The Arizona Department of Gaming has refused to certify the Tohono O’odham Nation’s 0 million Glendale casino, which is due to open later this year.
This caused the tribe to file suit against the state on June 22.
Arizona claims that the tribe committed fraud when it negotiated its tribal state gaming compact in 2002, when it did not disclose that it had purchased land next to Glendale, and that it intended to open a casino there.
The tribe has so far taken on and bested all comers in the court arena, and courts have ruled that there is no evidence that it agreed not to build a casino in the West Valley when it negotiated its compact.
The decision is controversial.
The Arizona Republic quoted Glendale councilmember Gary Sherwood last week, “The state’s actions fly in the face of the recommendations of ADG’s own gaming-law expert, federal law and a federal District Court ruling reaffirming that the Tohono O’odham Nation’s project is authorized under the compact. As a result, the Tohono O’odham has filed suit to compel the state to abide by federal law and immediately cease its threats to certified gaming vendors and employees.”
Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf supports the state. “A broad coalition came together in 2002 to approve a new tribal gaming agreement which limited gaming to existing reservations,” he said. “The Tohono O’odham promised not to open an additional casino in metropolitan Phoenix.
“Allowing the Tohono O’odhams to break their promise would be unfair to those who relied on this promise, including businesses which would now be forced to compete with an unregulated and untaxed business.”
The controversy can be traced back to 1960 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Painted Rock Dam on the Gila River, eventually inundating the Tohonos’ reservation: about 10,000 acres.
In 1986 Congress authorized buying the inundated land for $30 million, which it was authorized to spend on an alternative reservation. Two years later Congress adopted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
In 2002 Arizona voters approved the state tribal gaming compact between the state and all of its gaming tribes. A year later an LLC created by the tribe began buying land next to Glendale for the tribe. In 2009 the tribe announced its intentions to build a casino resort on the land.
In 2010 the Bureau of Indian Affairs put the land into trust. That same year the Gila River Indian Community and later the city of Glendale sued the Department of the Interior, claiming that it didn’t taken into account whether the land, surrounded by a city, was suitable for a casino.
The tribe won a series of court challenges against its right to build. IN 2012 the first attempt at a Congressional solution occurred with the passage of a bill sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks that would prevent the casino from operating.
This same bill is now very much alive in the House, and is being pushed in the Senate by Senator John McCain.
In July 2014 the Bureau of Indian Affairs reaffirmed its earlier decision that putting the 54 acres into trust was proper. Around the same time the Glendale City council reversed its opposition to the casino.
The tribe broke ground on August 2014 and in February of this year steel framing began on an interim facility.
