- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Gaming
The Koi Nation’s planned Sonoma County casino received federal approval last week, clearing the way for a Chickasaw Nation enterprise to help develop and operate the property under a 2022 agreement.
The approval caps a contentious and winding path to the Shiloh Casino and Resort’s development, which is planned to include 2,500 gaming machines, a 400-room hotel, six restaurants, and other amenities.
Koi Nation first announced the casino in 2021. The project garnered a broad swathe of support, but became embroiled in controversy regarding the tribe’s ancestral claim to the lands in Sonoma County. The Graton Rancheria filed a lawsuit last November to halt the project.
“The Koi Nation has had to struggle harder than almost any other Tribe in California to re-establish our sovereignty,” Tribal Chairman Darin Beltran told NPR affiliate KOSU. “Despite this treatment, however, we have endured. It is time to exercise our rights as a federally recognized Tribe to have our own land and to control our own destiny.”
With the project’s approval, an existing agreement established in 2022 between the Koi Nation and the Chickasaw Nation’s Global Gaming Solutions LLC (GGS) unit will move forward. Ada, Okla.-based GGS entered into a predevelopment agreement with the Koi Nation in 2022 as the tribe worked through its trust application process. Under the agreement, GGS will serve as both development partner and future operator of the casino.
[RELATED | Reporter’s Notebook: Three Tribal Casinos, Two Presidents, One Familiar Script]
“It will be a great honor for GGS to assist the Koi in construction and management of the Shiloh Resort & Casino,” Skip Seeley, chief executive officer of GGS, wrote to Tribal Business News in an email. “GGS leaders have been impressed with the diligent, methodical manner in which the Koi tribe has worked with our organization to create a comprehensive plan to make this economic/community development project a reality.”
The project, to be located just outside Windsor, Calif., will include a 2,800-person entertainment venue. According to Seeley, the design emphasizes environmental integration, being both energy-efficient and respectful of the natural beauty of the site.
The Chickasaw Nation started GGS in 2008 to expand its economic footprint beyond tribal lands. GGS provides consulting, technology solutions, and operational management for gaming facilities, having placed and managed over 50,000 electronic games, according to its website. The enterprise operates several major properties, including Golden Mesa Casino in Oklahoma, hotel towers at WinStar World Casino, Remington Park racino in Oklahoma City, and Lone Star Park in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
