- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Gaming
Here’s our monthly roundup of tribal gaming coverage, including casino expansions, partnerships, executive changes and and other news.
Tribes across the country are navigating complex legal battles, breaking ground on ambitious new projects, and making key leadership changes to drive their enterprises forward.
Cherokee Nation faces stiff opposition with Arkansas casino, again
Multiple groups have mounted a challenge to a Cherokee Nation gaming license in Pope County, Ark. following the issuance of the license June 27.
Cherokee Nation Entertainment, the tribe’s gaming subsidiary under its Cherokee Nation Businesses holding company, received one of four new licenses first opened by the state in 2018. As previously reported by Tribal Business News, the tribe won the license in 2018.
However, state courts have since voided both the Cherokee Nation Entertainment license and a license issued to Gulfside Casino Partnership, a subsidiary of the Copa Casino of Mississippi, per reporting by local publication The Arkansas Advocate.
Eventually, the Arkansas Supreme Court reset the entire process, per reporting from the Cherokee Phoenix, and a new license application process was started in May this year. With the license re-awarded in June, Cherokee Nation Entertainment began preparing to build the $300 million Legends Resort and Casino, with a hotel, several restaurants, an outdoor concert venue, 15,000-square-feet of indoor space and 50,000 square feet for gaming and sportsbook.
The license has faced immediate challenges from both Gulfside and a local group called Local Voters in Charge (LVC). The former insists in a lawsuit the economic development contract between the county and CNE amounts to buying support from the quorum court and Pope County Judge Ben Cross, per the suit.
The Cherokee Nation first filed to move the case to federal courts, as it concerns a state body and a tribe. Both the tribe and the Arkansas Racing Commission, the legal body responsible for issuing the license, have both filed motions to dismiss in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Arkansas. Gulfside, in response, has attempted to remand the lawsuit to a state court in Pulaski County where it was initially filed, according to legal documents. Responses to these motions are due in mid-August, per a federal docket record.
Local Voters in Charge has collected signatures towards an amendment on the 2024 ballot that would nullify the gaming license in Pope County entirely and require future referendums for any future gaming developments. On Aug. 1, the Cherokee Nation, through a group called the Arkansas Canvassing Compliance Committee, filed a suit with the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The suit alleges the group committed a range of offenses while gathering signatures, including paying canvassers who weren’t noted as paid employees, employing canvassers with disqualifying criminal offenses, and didn’t offer proper training and certification.
The suit also alleges that Local Voters In Charge is solely funded by Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which contributed $5.3 million to its 2024 petition and previously contributed $4.1 million to a different group, Fair Play Arkansas, in 2020. The Choctaw Nation operates the Choctaw Nation Casino and Resort in Pocola, Okla., which has a parking lot in Fort Smith, Ark., just 92 miles away from Cherokee’s proposed Legends Resort and Casino location.
Tribal Business News reached out to the Choctaw Nation for comment, but did not hear back as this story went live.
In response to the suit, Local Voters in Charge has filed a motion to intervene in the case. The state has also filed a response to the allegations laid out in the original action. No hearings have yet been scheduled for the next steps in the case.
Winnebago Tribe re-enters gaming industry with first of three new gaming operations
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has opened its new gaming operation, WarHorse Omaha, in the town of the same name.
The casino is operated by WarHorse Gaming and Ho-Chunk, Inc. — both tribal subsidiaries — and is the first of three gaming operations owned by the tribe to open. In “a few months,” per a Sioux City Journal report, a sister location will open in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a third is planned in South Sioux City.
The Winnebago Tribe has long operated on revenues from Ho-Chunk, Inc.’s suite of businesses, which include federal contracting and convenience store operations. An initial foray into the gaming industry in 1992, when the tribe opened a casino in Iowa on tribal land, was stifled when Iowa opened the industry up entirely in 1994. Competition drove the tribe to rely instead on other methods of generating operating revenue, according to the Ho-Chunk website.
The Sioux City Journal report notes that the tribe expects to vastly improve quality of life for its members with expected revenues from the casino operations. Those revenues could reach “several million dollars a month,” Ho-Chunk CEO Lance Morgan told the Journal.
