gaming

MichGO v. Kempthorne — Stay Issued

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the AP:

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has issued a stay preventing a proposed tribal casino in Allegan County from moving forward.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order Friday pending a potential review from the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents of the casino have asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.

The Gun Lake tribe wants to build a $200 million casino in Allegan County’s Wayland Township. A group called Michigan Gambling Opposition has spent years trying to stop the casino from being built.

The appeals court sided with the tribe earlier this year, upholding a decision by the federal government to set aside 147 acres of land where the casino would be built near Grand Rapids.

Creditors Object to Greektown Reorganization Plan

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Detroit News:

DETROIT — Greektown Casino LLC, which is in bankruptcy reorganization, shouldn’t get an exclusive right until June 1 to file a turnaround plan, a group of creditors and a U.S. government representative told a judge.

Greektown’s request to block competing plans for more than eight months beyond the current Sept. 26 deadline should be denied because the company can realistically gauge its success long before then, U.S. Trustee Daniel McDermott said in an objection filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit.

“The court should not permit the debtors to remain in Chapter 11 in a shroud of secrecy” while ” keeping other potential plan proponents off the playing field for such an extensive length of time,” McDermott said in the filing.

Closely held Greektown won court approval last June to borrow $150 million to continue operations and construction of a new hotel and gaming floor. McDermott questioned the viability of the company’s projected future operations during an economic decline in the U.S.

“The question that must be answered is whether the projections are reasonable for the foreseeable future in the given economic and political milieu in Detroit,” McDermott said in the filing.

Objections also were filed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board and the official committee of unsecured creditors.

Greektown sought court protection from creditors on May 29, citing cost overruns in a $332 million expansion. It opened in 2000, four years after Michigan citizens voted to legalize three gambling facilities in Detroit. It employs about 1,976 people, and attracts 15,800 visitors a day, the company said.

Rincon Band v. Schwarzeneggar — Cal. Gaming Compact Dispute

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

This unpublished opinion from the Ninth Circuit, a companion case to the Cachil Dehe Band decision from last week, is here.

Muskegon County Advisory Vote on LRB Casino Proposal

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Muskegon Chronicle:

The Muskegon County Board of Commissioners will put a non-binding casino referendum on the countywide Nov. 4 general election ballot.

The vote will be advisory in nature, giving county commissioners the voters’ direction on how to handle issues concerning the Manistee-based Little River Band of Ottawa Indians attempt to place its second casino at the former Great Lakes Downs horse-racing track in Fruitport Township.

The casino advisory vote was proposed by county board Chairman James Derezinski in response to a citizen group forming in light of a previous casino resolution of support by the county board. A group has formed calling for an open debate of the county board’s support for a Fruitport Indian casino after the tribe announced it had purchased the former racetrack last month.

County officials indicated that a public vote for the casino would not insure the tribe the successful development of a Muskegon County Indian casino. Likewise, a vote against the casino will not necessarily prohibit an Indian gambling facility at U.S. 31 and I-96.

The issue of Indian casino development is decided in agreements between the tribe and the state of Michigan and the tribe and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The tribe is a sovereign nation under U.S. law.

The specific language for the Indian casino advisory vote will be drawn up by county attorney Theodore Williams. The ballot language is expected to be back before the county board Aug. 26.

Odawa Casino Layoffs

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Petoskey News-Review:

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Casino Resort was quiet this morning, as the resort announced approximately 100 job cuts on Monday.(G. Randall Goss/News-Review)
There was turn of bad luck for some employees at the Odawa Casino Resort on Monday. Faulting the rising cost of gas and subsequent poor attendance, management reported that as many as 100 employees were laid off, including tribal and non-tribal members.

“We were ultimately forced to face the reality of too many employees serving too few customers,” said general manager Sean Barnard.

Although some staff members reported being caught off guard by the reductions in a series of mandatory meetings on Monday, tribal chairman Frank Ettawageshik said that he and other tribal leadership were kept abreast of the reductions.

“We knew about it all along,” he said.

