gaming – Page 63 – Turtle Talk

As early as Tuesday morning, the Committee for More Michigan Jobs could get approval from the State Board of Canvassers to launch a campaign to persuade Michigan voters to let the group build those two casinos and six more. If the developers convince voters to amend the Michigan Constitution, it could usher in the largest expansion of gambling since Detroit won three casinos in 1996.

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Backers include former Granholm administration budget director Mitch Irwin, an East Lansing Democrat, and former House Speaker Rick Johnson, a Cadillac-area Republican. The Detroit partnership has lined up names such as Four Tops singer Duke Fakir, boxing promoter Emanuel Steward and Detroit funeral director O’Neil Swanson as major investors.

Despite the big names and big money, however, the outcome is far from certain. The proposal faces opposition from Indian tribes that operate outstate casinos and existing Detroit casino operators not keen on new competition.

“We are confident the voters of Michigan will reject this unprecedented expansion of gaming,” said James Nye, spokesman for Protect MI Vote, a coalition that includes MGM Grand Detroit and Greektown Casino-Hotel in Detroit; the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, owner of Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mt. Pleasant, and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, owner of FireKeepers Casino near Battle Creek.

Cal. Appellate Court Remands Jamul Tribal Members’ Challenge to Tribal Gaming Operations

April 2, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion in Jamulians against the Casino v. Iwasaki (Cal. App. 3rd Dist.):

Jamulians Against the Casino v Iwasaki

An excerpt:

Consistent with its litigation strategy in the trial court, the Tribe has declined to make a general appearance in this court as a respondent, but sought leave to appear as an amicus curiae (which we granted). Although the Tribe’s amicus brief makes colorable arguments in favor of its indispensible status, this is an issue on which the trial court must exercise its discretion in balancing several criteria in the first instance. We therefore will reverse the judgment sustaining the demurrer with directions to the trial court to address the merits of the issue on remand.

New Scholarship on Indian Gaming and Native Identity

April 2, 2012April 2, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Matthew King has posted his paper, “Indian Gaming and Tribal Identity,” on SSRN. It was published in the Chicano-Latino Law Review.

Here is the abstract:

The article presents the significant developments in the law governing Indian gaming with a view to assessing gaming’s politicization of Native identity. By addressing the stereotypes and caricatures of Native Americans and tribes that animate legal and political change in the field, the article seeks to demonstrate the essentialism of Indian gaming and the consequent effect of gaming politics on Native identity. Key among the views expressed are that Indian gaming produces real, non-theoretical gains for tribes, which in turn creates new subject positions for Native Americans, and that gaming introduces substantial non-Native influence into the process of tribal government, thereby enacting a social and political cost to tribes. The article covers in separate sections the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, Tribal-State compacting in California, and critical responses to Native identity under an identity politics rubric.