“We’ve never had this kind of money before,” Morgan said.
DEVELOPMENTS
The Muscogee Nation has announced a $100 million investment to build a hotel and casino in Coweta, Okla., according to an Indian Gaming report. Through the tribe’s subsidiary, Muscogee Nation Gaming Enterprises, the tribe plans to build a 104,000 square-foot development featuring 750 gaming machines, a 46-room hotel, and a meeting event space. The casino will break ground in September 2024, with a planned opening in Spring 2026.
“Investing in the city of Coweta represents a remarkable new chapter in our growing entertainment and hospitality legacy,” Muscogee Principal Chief David Hill said in a statement. “We are proud to reclaim land throughout our historic reservation and this project adds to our significant economic development investments within the greater Tulsa region. The Coweta Casino Hotel will expand cultural tourism, create jobs and enhance the quality of life of our citizens.”
The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin will begin construction on a casino in Beloit, Wisc., according to a report by trade publication Casino.org. The destination aims to become the second-largest casino in Wisconsin, with 1,500 slot machines and 44 table games, as well as a 312-room hotel, four restaurants, and 76,000 feet of meeting space. The Ho-Chunk Nation predicts the project will create 1,200 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.
The Native Village of Eklutna has received National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) approval for a tribal gaming hall near Anchorage, Alaska, as reported by the Alaska Beacon. The NIGC’s decision authorizes the tribe to use a property for electronic gaming machines, but no table games, as those aren’t allowed under Alaska state law, the Beacon reports. The decision concludes, for the time being, a legal battle that began in 2018 when the tribe first sought approval to use an 8-acre allotment being held in federal trust for the project. The federal government initially rejected the idea, attesting that the village didn’t have jurisdiction over the allotment under Alaska land law, but reversed course in February.
The hall still faces environmental review before it can break ground on construction, but Eklutna Tribal Council President and Chair Aaron Leggett expressed optimism from the project. “There’s still a few hurdles to clear, but we feel the major hurdles have been cleared,” Leggett told the Beacon. “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.”
NOTEWORTHY
The state of Arizona has issued licenses to two event-wagering operations working in partnership with Arizona tribes, according to trade publication SportsCasting.com. Philadelphia operator Sporttrade will serve as the sports betting operator for the Quechan Indian Tribe of the Fort Yuma Reservation, while United-Kingdom based Plannatech will serve as the operator for the San Carlos Apache Tribal Gaming Enterprise.
Sporttrade is the second partner for the Quechan Indian Tribe after its initial partner, Malta-based operator Unibet, left the market. Similarly, Plannatech has tagged in for the San Carlos Apache after the tribe parted ways with Everett, Mass.-based WynnBET.
GAMING PEOPLE
President Joe Biden’s administration plans to nominate Patrice H. Kunesh (Standing Rock Lakota) as the next chairperson of the National Indian Gaming Commission, as reported by Tribal Business News. The nomination plan was announced in late July. If approved, Kunesh would take over for acting chair Sharon M. Avery (Saginaw Chippewa.) The move would also restore the commission, which is currently manned by two commissioners, to its original three-person capacity.
Kunesh’s appointment would fill a seat left by Sequoyah M. Simermeyer, who left the Commission in February. In late July, Simermeyer was appointed to the board of directors for the National Native American Hall of Fame, according to an Indian Gaming report.
Sycuan Casino Resort, an operation of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Tribe, has appointed Joe Busby as vice president of finance, per Indian Gaming. Busby’s prior experience includes over 20 years of casino finance and operations, public accounting, internal and external audit, and regulatory compliance.
Mohegan, the gaming and hospitality unit of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians, has appointed Joseph J. Hasson as chief operating officer (COO), where he will oversee the development and execution of strategic business plans across all Mohegan properties in the U.S., Canada, and Northern Asia. Hasson has served as Mohegan’s interim COO since April and will continue in his role as general manager of Mohegan Casino at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas during its ownership transition. With more than 40 years of experience in the gaming and hospitality industries, Hasson previously held the position of COO at Station Casinos and Red Rock Resorts.
If you have news or information about Indian gaming, expansions, developments,or emerging stories, shoot me a note at [email protected].
