior (DOI) to have the land earmarked for the casinos taken into trust. This is the process by which the federal government partially removes land from the jurisdiction of the state and converts it to sovereign land, a prerequisite for tribal gaming.

Ultimately, while the DOI may consider Newsom’s stance on the applications, the governor will have no final say in the decision.

Both projects are controversial because they are opposed by some local residents, as well as by other tribes in the region. Casino opponents have accused the tribes of “reservation shopping,” suggesting they have?sought land far from their original reservations to maximize future casino profits.

Some Native Americans find the term offensive and believe it fundamentally misunderstands the nature of tribal reservations.

The Koi Nation’s links to the land have been disputed by the?Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which owns and operates the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park, about 11 air miles from the proposed site.

‘Land Appropriation’

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Cache Creek Casino operator the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation, and local government officials held a press conference in West Sacramento calling for the DOI to reject the Scotts Valley casino project.

Neither the Koi Nation nor the Scotts Valley Band already owns a casino.

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Last week, Ashcroft rejected a proposed ballot measure by the group, the Osage River and Gaming Convention (ORGC), because it didn’t have enough valid signatures.

The group claimed it submitted more than 320K signatures — more than enough to meet the ballot threshold — which requires the support of 8% of legal voters in each of two-thirds of the state’s eight congressional districts. Ashcroft said the campaign fell short by 2,031 signatures in the 2nd Congressional District.

‘Mistakes Happen’

In its complaint, the ORGC implies that the Secretary of State’s Office may have been mistaken and claims to have identified more than 2,500 valid signatures, which it says were wrongly rejected.

“Verifying every signature on multiple initiative petitions this summer has been a very long process for election officials and we realize mistakes happen,” the ORGC said in a statement.

ORGC has always been confident their initiative petition contained a sufficient number of valid signatures from legal voters to qualify for placement on the November 5, 2024 general election ballot and are now asking the Court to do so,” the statement continued.

Signatures can be rejected for numerous reasons, such as because the signee isn’t actually registered to vote, they entered false information, or they signed the petition more than once.

Bankrolled by Bally’s

The ORGC, which is bankrolled by Bally’s and local property developer Gary Pruitt, would ask the electorate whether Missouri’s constitution should be amended to expand casino gaming. Currently, it only permits casinos on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The proposal would create one casino license for the Lake of the Ozarks.

If it ever gets off the ground, the proposed project will create 500 construction jobs and 700 permanent jobs once it opens, according to the ORGC. Tax revenues from the casino would go to early childhood literacy programs in public schools.

Eyes On the Ozarks

The ORGC isn’t the only entity with its eyes on a casino in the popular tourist destination. The Osage Nation, which owns seven casinos in Oklahoma, has applied to the Department of the Interior to have land in the area taken into trust for the purpose of building the state’s first tribal gaming facility.

To approve the application for a casino so far from the tribe’s official reservation, the Interior Department will have to agree that the tribe has ancestral ties to the region.

The Osage Nation’s historical lands once encompassed most of what is now Missouri, and the tribe gave its name to the nearby Osage River. Nevertheless, the application could take years to process.

The post Lake of the Ozarks Casino Backers Sue to Revive Rejected Ballot Measure appeared first on Casino.org.

Roberto Carlos Gonzales Miranda and Roberto Orellana recently were indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit theft from a gaming establishment on Indian Lands, and transportation of stolen money, according to South Dakota TV station KELO.

The pair undertook a scheme at the Grand River Casino located in Mobridge, SD, in February.

The plot began when a woman telephoned a manager of the casino’s cashiers’ cage.

A man then got on the phone and said he was a collections contractor for the United States Postal Service. He claimed the casino owed $700K and that if the money wasn’t paid immediately, there would be more fees or fines owed, the report said.

Meanwhile, a third suspect claiming to be the manager’s supervisor sent the manager a text message ordering him to “empty the vault and deposit the cash at a Bitcoin ATM in Aberdeen, South Dakota,” according to KELO.

The casino employee scooped up $352K from the vault and got into a vehicle with the money. The person then drove to Aberdeen where he was instructed to deliver the money to two individuals in a gas station parking lot.

The casino is owned and operated by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Casino Jackpot Winner Robbed, Suspect Nabbed

A man was arrested in Tulsa, Okla. following Friday’s holdup of a man who, hours earlier, won money at a gaming property.

The suspect, Terry Brown, was charged with armed robbery with a firearm after being a convicted felon.

The incident began when Brown allegedly pulled out a firearm and robbed the victim. He stole an undisclosed amount of cash won at the unnamed gaming property, as well as car keys and a phone, according to Tulsa TV station KTUL.

The holdup took place at about 6 p.m. Friday at a residence located near 44th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

A second suspect accompanied Brown when he robbed the victim, police said. He’s still believed to be at large.

The two suspects were videotaped by a security camera, the report said.

The victim’s sister-in-law reported the robbery to the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) and gave police a description of the getaway vehicle and the suspects.

A short time later, a vehicle matching the description was spotted by a TPD helicopter and stopped by officers on North Quaker Avenue. Terry Brown, an occupant in the vehicle, matched a description given of the robbery suspect, police said.

Brown was booked for the crime and his case was turned over to local prosecutors.

The post Casino Crime Roundup: New Details Revealed About $352K Theft at Grand River Casino appeared first on Casino.org.

The two victims were walking near the Bear River Casino Resort in Loleta when the bullets were shot. The men avoided injuries from the early morning gunfire.

They alerted the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 3:40 a.m. The two victims reported that the shooters were in a silver, two-door sedan and a black pickup truck.

Two of the suspects were traced a short time later to a residence on Carroll Road where there were several firearms, authorities said.

One of the suspects was identified as Fernando Martinez, 26, of Visalia, Calif. He was charged with violating parole and resisting arrest.

The other was Robert Ellis, 33, also of Loleta. He was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and having an unregistered firearm.

In addition, later on Thursday, Madison Carroll, 23, also of Loleta, was charged with brandishing a firearm and discharging a firearm.

As of Friday, deputies were continuing to investigate the shooting. It’s unclear why the men opened fire on the pedestrians.

The casino is located about 275 miles north of Sacramento. It’s operated by the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria.

Gas Leak Causes Casino Evacuation

Visitors and others at California’s Eagle Mountain Casino were forced to evacuate the building following a gas leak on Thursday night.

No one suffered injuries during the incident.

Everyone was allowed to return inside the tribal gaming property by about 10 p.m. Thursday.

It’s unclear what caused the gas leak. Local firefighters responded to the Portersville, Calif. casino and provided assistance. The local gas company also sent crews to the site.

The casino is located some 160 miles north of Los Angeles. It’s operated by the Tule River Tribe of California.

Eagle Mountain Casino relocated to Portersville from its smaller location in May 2023.

Louisiana Casino Theft

An unidentified man stole vouchers from a Lake Charles, La., gaming property visitor on July 30.

A woman playing at the casino said her vouchers were on top of a gaming machine. The suspect snuck up behind her and stole the vouchers.

They were valued at several hundred dollars.

Lake Charles Police Department Lt. Brenda Treadway revealed the theft took place at about 12:49 a.m. on July 30. She didn’t identify the name of the casino.

The suspect was photographed by casino surveillance cameras. The suspect is wanted for questioning for another incident at the same Louisiana casino.

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Meyer, 79, was president and COO of Universal Studios from 1995 to 2013. He also has a reputation as a prodigious craps gambler.

In or about August 14, 2015, Meyer signed a line of credit for $6 million at the Mohegan Sun in Montville, Conn., according to the lawsuit filed by the Mohegan Gaming Commission. In October 2017, he used the line to gamble and promptly lost $5 million in a single day, it claims.

Meyer signed over five markers to the casino to cover the debt, but the checks bounced, per the suit. In April 2018, the defendant entered into a repayment plan with the casino but welched on installments in September 2003, still owing $2,782,500, according to the complaint.

Gambling Credit Illegal in State

In a motion to strike the case filed last week, Meyer’s lawyer, Brian E. Spears, argued that extending credit for gambling is illegal under Connecticut law and that the state has an “ancient and deep-rooted ban on lending money to gamblers.”

As a sovereign nation partially removed from state laws, the Mohegan Tribe is permitted to offer casino gaming under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). But that’s only if such activities are conducted in accordance with the compact agreement signed by the tribe and the state.

Connecticut’s only other tribal operator, the Mashantucket Pequots, signed a different compact in which they successfully negotiated an exception for the extension of credit for gambling at their Foxwoods Resort Casino, notes Spears.

“Ultimately, the Mohegan Compact is the relevant authority,” he adds. “Within its four corners, the Mohegan Compact does not permit the extension of credit for gambling. Absent an express authorization permitting the Mohegan Sun to extend credit for gambling at its casino, Connecticut’s centuries-old prohibition on such practices controls.”

‘Top Three Whale’

Meyer was reported to have blown more than $100 million on dice games over the years by sources who spoke to The Daily Mail in 2020, an allegation Casino.org is unable to verify independently. The article described him as “probably in the top three most sought-after whales in the gaming industry.”

Meyer was one of the founders of talent agency Creative Artists. At Universal he was the longest-serving chief of a major motion picture company. He resigned as chairman in 2020, claiming he was being extorted over a purported affair with British actress Charlotte Kirk.

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Edward L. Taylor, 33, of Bridgeport, Conn., was convicted following a criminal trial in New London Superior Court.

