From the Michigan City News-Dispatch:
NEW BUFFALO, Mich. – The slowing economy is not keeping people away from the Four Winds Casino Resort in New Buffalo Township, which collected about $146.6 million in slot machine revenue over the six-month period that ended March 30.
Figures released by the Michigan Gaming Control Board show that the casino, owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, is taking in $24.4 million a month in slot machine revenue.
The monthly total has not changed from the amount estimated using figures covering August and September 2007, the casino’s first two months of operation.
Because it is privately held, the casino does not release figures on its total revenue from its hotel, restaurants, bars, poker and other games.
Local governments and the state have not received any revenue from electronic gaming, although a 1998 compact between the state and Pokagon Band requires payments two times a year. They are embroiled in a dispute over the compact.
The compact regulates gambling on tribal lands and requires payments of 2 percent of the take from electronic gaming to a three-member Local Revenue Sharing Board. The board is to distribute money to local governments, schools and the county to offset costs related to the casino. The 8 percent payments to the state are to go to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Eric Bush, administrative manager for the gaming control board, said the tribe owes $2.93 million to local governments and $11.72 million to the state for the period of Oct. 1 through March 30.
The latest payments were due June 1. The tribe owes an additional $3.9 million to the state and $977,000 to the Local Revenue Sharing Board for August and September, the casino’s first two months of operations. Altogether, the tribe owes about $15.6 million to the state and about $3.9 million to the LRSB.
Berrien County Administrator Bill Wolf said the amount owed by the Pokagon Band to the LRSB is considerably higher than figures projected in a study eight years ago. County officials originally projected annual payments of $3.4 million to the LRSB, but based on amounts reported to the state, the amount is now projected to be $5.8 million a year.
“It’s doing well,” Wolf said.
Without casino money going to the LRSB, Wolf said, local governments are being forced to spend money for services that the funding would cover.
New Buffalo Township is getting money from the Pokagon Fund, a separate tribal program to help communities. The fund, controlled by the tribe, has provided funding since Jan. 1 for sheriff’s deputies working in the township.
“They have the deepest IOU as a result of the tribe holding up (LRSB) money,” Wolf said.
In early December, the Pokagon Band said it would not make payments to the LRSB or state because the compact was not being followed. Tribal officials have said the bylaws enacted by the LRSB do not comply with the compact, a claim the board denies.
Early this year, the tribe said it was withholding payments to the state because of legal questions arising over the Michigan Lottery Club Keno game.
A dispute between the state and two other tribes ended in March with a settlement.
The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Ottawa Indians claimed that the Club Keno game violated an exclusivity clause in their 1998 compacts with the state. Both tribes withheld revenue sharing payments to the state, starting in 2003 and 2004, and the dispute wound up in court. The tribes paid 8 percent of their electronic gaming profits to the state before the dispute, and under terms of the settlement, they pay 6 percent.
But Pokagon Band officials said the tribe must reach its own settlement with the state because the tribe was not involved in the court case or settlement.
Indian tribes are sovereign nations not subject to state laws. Federal law allows Indian gaming through compacts, which are contracts, with states.
Bush said state officials are continuing to talk with the Pokagon Band to try to resolve issues.
In April, the gaming control board asked the state attorney general’s office to get involved. At that time John Wernet, deputy legal counsel for the governor’s office, said the state was ready to sue the tribe in federal court unless payments began soon.
Turtle Talk 