From the NYTs:
Good Decision on Tribal Casinos
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made exactly the right call when he recently denied permission to 11 Indian tribes around the country to acquire more land in order to build casinos.
gaming
Navajo Gaming Loan Threatened
We blogged previously about the lawsuit filed in Navajo tribal court over the proposed Navajo gaming loan. It turns out the lawsuit was successful in apparently causing the lender to change the terms of the deal (H/T Indianz). This is an interesting development and probably not a welcome one from the perspective of gaming tribes. If tribal court lawsuits challenging the terms of a gaming-related loan, or in this case the authority of the Navajo legislature to approve the loan, are successful in any area, my guess is the price for loans will go up everywhere.
Update: No suit has been filed in the Navajo Nation courts. The 30 day waiting period required by the Navajo Sovereign Immunity Act (the title doesn’t use “Nation”) just expired and we were preparing to file suit. There has been no public announcement, but there are rumors to the effect that the notice of suit stopped the loan. They are now looking at other sources of funding for the casino, such as a trust fund set aside for acquiring land.
From Indianz:
CA7 Remands Wisconsin & Ho-Chunk Nation Gaming Revenue Sharing Dispute
The Seventh Circuit remanded (again) the dispute over the revenue sharing provisions of the Class III gaming compact between the State of Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation.
The briefs are here:
Foxwoods to Challenge Union Vote
From the New London Day:
NLRB Set To Hear Challenge Of Foxwoods’ Union
Testimony starts Tuesday during Hartford hearing
It is a contentious battle, which pits an Indian tribe that operates one of the most successful casinos in the world against one of the largest unions in North America.
NYTs on Decline of Gaming in the Catskills
From the NYTs:
In the Catskills, Wondering if Casinos’ Time Has Passed
The slot-machine casino in Monticello was nearly empty on Wednesday afternoon.
Velie and Velie v. Onnam & True Native American Gaming (W.D. Okla.)
A case involving the collection of attorney fees from a gaming developer.
Freemanville Water System v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians (S.D. Ala.)
This is tribal sovereign immunity case. The district court granted the tribe’s motion to dismiss. Here are the materials:
Quiet Opening for Saganing Casino
From the Grand Rapids Press:
Standish casino has quiet opening
STANDISH – It opened with little fanfare: no billboards, no advertisements, not even an announcement on the Web site. Just some spotlights, shining in the night from the quiet darkness.
Lac Vieux Desert Off-Reservation Gaming Proposal (Muskegon) — News Coverage
More coverage from the Kalamazoo Gazette and the Muskegon Chronicle. The Chronicle’s coverage denotes significant skepticism:
Obstacles piled high as tribes consider casino
The standing-room-only crowd at the casino presentation by the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians left Muskegon City Hall on Monday night wondering whether the western Upper Peninsula tribe’s proposal was realistic.
Department of Interior Changes Fee-to-Trust Process
Last week, the Department of Interior rejected fee-to-trust applications for eleven tribes . Matthew has linked to the rejection letters elsewhere on this site. In rejecting these applications, the DoI has changed the method by which it will review all fee-to-trust applications under 25 C.F.R. Part 151. On January 3rd, Assistant Secretary of Interior Carl Artman , issued a letter to the BIA’s Regional Directors that established that all future applications will be subjected to a “commutable distance” test. In other words, if a tribe seeks to have land placed into trust, even for non-gaming economic development purposes, it must be within a distance where tribal citizens on the existing reservation can reasonably commute to jobs at the site. This had previously not been the case.
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