Victim Dragged by Car

Taylor and a second man also dragged the victim several yards as he held onto their vehicle in an effort to recover the stolen money.?The victim had been pumping gas when the robbers approached him. He suffered minor injuries as he was dragged by the vehicle.

The guilty charges are first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, and first-degree larceny.

Forensic staff found Taylor’s DNA on the victim’s clothing. The victim was not identified in news reports.

Taylor will be sentenced on October 22 by Judge Shari A. Murphy, according to New London State’s Attorney Paul J. Narducci.

The Mohegan Sun casino is operated by the Mohegan Tribe. The casino is located near New London.

California Casino Visitor Kidnapped

A man was charged earlier this week after he allegedly apprehended a woman from California’s Tachi Palace Casino Resort. She was last seen getting into her vehicle with a man at the California tribal gaming property, authorities said.

The elderly woman was reported missing on Monday. She later was found unharmed in Paso Robles, Calif., by deputies tracking her cell phone signal, according to California TV station KFSN. Paso Robles is some 75 miles southwest of the casino.

Dustin Lemaster, 33, was nearby and later arrested by the Paso Robles Police Department. He was charged with kidnapping, extortion, and elder abuse. Lemaster was booked in the Kings County Jail. His bail was set at $240K.

Lemaster reportedly met the victim inside the casino, according to Yourcentralvalley.com. It’s unclear when their meeting turned into a kidnapping or why the suspect allegedly apprehended her.

Tachi Palace Casino Resort is operated by the Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria. The casino is located in Lemoore, Calif, some 172 miles southeast of San Jose.

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Mohegan revealed in its quarterly report that the $504.2 million in operating revenue its domestic and international properties generated during the three months represented a record result. Mohegan’s quarterly net revenues surged 21.4% year-over-year.

“As I look across our enterprise, I feel confident about how our strategy is taking shape and I’m excited about our near and long-term prospects,” said Raymond Pineault, Mohegan CEO. “The combination of profitable growth in Digital, the ramp at Inspire since the grand opening in March, combined with the stability and resilience of our flagship, Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, highlights some of the important drivers for our growth in the present and future.”

Along with Inspire and Mohegan Sun, Mohegan owns and/or operates Mohegan Pennsylvania, Resorts in Atlantic City, Mohegan Casino at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and Fallsview and Casino Niagara properties in Canada’s Niagara Falls. Mohegan is winding down its management agreements in Las Vegas and Atlantic City by the end of the year. ?

Inspired Debut

Mohegan officials revealed during the quarterly filing that the company’s marketing efforts in the Seoul metro area are paying off. Visitation to the Inspire casino floor has increased each month since it opened, with visitor counts going from 15,803 visitors in March and 19,295 visitors in April to 24,781 gamblers in May and 27,411 patrons in June.

The first phase of the integrated resort cost $1.6 billion and brought 1,275 hotel rooms across three towers to Seoul’s primary air hub. A 15,000-seat arena, a year-round indoor water park in an enclosed glass dome, and an outdoor park complement the casino floor’s 150 live dealer table games, 374 slot machines, and 176-seat electronic gaming stadium.

The Mohegan financial summary reported that the Inspire casino generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $35.2 million from tables and $2.5 million from slots from April through June.

The resort’s hotel rooms were occupied nearly 71% of the time at an average rate of $190. Business at the Korean resort has only further improved, said Mohegan Chief Operating Officer Joseph Hasson.

When you look at July, the ramp continues and it is significant. We see it in tables, we see it in slots, and we see it across the board in nongaming revenues,” Hasson said.

The COO said the ongoing ramp-up of Inspire should soon bring the resort into operational profitability.

Record Revenue, Higher Costs

Though Mohegan never generated more revenue in a quarter than in Q3, the company said higher operating costs cut into profits. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) fell 3.6% to $104.74 million.

Mohegan Chief Financial Officer Ari Glazer said the adjusted EBITDA downfall was primarily due to higher costs and opening expenses related to Inspire.

Gambling at Inspire is reserved for foreigners, as residents of South Korea are prohibited from entering the casino space.

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The Seneca Nation continues to operate its casino resorts and gaming halls west of State Route 14 on a gaming compact that expired in December 2022. Since then, tribal leaders, including Armstrong, Sr., have been negotiating with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and her office staff on new revenue-sharing terms.

New tribal compacts struck by the governor must be approved by both chambers of the New York State Legislature. Since the Assembly rejected Hochul and the Seneca’s proposed compact reached in June 2023, the governor and tribe have repeatedly agreed to extend the expired terms, with the tribe placing the 25% slot allocation into an escrow account.

Candidate Says New York Deserves Nothing

The Seneca Nation doesn’t limit the number of terms a president can serve but does prohibit a president from serving consecutive two-year terms. Armstrong’s third term expires in November.

Armstrong previously held the office between 2002-2004 and 2018-2020. He was reelected in 2022.

This week, Seneca Nation Councilor J.C. Seneca became the first tribal member to announce his presidential candidacy. In announcing his bid, Seneca pledged to tackle and complete ongoing “critical issues” facing the nation, including the unresolved Class III gaming compact.

I think inserting some new energy, some new vision, and some new personality can help the situation and push it forward,” Seneca said about the gaming stalemate.

Seneca’s position, however, might not be conducive to reaching a new compact. The Western New York businessman who owns and runs a large truck stop called the Native Pride Travel Plaza in Irving along Interstate 90 says the state no longer deserves a piece of the tribe’s gaming windfall.

No state has the right or authority to receive revenue unless the Indian Nation receives just compensation for it and so in that sense, if we’re not getting what we believe is value from the state, then they don’t get anything,” Seneca said.

The 25% slot allocation from the Senecas has averaged about $100 million a year to the state government’s coffers.

State Dragging Negotiations

It’s rumored that Armstrong is also petitioning the state for a significantly reduced or fully dissolved slot share agreement in a new Class III gaming compact. That could be why Hochul seems to be in no rush to strike a new compact, as it could result in reduced revenue for the state.

The coveted licenses are expected to be issued next year.

The post Seneca Nation Presidential Candidate Says New York Deserves No Gaming Money appeared first on Casino.org.

Abdul Rahman Zaina, who resides in the Jamaica, Queens neighborhood of New York City, showed off his private parts while he?was in the poker room of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. last Tuesday.

For an unknown reason, he unbuttoned his pants and unfastened his belt before pulling out his penis, according to Patch.

Casino employees quickly asked him to leave Pit 7 in the poker room. But he started to walk toward a cashier’s cage and got into a dispute with a security guard, according to Florida TV station WPLG.

Zaina appeared to get angry, Patch reported. Zaina soon got into a struggle with casino security guards.

He placed his hands on a guard’s face and he then was pushed to the floor by the guards, according to WLPG.

Threw Bottle at Dealer, Threatened Guards

A struggle ensured, and Zaina broke free from the guards. He then got hold of a bottle and allegedly tossed it at a gaming floor dealer and at a guard.

The dealer suffered minor injuries on his arm when he was struck by the bottle, the report revealed. As the confrontation unfolded, Zaina also threatened the guards, police said.

Seminole Police Department officers were notified about the incident at about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Two Charges

Officers responded and Zaina was arrested for incident exposure and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. If convicted on the charges, Zaina could face many years in prison.

It wasn’t clear why he exposed himself and assaulted the guards, police said. It also was unclear if Zaina was intoxicated at the time of the incident.

He has yet to enter a plea in the case.

Police were able to view the incident on casino surveillance camera video.

Zaina didn’t appear to suffer any injuries. Details on the injuries to the casino dealer weren’t immediately available.

Zaina’s case was turned over to local prosecutors. As of last week, bail was set at $8K. He was booked at Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.

The post Florida Casino Visitor Allegedly Shows Off Genitals in Poker Room, Jailed for Indecent Exposure appeared first on Casino.org.

The Interior Department’s National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) approved the plan last month, six years after the Trump administration turned down the tribe’s application. The decision paves the way for that rarest of things in Alaska – a new gaming venue.

Alaska has no casinos and no state lottery, but it does have one electronic bingo hall and a small handful of charitable bingo establishments.

The problem for the Eklutna, up to this point, has been that Alaskan tribes have a different legal status to their counterparts in “the Lower 48.”

That’s largely thanks to the Nixon-era Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The act awarded the tribes land and financial compensation but recharacterized them as private corporations as opposed to sovereign nations with sovereign powers.

Limited Sovereignty

Under the?Indian Gaming Regulatory Act?(IGRA), Native American tribes are free to open class II gaming facilities — such as electronic bingo halls — on their land without the permission of state authorities provided such operations are legal elsewhere in the state.

But a tribe must have governmental authority over its land to have gaming rights there, and the Eklutna didn’t, according to the 2018 Trump administration decision.

That decision was based on the Sansonetti Opinion, a George H.W. Bush-era legal opinion that concluded Native Village sovereignty was severely limited.

The Eklutna sued the Interior Department, unsuccessfully, in 2019. It argued that it had exercised jurisdiction and provided governmental services since it was granted its land in 1906 through land management and environmental protection.

New Rules

But the tribe’s fortunes turned in November 2022 when Interior Department Solicitor Robert Anderson determined that?ANCSA did not prohibit the federal government from taking land into trust for Alaska Natives.

Then, in February this year, Anderson essentially reversed the Sansonetti opinion. Anderson opined that tribal authority should apply to land allotted to Alaska Natives provided it was not “geographically removed from the tribal community.”

