Fourteen years after it was forced to shut down its successful casino near Livingston, Texas, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe announced it will open a Class II gaming facility with 300 electronic games in the same location. The “entertainment center” will be completed next year, said spokesperson Carlos Bullock. “We feel like we can be successful with this venture and people want it,” he said.
The state shut down the Alabama-Coushatta’s casino after it was open only nine months. Texas claimed the tribe was required to follow state gaming under the Alabama-Coushatta Restoration Act signed in 1987, which granted the tribe federal recognition. But the tribe said the Indian Gaming Regulation Act of 1988 allowed gambling on reservation land. Texas officials challenged that, and the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas, resulting in the closure of the casino.
But recently the tribe asked the Department of Interior and the National Indian Gaming Commission to clarify their legal standing in regard to gambling. In October, the Interior Department and the NIGC determined the Alabama-Coushatta do indeed have the right to offer bingo and electronic bingo on the reservation. Michael Odle of the NIGC said, “After evaluating that court decision it is in our belief, as well as the Department of the Interior, it provides the tribes in Texas the ability to game under Class II gaming.”
Bullokc said, “It has cost our tribe dearly over the years. We were cut out of gaming because of the language in the restoration act, even though Texas law itself had actually changed and the state got the lottery and bingo and horse racing and dog tracks. But we were shut out.” He added the tribe has not yet submitted a facility license for the site. “It’s a huge opportunity for the tribe. We’ve looked forward to this for many years. We’ve finally accomplished it and we’re going to do what the NGIC and the Department of the Interior have allowed us to do,” Bullock said.
The reopening of the casino will create 150 jobs and help the tribe fund higher education and housing for members. “When we were open before we generated about $1 million a month. When we closed, it was devastating to the tribe. It was a huge impact to lose that kind of revenue, and all those jobs,” Bullock stated.
“A lot of these gaming revenues go to government services, health and education, welfare-type programs, cultural preservation programs. So you’re seeing generation after generation of Native Americans benefitting from Indian gaming,” Odle said.
The Kickapoo tribe, the only Native American tribe in Texas with permission to oversee gambling, offers electronic gambling, poker and bingo at its Eagle Pass operation. The gambling operation of the Tigua tribe of El Paso was shut down before Alabama-Coushatta, also because of a federal court ruling on a state legal challenge.
Legal experts expect the Texas attorney general will challenge the Alabama-Coushatta’s reopening.
