Indian Gaming Now

Off-Reservation Gaming

Kathryn Quoted on Possible Lansing Casino

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Feb 7 2011
A new group, the Lansing Jobs Coalition, is floating the idea of a tribal casino near Lansing, Michigan.  But there's no tribe or tribal land yet connected to the project.  And Ted O'Dell, one of the group's organizers, is pushing for a "temporary" casino to be up and running by the end of the calendar year.  Optimism and ambition may be positive attributes and old-fashioned American values, but that seems pie in the sky to us.

Kathryn is quoted as saying, "While technically it may not be impossible, it would be extraordinary to have all that come together in a matter of months.  The typical timeline [for an off-reservation casino project] runs in years rather than months."

And Now for the Lawsuit . . . .

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Dec 23 2010
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has filed a federal suit to shut down the new Bay Mills casino in Michigan, located just a few miles north of Gaylord off of I-75 -- that's in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula, while the Bay Mills Indian Community has its headquarters and reservation in the Upper Peninsula.  Cox claims that the casino is located on land that does not qualify as "Indian lands" under IGRA, so that the tribe's casino is not authorized either by IGRA or by the tribal-state compact.  The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians filed a similar suit against Bay Mills on Wednesday.  We've been following this situation in the last several posts.

Michigan AG Demands Closure of New Bay Mills Casino

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Dec 18 2010
As we discussed in an earlier post, the Bay Mills Indian Community opened a new casino a few weeks ago.  The casino is on land that is owned by the tribe, but reportedly has not yet been taken into trust by the federal government.  As we warned in our earlier post, "the tribe may have opened itself up to either state regulation or violation of the federal Johnson Act . . . this is definitely one to watch."  Now, the Michigan Attorney General is demanding that the tribe close the casino.

Response to Feinstein's Editorial

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Dec 11 2010
Merlene Sanchez, Chairwoman of the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians (see one of the guest posts by Kathryn's Indian Gaming Law students in June for more on the Band and its efforts to open a casino), had this to say about Senator Dianne Feinstein's proposed amendment:

"'Restored land' tribes are not 'reservation shopping' as Feinstein wrongfully stated. Reservation shopping applies to tribes with existing reservations that shop for new lands to develop a more profitable casino site. There currently are no active 'reservation shopping' proposals in the Bay Area.  Feinstein claimed that 'restored lands' projects in urban areas, like our tribe's proposal for Point Molate, defy California and federal law. That is simply untrue."

Feinstein on "Reservation Shopping"

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Dec 8 2010
"It's time to say 'enough is enough' to reservation shopping," wrote Senator Dianne Feinstein in a guest editorial in the Contra Costa Times.  As we've explained, "reservation shopping" is a loaded term -- one of those soundbites that catches on and gets used to describe all sorts of situations, whether fairly or not.  "Reservation shopping" conjures up images of an unsavory backroom deal, where tribes compromise interests in "real" Indian lands for an ideally located casino.  Loaded and frequently misused terms like "reservation shopping" are difficult to unpack -- often, the hardest question is where to start.  So, we offer a few starting points for thinking critically about Feinstein's amendment.

More on the Feinstein Amendment

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Dec 6 2010
Despite the slew of criticism from folks in the know, a recent editorial in the Oakland (CA) Tribune praises the Feinstein amendment (see our earlier posts on why we think this amendment is unnecessary at best and ill-conceived at worst).  The editorial lauds the amendment as a much-needed constraint on "inappropriate casino plans" borne of the "now-common 'reservation shopping' in which small landless tribes look for prime urban property far from their original homelands for casinos."

Sen. Feinstein Attracting Criticism for Carcieri Amendment

Posted by Kathryn Rand | Filed under:
Dec 3 2010
We reported earlier on an amendment to the much-needed Carcieri fix that would limit gaming on newly acquired lands by adding further requirements for the land-into-trust process.  The amendment, championed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is garnering much criticism from tribes.