For the Eklutna, this was a game changer.

“There’s still a few hurdles to clear, but we feel the major hurdles have been cleared,” Eklutna Tribal Council President and Chair Aaron Leggett told The Alaska Beacon this week.

Right now, we’re in dire need of housing,” he added. “We’re trying to raise finance to construct a gathering center/office space for the Tribe. We have our small clinic, but we don’t have much in the way of any infrastructure … so we feel that this will spur development in the village, it’ll spur development in the area, and it’ll spur development for Anchorage too.”

Those hurdles that still need to be cleared include an environmental review and potential lawsuits, not least from the anti-gambling State of Alaska, which has described Anderson’s opinions as “wrong.”

“…[W]ith a stroke of its pen, Interior purportedly changed how Alaska has operated for the last 50 plus years,” lawyers wrote in a February court filing.

The post Alaska’s Second Gaming Hall Gets Federal OK After Tribe’s 25-Year Wait appeared first on Casino.org.

The Ho-Chunk Nation is one of several federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin. The tribe owns and operates six casinos in the Badger State in Black River Falls, Madison, Nekoosa, Tomah, Wisconsin Dells, and Wittenberg.

The land-into-trust development cleared the way for the tribe to operate Class I and II Indian gaming on the property. In March 2021, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) agreed to expand the tribe’s Class III gaming compact to the Beloit venue to allow the forthcoming casino to house Las Vegas-style slot machines and live dealer table games.

Casino Details?

The Ho-Chunk’s project plans reveal their Beloit destination will become the second-largest casino in Wisconsin with upwards of 1,500 slots and 44 table games.

The resort blueprint includes a 312-room hotel, four restaurants and three bars, a spa, and 76,000 square feet of conference space. Tribal plans include a “color-changing media mesh” lightning system on the hotel’s fa?ade that will be capable of creating an array of color sequences and digital displays. ?

Construction on the $405 million development, a budget that hasn’t changed since 2018, is expected to begin in the coming months. The project is forecast to create 1,200 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent resort and casino positions.

The tribe’s longstanding gaming compact also requires that the state receive 5% of the Ho-Chunk casinos’ annual GGR from Class III operations. If annual win climbs above $350 million in a given fiscal year, the tribe’s obligation increases to 5.5%.

Playing Catchup

The Ho-Chunk Beloit casino will be just a 20-minute drive north of where Hard Rock International is prepping Hard Rock Casino Rockford in Illinois. Hard Rock has operated a temporary casino inside a retail strip mall since November 2021.

The permanent facility is a $310 million undertaking located immediately off Interstate 90 at State Street. Hard Rock will offer 1,300 slots, 50 table games, including a poker room, a Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook, six restaurants, and a Rock Shop selling Hard Rock merch and memorabilia.

Hard Rock won’t offer an on-site hotel but will feature a Hard Rock Live concert venue with seating for up to 2,000 guests.

Hard Rock is fully owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

The post Wisconsin Tribal Casino for Beloit Comes to Light, Ho-Chunks Maintain $405M Budget appeared first on Casino.org.

Ethan Bherwani might have survived the May 18, 2021 incident if responses by the tribal casino were quicker, his father, Kamal Bherwani, a one-time New York City public official, recently told The New York Post.

The younger Bherwani, 22 at the time, was at the casino celebrating his college graduation when he fell out of a chair at a blackjack table. As he lay not moving on the floor, its alleged that no dealers, pit bosses, or any other casino employees intervened on Bherwani’s behalf.

Four and a half minutes after he fell, a casino employee finally checked on Bherwani. EMTs arrived approximately 11 minutes after Bherwani first fell out of the chair, the Post reported.

The crew tried to administer CPR but they couldn’t revive him.

Man Was Brain Dead

Bherwani was transported to nearby Hartford Hospital where he was declared brain dead. He died nine days later.

If they had gotten to him in three minutes, he’d be completely alive,” Kamal Bherwani told the Post.

Exams showed that Ethan Bherwani had consumed fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol that night before passing out. It was also revealed that unnamed casino visitors attempted to assist Bherwani while he was on the floor but Mohegan Sun employees ordered the good Samaritans to move away from the man, the Post reported.

Kamal Bherwani filed a lawsuit against Mohegan Sun claiming the casino was negligent. That suit was dismissed by a Connecticut tribal court though a new lawsuit could be filed, the Post reported.

My son was going to law school. He was cooped up during the pandemic and celebrating his graduation; he made a mistake … but it should not have cost him his life,” his father further told the reporter.

Kamal Bherwani wants New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), to reject the Mohegan tribe’s effort to capture a casino license in New York City given how the casino responded in connection with his son’s medical emergency.

Drug Dealer Arrested

Shortly before his death, Ethan Bherwani purchased fentanyl-laced drugs from a man at the casino identified as Jerrard Santiago, who was later was arrested.

Santiago has since pled guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of, a controlled substance. He has yet to be sentenced to prison.

Casino.org reached out to Mohegan Sun for comment. No immediate statement was provided.

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In remarks made earlier Saturday at the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) in Pittsburgh, Cherokee Nation Gaming Commission Chairman John Sparks said the Tribe isn’t looking to enter Las Vegas “just yet.” However, Sparks did not say the Tribe is permanently opposed to eventually coming to the US casino center.

Currently, Cherokee Nation runs eight casinos in Oklahoma and is widely viewed as the frontrunner to land a gaming license in Pope County, Ark. Just over two years ago, the Tribe paid MGM Resorts International $450 million for the Gold Strike Hotel & Casino in Tunica, Miss.

Cherokee Nation Would Need Likely Acquisition to Get Las Vegas Casino

Cherokee Nation Entertainment is one of the largest Tribal gaming entities in the US and thus likely has the financial resources to eventually make a move into Las Vegas, which almost certainly need to be accomplished via acquisition.

Additionally, some analysts believe that high interest rates are a headwind to casino mergers and acquisitions activity because many prospective buyers don’t want to finance deals at elevated borrowing costs. It’s possible that the Federal Reserve will lower borrowing costs in September, but it could take more than a single cut to galvanize gaming industry deal-making.

Over the past several years, the bulk of the scuttlebutt regarding Strip casino hotels that could change hands has centered around mid- and lower tier properties. It’s not clear if such venues would be to Cherkoee’s liking or if the Tribe would prefer something glitzier.

Assessing Las Vegas Tribal Landscape

With Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment out as the casino operator at the off-Strip Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and with the closure of the Mirage, the lone Sin City gaming venue run by a Native American tribe is the off-Strip Palms, which is owned and operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians of California.

Assuming no acquisitions or new from the ground up developments, the Las Vegas Tribal roster will increase to two in 2027 when Hard Rock International reopens Mirage bearing the operator’s famous brand.

At the NCLGS conference, Cherokee’s Sparks did not reveal a timeline for the Tribe entering the Las Vegas market.

The post Cherokee Nation Chairman Says Not ‘Just Yet’ on Tribe Buying Las Vegas Casino appeared first on Casino.org.

The rock ‘n’ roll-themed integrated resort casino is located north of Miami and south of Fort Lauderdale. The property is owned and operated by Hard Rock International, which is fully owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Hard Rock revealed this week that for a fourth consecutive year, its Hollywood casino has awarded more than $1 billion in jackpots. The milestone in 2024 was eclipsed on June 12 when a Hard Rock Unity X-Card loyalty member from Ohio snagged a nearly $6K jackpot playing Buffalo Link.

For the fourth consecutive year, we have awarded more than $1 billion in jackpots,” said Bo Guidry, president of Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood. “We are dedicated to providing exceptional guest experiences and ensuring that each visit to Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood is truly unforgettable.”

Since 2021, Hard Rock Hollywood has paid out more than $6 billion in slot machine jackpots.

Jackpot Every 47 Seconds

In a press release on the momentous feat of at least $1 billion in jackpots being awarded for a fourth straight year, Hard Rock revealed the overwhelming majority of the jackpots have been relatively small wins.

The casino defines a jackpot as any win that necessitates a slot attendant to pay out the prize and deliver the lucky gambler a W-2G IRS tax form. The IRS tax threshold remains at $1,200, though there have been recent calls for the US Treasury to increase its slot prize trigger. ?

Hard Rock detailed that there’s been a jackpot won on its Hollywood casino floor every 47 seconds in 2024. The Hollywood casino spans 150,000 square feet and offers 2,500 slots, nearly 200 live dealer table games, and a Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook.

The casino’s newest offerings include 10 craps and 20 roulette tables, as made possible by the tribe’s revised gaming compact reached with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2021.

Hard Rock Coming to Las Vegas?

Hard Rock built the world’s first-ever Guitar Hotel in 2019 through a $1.5 billion expansion of the Hollywood resort. The company is now embarking on a second Guitar Hotel by way of Las Vegas.

Hard Rock closed The Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip this week to undergo a full renovation of the resort into a rock ‘n’ roll-themed resort not unlike Hard Rock Hollywood.

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas, as the property will be known, is slated to open in the spring of 2027.

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The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recently published its environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding the Koi’s proposed development called Shiloh Resort and Casino. The tribe is seeking to build a $600 million casino on roughly 69 acres of land it purchased in September 2021.

Such tribal projects are required to undergo an EIS pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. The review identifies potentially significant impacts of tribal endeavors.

Environmental Impact Findings

Chad Broussard, an environmental protection specialist with the BIA, wrote in the abstract that the Shiloh Resort and Casino poses numerous environmental threats.