Warren Petoskey, an elder with the tribe, said rumblings about layoffs started last month.

“I heard a rumor three weeks ago that this was coming,” he said. “This morning I got an e-mail that said they laid off 40 percent of their workers.”

Barnard denied reports that as many as 200 workers had lost their jobs in Monday’s cutbacks. He confirmed that 55 full-time employees had been let go, in addition to 45 part-time seasonal positions. Although those who lost their jobs were being put in contact with an official from Michigan Works! for outplacement services, Barnard would not give details on the severance package offered to them. He said specific details were “too personal” to divulge publicly.

“We’ve been reviewing our options,” said Barnard. “We did not rush into this. We’ve been working on this for some time to make the right decision.”

Ettawageshik said that there has been an ongoing process to adjust the size of the staff to meet the appropriate needs of the casino’s customers. According to Ettawageshik, the recent round of layoffs were “a continuation of that adjustment.”

Despite the layoffs, Ettawageshik confirmed the tribe was still posting profits and said there were no major financial concerns heading into the second half of the year.

ICT on MichGO’s Ongoing Legal Wrangling

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From ICT:

WAYLAND COUNTY, Mich. – In an effort to take advantage of every possible opportunity to delay the Gun Lake Tribe’s casino, the anti-Indian casino group Michigan Gambling Opposition – MichGO – has asked a court to stop all further action while the group files a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court.

MichGO’s latest tactic followed a July 25 ruling by the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denying the group’s request for a full panel, or en banc, rehearing of the court’s 2 – 1 decision in April upholding a district court decision to allow the Interior Department to take 147 acres of land into trust for the tribe’s proposed $200 million casino.

Continue reading →

BMG v. Chukchansi Casino — Tribal Sovereign Immunity

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

In the September 12, 2007 order, the district court granted the motion to dismiss as to the Chukchansi Indian Tribe, but left open the question as to whether sovereign immunity applied to the tribe’s economic development entity. In the August 6, 2008 order, the court held the entity was not entitled to sovereign immunity.

Here are the relevant briefs and materials:

amended-complaint

casino-motion-to-dismiss

bmg-resp-to-motion-to-dismiss

bmg-motion-for-reconsideration

Cachil Dehe Band v. California — Ninth Circuit Affirms Rule 19 Dismissal of Claim against State

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Rule 19 (my favorite FRCP) strikes again!

Here is the opinion in Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians v. State of California: cachil-dehe-band-v-california-ca9-opinion

And the briefs:

cachil-dehe-band-brief

california-brief-cachil-dehe-band

tribal-amicus-brief-cachil-dehe-band-case

Indian Tribal Businesses and the Off-Reservation Market

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

My submission to the Lewis & Clark Law Review’s symposium issue on tribal economic development, “Indian Tribal Businesses and the Off-Reservation Market” is on SSRN. If it’s not available yet, it will be in a few days. Here’s the abstract:

The pre-American trading centers of the Great Lakes – Sault Ste. Marie, Michilimackinac, and Detroit – developed as natural manifestations of economic activity involving the Indigenous peoples of the region, as well as the French, the British, and lastly the Americans. In many ways, during that period, the Indian people controlled these markets. As history turned against the Indians, the Europeans acquired control of these markets. The federal Indian law and policy manifestation of this control can be explained in the phrase “measured separatism.” While measured separatism had value for Indian and American communities for a time, as well as serious disadvantages, the need Indian law controls over the market has receded to a significant extent. The recent limitations on off-reservation gaming are manifestations of this measured separatism. These controls should be a call for tribal business interests to drop some of their reliance on federal Indian law, which creates some economic advantages, and re-enter the larger economic world.

Beltran v. Harrah’s Arizona Corp. — Tort Claim Against Casino

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The Arizona Court of Appeals, Division 2, affirmed the dismissal of a tort complaint against the management company for the Ak-Chin Indian Community. The plaintiffs had filed a tribal court claim that had been dismissed for procedural reasons (failure to identify the proper party).

Opinion

beltran-v-harrahs-appellee-brief

[appellant’s briefs unavailable]