Broussard concluded that the destination would create potentially significant impacts to groundwater and biological resources, public services, traffic noise and congestion, wildfire hazards, and wildlife evacuation. But those concerns could be addressed, he said.?

?All potentially significant impacts would be minimalized or avoided with recommended mitigation measures,” Broussard wrote.?

The BIA is asking the public to review the Shiloh Resort and Casino EIS and submit comments to the federal agency within 45 days. The comment period is underway and runs through August 26.

The Shiloh blueprint calls for a 538,137-square-foot indoor development with the casino occupying 114,000 square feet. The casino plan calls for 2,750 slot machines and 105 live dealer table games.

The resort would include 400 hotel rooms, a spa, five restaurants, four bars, retail shopping, and 74,185 square feet of flexible event space. The destination would offer 5,119 parking spaces.

Local Opposition

The Koi Nation was given 140 acres of land in Lake County in 1916, but in 1956, the federal government said it had erred in designating that property as sovereign territory and took it back. Many of the Koi people moved to Sonoma County about 20 miles south.

The tribe, as mentioned, regained federal recognition in 2000 and has since fought to have its lands restored.

However, the Koi Nation has the support of 18 other California tribes and state Treasurer Fiona Ma.

The federal government, however, needs to take the land into trust to allow Shiloh to move forward with at least a Class I and II gaming destination. California governors, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), have a long history of extending Class III gaming compacts to federally recognized tribes that possess sovereign land on the Federal Register.

The post Koi Nation Casino Environmental Impact Report Released, Comment Period Begins appeared first on Casino.org.

Matthew Morgan is the chair of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, which represents the interests of the Sooner State’s 25 federally recognized tribes that hold Class III gaming compacts that allow the Indian nations to operate Las Vegas-style slot machines and table games on their sovereign lands. Speaking with the Oklahoma Voice, Morgan says tribes aren’t overly eager to expand their gaming operations to include sports betting, and that there have been few meaningful discussions with Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) and state lawmakers about the issue.

Any discussion of sports betting really never left the ground because there was just too much posturing, too much disagreement on how the industry would work,” Morgan revealed. “From our perspective, we’ve not really seen the state legislature or the governor’s office have an appetite for sports betting.”

Morgan divulged that the tribes he represents in the Oklahoma City capital would be interested in operating sportsbooks but aren’t willing to pay the state extravagant fees to include the small-margin betting vertical.

Governor Proposal D.O.A.?

Stitt surprised the tribes last November when he pitched a sports betting proposal without consulting the natives. The governor suggested that Oklahoma expand the tribes’ compacts to include retail sports betting privileges and allow commercial sportsbook operators like DraftKings and FanDuel to run online wagering platforms.

State Rep. Ken Luttrell (R-Ponca City) authored a sports betting bill mimicking the governor’s ideas. House Bill 1027 passed the state House of Representatives last year but stalled in the Senate. Luttrell is a member of the Cherokee Nation, one of the five largest tribes in the state.

State Sen. Bill Coleman, also a Republican from Ponca City, co-sponsored the sports betting bill. He said at the time that Oklahoma should keep sports betting money from flowing into neighboring jurisdictions where sports gambling is legal.

Sports Betting Outlook

Sports betting is legal and operational in 38 states, plus Washington, DC. Of Oklahoma’s six border states, four have sports gambling — Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. New Mexico limits sports betting to in-person at its tribal casinos.

In November, voters in Missouri will decide whether the Show-Me State becomes the 39th state to approve sports gambling and add yet another border state to Oklahoma where such betting is permitted.

Coleman isn’t folding on his wishes to retain sports betting money being bet in those neighboring states.

“You’ve got the governor, you’ve got the tribes, you’ve got the legislature, you’ve got plenty of people that are giving input,” Coleman said. “It just takes time to get everybody on the same page.”

The post Oklahoma Sports Betting Odds Remain Long, Likely Not Coming Anytime Soon appeared first on Casino.org.

The casino is within the tribe’s reservation, just outside the town of Redding. And while it will not be moving far, it’s causing a lot of controversy up in Shasta County.

Since 2016, the tribe has sought to tear down the existing casino and rebuild a significantly enlarged version on a plot of land it owns called Strawberry Fields. But because the new location was not part of its reservation, it needed approval from the US Interior Department.

That arrived on July 1 when the department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agreed to take the land into trust for the tribe. That’s the process by which the federal government partially removes land from the jurisdiction of the state and converts it into sovereign tribal land, a prerequisite for tribal gaming.

Fierce Opposition

The tribe hopes it’s now a case of Strawberry Fields forever. But Redding Rancheria CEO Tracy Edwards told local CBS affiliate KRCR-TV that she was bracing for lawsuits challenging the land-in-trust decision.

The casino expansion is fiercely opposed by a group calling itself Speak Up Shasta! (SUS!), and others. The group claims the new casino would spoil agricultural land, exacerbate traffic, and threaten native wildlife in the Sacramento River.

The Rancheria wants to build a 70,000-sq.-ft. casino and nine-story, 250-room hotel, along with event, retail, and convention and space. The complex would be triple the size of the existing casino.

It hopes the development will benefit from greater footfall because of its proximity to Interstate-5. This, along with the creation of new jobs, will boost the local economy, the tribe says.

‘Illegal’ Decision

But in February, another opposition group called the California Land Stewardship Council?sued the Shasta County Board of Supervisors.

The lawsuit argued that an agreement signed by the county board to help fund law enforcement, fire, and emergency services for the new casino was illegal because it “gave away millions of dollars of public funds.”

In a statement this week, the tribe noted that the BIA’s “monumental decision … included nearly two decades of comprehensive expert analysis into the environmental, economic, and social impacts of our proposed casino relocation project.”

The post Win-River Casino Expansion Approved, Tribe Braced for Lawsuits appeared first on Casino.org.

The Forest County Potawatomi of Wisconsin was a rejected bidder for the Waukegan casino license. It sued the city in October 2019 claiming it didn’t get a fair crack at the tender and that the process was “rigged.”

The tribe owns the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wis., one of the biggest entertainment destinations in the Midwest.

The developer had already opened the temporary venue,? The Temporary by American Place, in February 2023.

‘Too Much Uncertainty’

“As long as the litigation is ongoing, there is too much uncertainty around the development,” Full House’s senior vice president and chief development officer, Alex Stolyar, said Friday, as reported by The Chicago Tribune. “Unfortunately, this litigation has delayed our plans, but we appreciate the effort of the city and state working as quickly as they can to get this restarted.”

The tribe has also filed a civil rights case against the city in the federal court, which is unlikely to be looked at until the resolution of the complaint in the state supreme court.

From there, assuming a favorable decision for Full House, it would be another 2? to three years before the permanent casino could be in operation.

Conspiracy Claim

The Potawatomi claims in the state lawsuit that the city council partially based its decision on a flawed and “inaccurate” third-party report that undervalued the tribe’s contribution.

The federal lawsuit alleges that Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham instructed Waukegan City Council members on which bids to approve.

It claims Cunningham favored the proposal by former state senator Michael Bond, who had donated generously to Cunningham’s campaign via his video gambling machine company, Tap Room Gaming.

While Bond’s bid was ultimately rejected, it outlasted the Potawatomi bid in the process.

The city has called these allegations “factually suspect.” It has also noted that by the tribe’s admission, the Waukegan casino will divert “tens of millions of dollars a year” from the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, and so the current legal standoff suits the tribe just fine.

The post Full House Resorts’ Permanent Waukegan Casino Hobbled by Litigation appeared first on Casino.org.

It appears the fire began after sparks from the fireworks display led to three small fires at about 9:18 p.m. on Saturday, according to Havasunews.com.

Winds soon forced the small fires to spread to 150 acres of land located on the California side of the Colorado River in San Bernardino County.

The wildfire also threatened California’s Bermuda Palms neighborhood. The blaze was stopped before it could damage a building.

As the weekend continued, firefighters battled the wildfire. By Sunday night, it was about 20% contained.

Responding crews came from multiple departments, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, San Bernardino, Buckskin, Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), CRIT Wildland, Parker, Contract Heavy Equipment, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office.

BlueWater Resort and Casino is owned and operated by the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT). It features a 30,000-square-foot gaming floor with over 450 slot machines and eight gaming tables. A 200-room hotel is located at the complex, which also houses four restaurants, two bars, and an entertainment room.

St. Louis Casino Lot Shooting

A man was injured Sunday night after a shooting at a parking lot at Horseshoe St. Louis in Missouri.

The unnamed victim is 42-years-old. The wounded man was located next to his car.

He was shot several times and was transported to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition. He couldn’t speak to officers due to his serious wounds.

Police didn’t detail his injuries and it’s unclear if he underwent surgery.

It appears the suspect was a solitary man driving a white car. A search for the suspect continues.

Pedestrian Dies Near Casino

A woman was killed after being struck by a car on Thursday near Nebraska’s Rosebud Casino.

Police didn’t specify her injuries and the victim wasn’t identified, according to News Channel Nebraska.

It was unclear if the motorist was charged or if he/she had been at the gaming property.

The Valentine, Neb. casino is operated by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and has 250 slot machines along with a variety of table games, including Ultimate Texas Hold’em and blackjack. The complex also houses a restaurant and bar, and a 60-room hotel and entertainment center.

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According to a July 8 entry in the Federal Register, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has agreed to take land earmarked for the casino into trust, a prerequisite for tribal gaming, as first reported by The Ridgecrest Daily Independent.

Inyokern is a census-designated place about eight miles west of Ridgecrest, which is a two-hour drive east of Bakersfield, Calif. The small tribe of around 300 members plans to build a 20,000-sq-ft casino with a 10,000-sq-ft gaming?floor and a three-story hotel tower there. The site is 130 miles away from the tribe’s reservation in Furnace Creek, Death Valley.

Ridgecrest Opposition

The Timbisha are unable to host a casino on their existing reservation because it forms part of the Death Valley National Park and so is subject to federal restrictions. The tribe has been trying to build a casino in the Ridgecrest area for the best part of a decade.

Initially, the project was largely supported by the city council, although some councilmembers were opposed. In 2016, the city signed a municipal services agreement (MSA) with the Timbisha in support of the casino as the tribe sought approval from the BIA.

However, local opposition began to grow because of social concerns and anxieties about water resources.

The Timbisha argued that the city was still legally bound to sell the plot under the terms of the MSA and threatened to sue.

Lawsuits Fly

Meanwhile, the tribe also claimed the BIA was deliberately delaying approval on the project. In May 2019, it sued the bureau asserting “undue political influence.”

Eventually, the tribe received a letter from the BIA showing the project had in fact been approved on September 27, 2018, shortly before the city council claimed the MSA had expired. The tribe claimed someone linked to the BIA was buying the council time to back out by suppressing the approval letter.

In 2020, the council settled with the tribe and its developer, Global Investment Enterprise Ridgecrest (GIER). The city agreed to sell the land to GIER for $5.5 million?in return for the cessation of all litigation.

But then the pandemic struck, and unfortunately for the tribe, financing for casino projects dried up. The revived land-sale agreement expired in February 2022.

Conspiracy or not, the BIA’s approval of the new location is a major step forward for the tribe’s plan to move the project eight miles west.

The post Death Valley Tribe Gets BIA Approval on California Casino appeared first on Casino.org.

In an op-ed for Oregon Live this week, Coquille tribal chair Brenda Meade accused fellow tribal leaders of “throwing tribal sovereignty under the bus” in order to retain their regional gaming monopolies.

In March of this year Meade the Karuk, Cow Creek, Elk Valley, and Tolowa Dee-ni’ tribes—all based in Oregon and Northern California — wrote to Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland.

They asked her to torpedo the Coquille’s request to have land earmarked for the casino taken into trust. In their letter, they warned of “devastating economic consequences” for their own gaming operations if the project were to go ahead.

‘Reservation Shopping’

The Coquille Tribe, which owns the Mill Casino on its reservation in Coos Bay, has harbored plans for a modest gaming venue in Medford since 2011. The tribe first submitted its application to the DOI’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 2013.

In 2020, the BIA under the Trump administration denied the application. But that decision was reversed by the Biden administration a year later on the grounds that it had been issued before an environmental review process was completed. The Coquille are still sweating on a final BIA decision.

Meade said this fundamentally misunderstood the nature of tribal reservations, and she reinforced the Coquille’s ancestral ties to the region.

The tribe was recognized in 1989 by the Coquille Restoration Act, which did not restore a contiguous area of land to the Coquille. Instead, it identified a specific area where land could be taken into trust to become part of the reservation.

This included Coos County, where the tribe has its existing reservation, as well as Medford’s Jackson County, and others. These counties were not chosen arbitrarily, Meade said.

“Congress studied where our people lived, traded and worked, both historically and during termination. It learned that its own policies had caused us to disperse across the landscape,” she explained.

Political Storm

Meade claimed the “reservation shopping” label has already whipped up a dangerous political storm. Bolstered by lobbying efforts, misinformation, and “widespread ignorance about tribal land,” it had created efforts to prohibit supposed “reservation shopping” on a state and federal level, she argued.

With this accusation, they are creating a reckless and baseless precedent for political attacks against hundreds of tribes like ours who have worked to legally rebuild our reservations while carefully following layers of laws and regulations,” she warned.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has said she opposes the Medford casino project, although she would ultimately have no say were it to be approved by the BIA.

The post Coquille Tribe Hits Back Against Oregon Casino Opposition appeared first on Casino.org.

Senate Bill 549, also known as the Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act, would allow California tribal casino operators a window in which to sue the state’s 84 licensed cardrooms. The tribes claim the card clubs are offering games that violate their exclusivity on house-banked games, such as blackjack and Pai Gow poker.

They want the courts to shut down the games, but as sovereign nations tribes typically cannot sue or be sued in a state court. That’s because, generally speaking, state courts lack jurisdiction over the tribes. SB 549 would authorize the tribes to seek limited declaratory and relief action to determine whether the games, known as “California games,” violate their rights.

License to Shill

California games are versions of popular casino table games that take a rake from each hand while allowing players to play in the dealer position — just like in a regular poker cash game.

The tribes argue that these companies, known as ‘TPPPs, are the de facto “bank.”

Cardroom advocacy group the California Gaming Association (CGA) estimates that the bill could cost the industry around 32,000 jobs. That’s because an unfavorable court ruling stemming from the bill would force many of the clubs to downsize or shutter.

‘Backbone of Community’

Among the protestors Tuesday was Gardena mayor Tasha Cerda, whose city has a long association with card rooms and remains home to two, Hustler and the Lady Luck.

Our two cardrooms have been the backbone of our community as they will provide vital tax services that our city uses to fund vital public services, which allow us to provide a better quality of life for our residents and communities,” Gerda told iGB. “Our cardrooms employ over 1,200 residents and individuals from surrounding communities. That’s over $47 million in wages a year.”

Meanwhile, inside the State Capitol, California Nations Indian Gaming (CNIG) Chairman James Siva told the Governmental Organization Committee that SB 549 was just “a fair and reasonable pathway to allow an impartial court to decide once and for all” on the legality of California games.

“We tried initiation of federal and state lawsuits,” Siva said, as reported by Play USA. “Unfortunately, each of those lawsuits were dismissed solely on procedural grounds without addressing the merits, therefore denying tribal access to justice.”

The post California Cardrooms Protest as Bill Advances Allowing Tribes to Sue appeared first on Casino.org.

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) in Washington, DC, told Casino.org Friday morning that tribal casinos saw their gaming win increase by $1 billion during the 12-month span. The $41.9 billion haul represented a 2.4% year-over-year improvement.

“This year’s GGR results demonstrate how a strong regulatory framework and diversity of tribal gaming enterprises generates growth in the gaming industry,” said NIGC Acting Chair Sharon Avery.

Tribal gaming operators and regulators have proven that their ingenuity and tenacity are catalysts for growth, even in the face of an ever-changing gaming landscape. This steadfastness will ensure that tribal gaming remains a valuable resource for continued economic sustainability in tribal communities,” Avery added.

Avery was named acting NIGC chair after E. Sequoyah Simermeyer resigned in February for an executive role with FanDuel.

Nationwide Gains

The NIGC gaming revenue summary revealed that GGR increased in each of the federal agency’s eight metered regions. The NICG says it reviewed financial reports from more than 500 tribally owned gaming facilities in 29 states.

Of the reporting properties, just 9% relayed GGR above $250 million for the 2023 fiscal year. Those casinos accounted for 55% of the total GGR. The NIGC reported that 55% of the financial submissions were for gaming revenues of less than $25 million. ?

The DC region, which includes tribal gaming incurred in New York, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, was second at $9.19 billion.

The St. Paul region, which includes tribal casino win from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa, was next at $5 billion. St. Paul win climbed almost 3% from fiscal year 2022.

The Portland group, inclusive of tribal gaming revenue from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, totaled $4.53 billion. The Phoenix segment, which includes tribal revenue generated in Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Nevada, and Colorado, reported GGR of $3.92 billion.

Midwest casinos in the regions of Tulsa (Kansas and the eastern portion of Oklahoma) and the Oklahoma City region (the western portion of Oklahoma and Texas) respectively totaled $3.56 billion and $3.21 billion.

The eighth segment — Rapid City — which encompasses tribal casinos in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, totaled $425.9 million.?

Record Gambling

Americans are gambling, and losing, like never before. Along with the record tribal casino revenue, the American Gaming Association in February disclosed that commercial casinos are fresh off their best year, too.

The American Gaming Association and National Indian Gaming Commission reports relay that Americans are losing over $100 billion gambling every 12 months.

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While some tribal gaming leaders in California viewed the Supreme Court decision as a positive, they don’t view it as a playbook for bringing online sports betting to their state. That outlook runs counter to the thesis recently laid out by Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli, who wrote that the Supreme Court ruling “provides a blueprint for California and other states with tribal gaming.”

Gaming tribes in California support the ruling, but that doesn’t mean they’re rushing into sports betting. James Siva, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA), speaking on the Indian Gaming Association’s (IGA) “New Normal” podcast on Thursday said the only certainty at this point is that tribes won’t be pushing for sports betting in California this year.

I know there’s a lot of excitement over this decision and it was the right decision, but people think we’re going to start having a push for new initiative immediately (in California),” Siva said. “Luckily, we have a CNIGA meeting coming up this week and everyone realizes we’ll continue on the path we’ve been taking the last few years, moving carefully and methodically. This opens up some new avenues for us, but our timeline remains the same even with this decision.”

The podcast is hosted by IGA Chairman Victor Rocha who is a member of the Pechanga Band of Luise?o Indians, which runs the Pechanga Casino Resort in Temecula, Calif.

Commercial Ops Could Be in for Rude California Awakening

After backing an ill-fated 2022 ballot proposal to bring online sports betting to California without consulting tribes, commercial sportsbook operators are licking their wounds in the state and things may not get better from here.

Likewise, Scott Crowell, a tribal-gaming attorney with the Crowell Law Office Tribal Advocacy Group, said on the podcast that the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the West Flagler appeal signals that the exploitative model commercial gaming companies have used in some tribal-heavy states such as Arizona won’t fly in California.

If they think they can continue with the unconscionable model they’ve been pursuing for so long in other jurisdictions, I hope this decision is a wake-up call. That’s not going to happen,” he said.

Rocha added that under a hypothetical scenario in California, tribes would gain exclusivity over iGaming and commercial companies could potentially work with tribes on sports betting while being subject to a graduated tax rate that could run as high as 45%. That would be the second-highest sports wagering levy in the country behind only New York and several small states.

No Clear Timeline for California Sports Betting

A takeaway from the podcast is that California tribal casino leaders want the state’s voters to have a say on the matter of sports betting, but exactly when that happens hasn’t been decided. The only clarity on timing is that it won’t be this year, according to Siva.

“Our careful approach, and protecting the industry we built up from nothing over the last three decades, mean more to us than adding another percentage to the bottom line. That’s always been and will continue to be our approach,” added Siva.

The post SCOTUS Ruling on Florida Sports Betting Not Instructive in California appeared first on Casino.org.

Best Practice Institute, a leadership development, executive coaching, and human resources consultancy based in Florida, surveyed more than two million employees to gauge how well they liked their job. The many interviews and questionnaires helped BPI boil down the list to the top 100 companies to work for, with Mohegan coming in at No. 77.

It is a great privilege for Mohegan to be recognized in Newsweek’s Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces,” said Ray Pineault, president and CEO of Mohegan. “This recognition underscores our dedication to fostering a positive and engaging workplace.

Formerly Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment until its May 2022 rebranding to simply Mohegan, the company is the gaming unit fully owned by the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut.

Workplace Accolade

The Best Practice Institute surveyed worker sentiment about how they feel about their future at the company, career achievement and advancement avenues, employee values, and worker respect. Criteria also centered around inclusion, wellness, and diversity.

Mohegan offers many opportunities for voices to be heard by conducting traditional team member engagement surveys, staff meetings, town halls, and regular team member updates, as well as Kaizen events and opportunities for breakfast with the president,” the BPI summarized about the casino operator. “Mohegan offers transfer and promotion opportunities, stretch assignments, tuition reimbursement, in-house training programs, and off-site seminars to support employees in making career choices compatible with their own unique skills, knowledge, personality and interests.”

Mohegan is the only gaming company to be included on the list published by Newsweek. Only one hotel brand got a spot — Wyndham Hotels & Resorts at No. 19.

Mohegan told BPI that it directly employs over 11K people. Nearly 8,000 of those jobs are at its flagship Mohegan Sun resort in Uncasville, Ct.

Global Expansion

Mohegan the company traces its roots to the early 1990s when the tribe opened Mohegan Sun as a bingo hall. The property has undergone vast expansions since to become one of the largest integrated resort casinos in the world.

Mohegan operates Mohegan Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains and Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino Resort in Canada’s Niagara Falls. The company also runs the ilani Casino on behalf of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe in Washington, Resorts in Atlantic City, and Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, though each of those management agreements is winding down.

Mohegan is focusing its business internationally, most specifically in South Korea. Mohegan last fall opened the first phase of Inspire Entertainment Resort at Incheon International Airport. The $1.6 billion integrated resort has 1,275 guestrooms and suites, 10 restaurants, an immersive entertainment walk, and a 15,000-person arena and events center.

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Great Canadian Entertainment is selling the Nanaimo casino in British Columbia to Petroglyph Development Group Ltd., the economic arm fully owned by the Snuneymuxw First Nation. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed and remain subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

We are very pleased to have executed this agreement. As the operator of Casino Nanaimo since its inception in 1986, we believe that under Petroglyph’s steady management, this transaction will provide Casino Nanaimo, its guests, and team members with an exciting new chapter,” said Matt Anfinson, Great Canadian Entertainment chief executive officer. “We look forward to the closing and then working with the Petroglyph team during the transition period to ensure an outstanding outcome for all parties.”

Casino Nanaimo is a small casino with about 400 slot machines, six live dealer table games, and a poker room. The gaming floor additionally has 10 electronic table games. The facility is accompanied by an onsite restaurant and bar called The Well Public House.

Tribe Enters Gaming Market

The Snuneymuxw First Nation is betting on Casino Nanaimo to help spark its economic arm. The tribe currently relies on several businesses to fund its sovereign nation.

The Snuneymuxw Nation also owns Petroglyph Forestry, which manages and harvests nearly 2,200 acres, and operates Newcastle Island, a sacred village popular with wellness seekers, campers, and boaters.

The casino will further diversify the tribe’s economic interests.

We celebrate our partnership with Great Canadian and our entry into B.C.’s casino industry,” said Snuneymuxw Chief Mike Wyse. “We are committed to bringing Snuneymuxw’s local expertise to an established tradition of outstanding guest service and meaningful community contributions.”

Great Canadian Entertainment has agreed to manage Casino Nanaimo for up to two years after the acquisition closes to educate the tribe on how to run a casino enterprise. Though details weren’t provided, the tribe will presumably provide Great Canadian Entertainment with a cut of the casino’s revenue during that time in an arrangement that mimics how casino operators lease properties in the US from real estate investment trusts.

“This collaboration promises to bring significant benefits and substantial economic growth to our Nation and the local community,” Wyse added.

Apollo Takeover

Since US-based private equity behemoth Apollo Global Management acquired Great Canadian Entertainment in September 2021 for C$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion), the company has focused on streamlining its business operations and selling off lower-performing assets.

Apollo tapped gaming industry veteran Anthony “Tony” Rodio as CEO following its takeover. Rodio is one of the most respected executives in the gaming industry having previously run Eldorado Resorts amid its acquisition of Caesars Entertainment. Anfinson succeeded Rodio in November 2022.

Great Canadian’s casino brands include Great Canadian, Casino, Elements, and Shorelines.

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New York Assemblyman Joseph Giglio (R-District 148) has represented the southwestern portion of the upstate region since 2015. His district includes Seneca territory where three of its gaming properties operate.

Giglio is urging Hochul and Democratic leaders, the party with strongholds on both chambers of the New York State Legislature, to work quicker in reaching a new revenue-sharing agreement with the Seneca Nation.

I’ve spoken with Seneca Nation Council members who told me every time they think they have a deal, something happens that derails the talks. A new gaming compact is vital to our regional economy across Western New York,” Giglio told the Olean Times Herald.

The Seneca Nation’s gaming compact that provides the tribe exclusive rights to slot machines and live dealer table games west of State Route 14 in Upstate New York expired in December 2022. Since then, the tribe has directed 25% of its gross slot revenue to an escrow account.

Giglio is not seeking reelection. With the State Legislature adjourned for 2024, his legislative duties have ended, pending the possibility that Hochul could call a special session to approve a gaming compact.

Negotiations Slow

Hochul’s office and the Seneca Nation a year ago this month surprisingly announced a tentative agreement that would have initiated a new 20-year compact. A reduced slot tax rate and the authorization of a tribal casino in Rochester were reportedly included in the gaming terms.

Since the June 2023 tentative deal was folded on by the Assembly, talks regarding new terms have come to a standstill.

The tribe says a reduced tax is warranted after New York authorized four upstate commercial casinos in 2013 and three full-scale downstate casino licenses are likely to be awarded next year. The Senecas, Giglio says, deserve a new, fair deal that would allow escrow money to go to the many local towns that rely on it and allow the tribe to better prepare for its economic future.

It’s time for the executive branch negotiating team to come back to the table and negotiate in good faith with the Seneca Nation for the benefit of everyone in Western New York, both native and non-native,” Giglio said.

Seneca Nation casinos generate an annual impact of over $1 billion a year to the Western New York economy. The tribe’s casinos and gaming halls employ more than 6,000 people, with most being non-natives.

Automatic Extensions

After their 2023 compact was terminated, Hochul and the Seneca Nation agreed to automatically extend the expired compact quarterly until a new compact is reached. The next extension is scheduled for July 1.

Giglio’s district includes Seneca Allegany Resort & Casino, Seneca Gaming & Entertainment Salamanca, and Seneca Gaming & Entertainment Oil Spring.

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Julian Bear Runner, 39, was tribal president for just over a year, between January 2019 and January 2020. But during that time, he siphoned off more than $80K from the tribe, which operates the Prairie Wind Casino on its Pine Ridge reservation. He has been ordered to pay $82K in restitution to the tribe.

Bear Runner was found guilty of wire fraud, larceny, and embezzlement after a three-day jury trial in April 2024. The former tribal president used fraudulent vouchers to receive checks from the tribe for work-related trips that were never taken. He used tribal funds as a piggy bank, “cashing the checks and spending the money at the Prairie Wind Casino,” according to prosecutors.

‘Scheme and Artifice’

On his November 2018 election, Bear Runner became the second-youngest leader of the tribe. But he engaged in “scheme and artifice to defraud the Oglala Sioux Tribe and enrich himself,” immediately after taking office, according to court documents. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2022.

Beginning in January 2019 and continuing through January 2020, Bear Runner began scheduling official travel and receiving checks for related costs when in fact he was not traveling or incurring the costs of airline flights, hotels, or food,” according to the indictment.

“Despite knowing he had not traveled and that he was not entitled to the travel funds, Bear Runner fraudulently submitted vouchers claiming he was going to travel and was entitled to travel funds,” it read.

Checkered History

Bear Runner’s short tenure was dogged by controversy. Despite campaigning to retain the alcohol ban in the reservation and its casino – Pine Ridge is the only dry reservation in South Dakota — he was arrested in May 2020 for drunk driving and assault.

In July 2020, he issued a COVID-19 lockdown order without informing the tribal council, then became unreachable so the order could not be explained. He was suspended from office for 30 days.

Days later, he was arrested for fighting private security at the Cheers Sports Bar & Casino at the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City.

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Darrell Wayne Pilant took his life on June 14, 2024, while visiting Georgetown Lake in Montana. Pilant’s suicide comes a little more than four years after Caesars Entertainment allegedly forced him from his roles at Harrah’s Southern California after more than 22 years with the casino and hospitality firm.

Pilant’s obituary said he enjoyed cheering on his beloved Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas Jayhawks. He was also a “Parrot Head,” or a member of Jimmy Buffett’s fanbase.

Over the decades, Pilant climbed the corporate ladder with Caesars to eventually become vice president and assistant general manager at Harrah’s Kansas City. In September 2016, he was promoted to lead Harrah’s Southern California, one of the most profitable tribal casino destinations in the U.S.

Harrah’s Southern California is an hour’s drive northeast of San Diego.?

COVID Dispute?

Harrah’s Southern California is owned by the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians. The integrated resort has over 1,000 hotel rooms and an 86,000-square-foot casino floor with 1,500 slot machines and 50 live dealer table games.

The resort amenities include an outdoor pool with a swim-up bar and lazy river, a full-service spa and fitness center, and 17 restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and grab-and-go options highlighted by Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. Harrah’s Southern California also has a 23,000-square-foot events center with a capacity for 2,300 seated guests, as well as nearly 74,500 square feet of meeting and convention facilities.

Being tribally owned on the Rincon Tribe’s sovereign land, Harrah’s Southern California was not obliged to adhere to state COVID-19 orders. Pilant alleged in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed later in 2020 that he and Caesars Entertainment brass disagreed on when it was appropriate to reopen the resort following the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.

Pilant, among other things, alleges that Caesars constructively terminated his employment because he opposed and refused to carry out Caesars’ directive to reopen Harrah’s Southern California,” his complaint read.

After shuttering operations in mid-March 2020, Caesars and the tribe sought to reopen the facility in a limited capacity on May 22. The case, according to California’s U.S. Southern District docket, shows the lawsuit is still active.

Reopening Disagreement

On May 19, just three days before Harrah’s Southern California reopened, California had recorded its deadliest coronavirus day to date with 132 deaths. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) subsequently wrote the Rincon Tribe and other tribal casinos prepping their reopening plans to reconsider.

Pilant refused to side with his employer and said his hand was forced to resign. In his obituary, his family, including his wife, Jenna, said he struggled to recover from the pandemic.

When 2020 came, it was a difficult time for everyone, but for Darrell, it was especially challenging,” his obituary read. “He lost his why and his long-time casino career due to COVID politics.”

“His wife Jenna and friends tried their best to help him during this time, but ultimately, his mental health took its toll not only on his career and marriage but his life,” the obituary concluded.

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The Catawba Nation is the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina. The tribe has historical ties to North Carolina, specifically ancestral lands in Kings Mountain. ?

The Native American community operates casino games on its sovereign territory under a Class III gaming compact it reached with the North Carolina government in 2021, and which was approved that same year by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The temporary Catawba Two Kings Casino has offered about 1,000 slot machines and electronic gaming positions since it opened on July 1, 2021. The facility additionally offers sports betting.

As of this week, Two Kings Casino guests can also bet on live dealer table games. Among the 12 tables, casino reps revealed, are blackjack, craps, roulette, mini baccarat, three-card poker, and Mississippi stud poker.

Permanent Resort Underway

After years of delay stemming from a local businessman being deemed by a US federal agency to have had too much ownership stake in the Catawba’s permanent casino endeavor, the tribe finally broke ground earlier this month on the $700 million resort complex. The construction start came after the tribe negotiated a separation agreement with North Carolina businessman Wallace Cheves, who federal Indian gaming officials said couldn’t be the primary beneficiary of the tribal enterprise.

Cheves, who’s politically connected in Raleigh, helped the tribe place its North Carolina land into the federal trust and assisted the Catawbas in securing a Class III gaming compact. But, the National Indian Gaming Commission said Cheves’ Sky Boat Gaming, LLC, possessed too much equity in the development of the Two Kings Casino Resort.

The first phase of the permanent resort, expected to open in 2026, will include a casino floor with 1,350 slots, 12 table games, a sportsbook, and a restaurant. Subsequent construction phases are to expand the gaming floor to house over 4,000 slots and 100 table games. Five more restaurants and a 400-room hotel will also one day come to Two Kings.

New Partner

Since dissolving its relationship with Cheves and Sky Boat, the Catawba Nation has partnered with Delaware North. The New York-based hospitality management firm manages casinos in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia.

North Carolina remains free of commercial casinos after efforts to expand casino gambling in the Tar Heel State failed in the Raleigh capital last year. Caesars Entertainment operates Harrah’s Cherokee and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River on behalf of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the only federally recognized tribe based in North Carolina.?

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Not only does the Supreme Court passing on that appeal pave the way for Hard Rock International, the gaming arm of the Seminole Tribe, to maintain an online sports wagering monopoly in the third-largest state through 2051, it could also provide a template for other states don’t permit online sports betting, but where tribes control gaming. That group includes California.

In a note to clients on Tuesday, Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli said the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the West Flagler appeal “provides a blueprint for California and other states with tribal gaming.”

Much like Florida, however, should the tribes successfully amend the compact, the opportunity for the traditional online operators would remain cloudy,” wrote the analyst regarding California tribes.

Santarelli added that with the Florida ruling serving as a precedent, California tribes could simply amend their gaming accords with the state rather than engaging in a costly ballot initiative seeking voters’ approval. A related measure put forth by several large tribal casino operators was soundly defeated in 2022, and some of the tribes acknowledged there’s limited appetite among voters in the state to deal with the issue again anytime soon.

Florida Ruling Could Be Bad News for OSB Operators in California

The Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the West Flagler appeal didn’t weigh on sports wagering equities on Monday as DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) and FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: FLUT) rallied on Monday, with DratKings extending those gains on Tuesday.

Commercial gaming companies already committed missteps in California, backing a 2022 internet sports wagering ballot initiative that essentially went over the heads of tribes. Tribes responded by pouring tens of millions of dollars into defeating that proposal in dramatic fashion.

Even if California tribes decided to partner with commercial operators, the ensuing financial agreements would likely heavily favor the tribes, meaning the largest state in the US might not be the moneymaker commercial operators and investors hoped it would be.

“Given the sensitivity around the control of gaming in the state, we believe it is na?ve to expect the tribes to turn over any element of gaming to outside entities, without a significant and ongoing financial return,” opined Santarelli.

California, Florida Could Be Off Limits to Commercial Operators

By declining to hear the West Flagler appeal, the Supreme Court essentially affirmed that tribes can offer online sports betting as long as the servers are located on tribal land. That reduces the need for middlemen and in California where gaming tribes are active on the political front, it could be an easy lift to amend gaming compacts with the state.

“The ruling, in our view, hands the Seminole Tribe all the cards, and they can now proceed however they wish,” concluded the analyst.

Bottom line: an implication from the Supreme Court ruling is that California and Florida — the largest and third-largest states, respectively — are essentially nonstarters for commercial sports betting companies and there’s not much they can do about that.

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US District Judge Robert Lasnik concluded that BNSF, a fully owned subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, intentionally violated the terms of the Swinomish Tribe’s easement reached in 1991. The easement was the result of a series of lawsuits brought by the tribe on allegations that the railroad trespassed the Native American community’s sovereign land. The track runs directly behind the Swinomish Casino & Lodge.

The tribe sued BNSF in 2015 after noticing a significant uptick in BNSF’s use of the tracks that pass through Swinomish land. The tribe’s proposed damages were heightened last year after two BNSF engines derailed on Swinomish land and leaked 3,100 gallons of diesel fuel into Padilla Bay.?

Tribe Owed $400M

Lasnik ruled in favor of the Swinomish Tribe that BNSF began violating the easement in 2012 when the company began shipping crude oil from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota to a refinery in Skagit County. The refinery is located west of the Swinomish Reservation and the Swinomish Casino & Lodge.

The Swinomish Casino features 650 slot machines and several live dealer table games. The lodge offers 98 guestrooms.

The destination additionally includes seven restaurants and bars, an 18-hole golf course, an events center, and an RV park with 33 spaces with full hookups. The tribe is currently seeking a new sportsbook partner after Malta-based Kindred Group announced in November that it would depart the North American market.

Resort guests have been inundated with loud trains traversing the BNSF tracks. Lasnik said the damages incurred by the tribe for the trespassing from 2012 through last year amounted to $362 million. He tacked on $32 million in post-tax profits the tribe should have received from investing the capital for total damages of $394 million.

We know that this is a large amount of money. But that just reflects the enormous wrongful profits that BNSF gained by using the Tribe’s land day after day, week after week, year after year over our objections,” said Steve Edwards, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. “When there are these kinds of profits to be gained, the only way to deter future wrongdoing is to do exactly what the court did today — make the trespasser give up the money it gained by trespassing.”

BNSF refrained from commenting on the ruling but the company is expected to appeal the decision.

Controversial Tracks?

BNSF is the largest freight railroad in the US and one of the six Class I railroads in North America. The company’s roots trace back to 1849.

BNSF laid the railroad tracks that traverse the Swinomish land in the late 19th century despite the tribe’s objections. The Swinomish Reservation was established in 1855 after the tribe signed the Treaty of Point Elliott with the US government and the Duwamish Tribe.

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A majority of the high court justices sided with lower federal appeals courts in motioning to dismiss the case that challenged whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the state’s legislature possessed the authority to authorize the Seminole Tribe to conduct online sports betting in the Sunshine State.

According to the SCOTUS online docket, seven of the nine Supreme Court justices voted to not accept the lawsuit. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson didn’t vote, citing relevant prior judicial service on the matter.

A majority isn’t needed for the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision, but support from four justices is required. With only Kavanaugh voting to certify the petition, the case was formally dismissed and the lower court’s ruling was upheld.

Kavanaugh Alone

Kavanaugh was appointed to the nation’s highest bench in July 2018. He was confirmed by the US Senate after weeks of accusations, including sexual assault and a gambling disorder, and assumed his seat that October.

The conservative justice believes West Flagler had a case that at least merited the court’s attention.

Florida lawmakers passed legislation redefining the state’s gaming laws to permit tribal sports bets online so long as the wagers are facilitated on computer servers physically located on Seminole land. The statute essentially allows sports bets to originate off Seminole property on mobile devices and computers by transmitting the wager to a Seminole-based sportsbook computer server.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys called the Interior Department’s legal explanation “absurd” and argued the IGRA limits tribal gaming to tribal lands. West Flagler’s lawyers said the law does not allow “gambling off Indian lands by pretending that it occurred on Indian lands.”

Federal counsel representing the DOI and Secretary Haaland countered that the IGRA regulates gaming on tribal lands but “nowhere else.” They told the court that the “IGRA does not prohibit a gaming compact … from discussing other topics, including those governing activities ‘outside Indian lands.'”

Far-Reaching Consequences

Legal scholars believe the SCOTUS decision on the Florida compact with the Seminoles could have far-reaching consequences, as numerous other federally recognized tribes might now pursue not only online sports betting, but iGaming privileges. Stephen Hart, a partner at Lewis Roca’s Indian Law practice group, told Casino.org that the high court’s rejection will likely lead to more tribal online gaming.

The Supreme Court has denied cert in the West Flagler case. Because they earlier denied a stay, nothing now stops tribes from doing sports betting and internet gaming from their servers on their Indian lands and taking bets from anywhere in the state,” Hart explained. “The Tribes will now have to work with their state governments, but with a compact, they will be able to conduct internet gaming.”

According to the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are more than two dozen states that presently have active gaming compacts with federally recognized tribes.

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The nation’s highest court said the case challenging the US Department of the Interior’s 2021 approval of Florida’s new Class III tribal gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe had been rejected. Plaintiffs West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corporation alleged that the compact, which provides for the tribe to take remote online sports bets from anywhere inside the Sunshine State, violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

The Seminole Tribe of Florida applauds today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to decline consideration of the case involving the Tribe’s Gaming Compact with the State of Florida,” a Seminole statement read.

The tribe wasn’t named as a defendant in the case. Attorneys for the DOI defended that since the online sports bets are facilitated by computer servers remaining on sovereign territory, the compact doesn’t violate IGRA.

The online Hard Rock Bet sportsbook resumed operations on Nov. 7, 2023. Hard Rock Bet sportsbooks resumed their operations at the Seminoles’ six brick-and-mortar casinos in December.

Compact Prevails

Signed into law in October 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, the IGRA allows federally recognized tribes to conduct Class I and II gaming — bingo-based games and other small games of chance like pull-tabs and nonbanked card games like poker — on their sovereign lands. For Class III gaming like Las Vegas-style slot machines, live dealer table games, house-banked card games like blackjack, and sports betting, federally acknowledged tribes must enter into compacts with their host states.

The online sports betting component was challenged by West Flagler and Bonita-Fort Myers, which runs the Bonita Springs Poker Room and previously the Magic City Casino in Miami. The Seminoles possess the exclusive rights to slot machines outside the counties of Miami-Dade and Broward.

The plaintiffs argued that allowing a person to bet on sports while not physically located on Seminole land violates the IGRA. Federal attorneys representing the Interior Dept. disagreed on claims the bet isn’t completed until a sportsbook computer server located on sovereign territory executes the wager. Therefore, no tribal gambling occurs off of the tribe’s reservation, the defendants wrote.

State Appeals Dismissed?

West Flagler and Bonita-Fort Myers were also dealt a major legal blow last fall when the Florida Supreme Court refused to issue an injunction ordering Seminole sports betting to halt.

In that case, West Flagler/Bonita-Fort Myers challenged whether DeSantis and the Florida Legislature had the power to expand tribal gaming via online sports betting. The plaintiffs cited the 2018 statewide referendum Floridians passed that said any new form of commercial gambling must come with voter approval.

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The alleged shooter, Nicolas Roach, 35, was wounded in the back, jaw, and right arm during the April 30 standoff, Albuquerque TV station KOAT reported.

Roach suffered critical injuries and was hospitalized for 10 days before being booked at a local jail.

None of the four Albuquerque Police Department (APD) officers was injured, according to initial reports.

Before the shootout, officers had been on the lookout for Roach for days. Shortly before the confrontation, they saw a suspicious vehicle and checked the license plate. It had been reported stolen.

A recently released APD video showed Roach was driving the stolen Hyundai south of the casino. Roach fled upon seeing the officers, eventually driving into the casino lot, police said.

He jumped out of the Hyundai and entered another vehicle. Roach refused to surrender and started to drive away but officers were able to apply a grappler onto the vehicle’s tire, stopping it.

That was followed by the exchange of gunfire.

We knew he had warrants, and we knew the general area he operated in,” APD Commander Kyle Hartsock was quoted by KOAT about the apprehension. “It was at least several days that detectives working in specific operation plans and different hours of the day had been trying to locate him.”

Roach was wanted on a warrant for violating probation and was a known car thief, police said.

Two Women in Vehicle

Police spotted two women in the stopped SUV that Roach had been driving. The women exited the vehicle and surrendered in the parking lot. Amanda Hand, 34, was charged with auto theft, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The second woman apprehended by police wasn’t identified.

Roach will be charged and face prosecution in a local court. He previously served time in prison, according to the Journal.

The Pueblo of Sandia own and operate the tribal gaming property located in Albuquerque.

Stronger Penalties Needed

In response to the incident, APD Chief Harold Medina announced he would like the state to enact stronger penalties for car theft.

“We need … assistance from … legislative bodies to make sure that individuals who are committing auto theft in order to use that motor vehicle to go commit other crimes have to be held to a higher level,” Medina told KOAT.

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Great Wolf Resorts and Foxwoods reps held a ceremonial “topping out” event this week at the amusement park and 549-room lodge. The family-oriented amenity is being built just south of the casino resort on sovereign land that’s owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Secretly, we’re hoping to move that [June 15] date up,” Steve Jacobsen, vice president of development at Great Wolf Resorts, said not-so-secretly.

Once finished, the first Great Wolf Lodge in Connecticut will feature a 91,000-square-foot indoor waterpark and 61,000 square feet of arcade and family-focused entertainment. Great Wolf Resorts says the Foxwoods lodge will be its 23rd property in North America

Resort Expansion?

Foxwoods opened as a bingo hall in 1986 and has since undergone numerous expansions to today where it’s among the country’s largest casino destinations. After reaching a Class III gaming compact with Connecticut, Foxwoods brought Las Vegas-style slot machines and live dealer table games to the Native American reservation when it opened its first casino space in February 1992.

Foxwoods today has four distinct casinos with over 2,900 slots, 250 tables, and a 12,000-square-foot DraftKings Sportsbook. The expansion brought new restaurants to Foxwoods, including Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, which opened in March 2023.

The bulk of the $385 million investment, however, was directed to the Great Wolf Lodge attraction. The family resort is expected to cost around $300 million to open.

Structure Complete

The building of Foxwoods’ Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark and hotel is complete. Construction leads say work will now move inside, just in time as the hot summer months arrive.

Great Wolf Resorts is leasing the land where the lodge is being built from the tribe. The partnership will share in the attraction’s revenues and is projected to bring a new guest demographic to the casino-focused destination.

It’s a perfect fit between Boston and New York,” Jason Guyot, president and chief executive officer at Foxwoods, said Wednesday. It gives families options they’ve never had before.”

Connecticut residents no longer have to drive to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun to gamble legally on a slot or table game, as iGaming went live in Connecticut in October 2021. The tribes possess exclusive privileges to online casino games, though the Connecticut Lottery also runs online sports betting.

Great Wolf Resorts was founded in 1997 in Wisconsin. The company today is publicly traded on the Nasdaq.

One of Great Wolf Resorts’ largest shareholders is Blackstone, the private equity giant that owns Australia’s Crown Resorts and the physical assets of the Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan, Aria, and Vdara on the Las Vegas Strip.

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