The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently held public hearings on draft environmental impact statements to take land into federal trust for the Ho-Chunk Nation’s proposed $405 million casino-resort in Beloit, Wisconsin and the Little River Band of Ottawa Indian’s proposed $180 million casino in Fruitville Township, Michigan.
At the public hearing for the Beloit casino, most of the speakers supported the casino project, with a few opposed on moral grounds. Ho-Chunk Nation Public Information Officer Collin Price said, “It’s been a long time coming. We’re extremely excited. I think there’s new life among the tribal members and the communities we represent.”
The BIA will review all public comments, and issue a draft environmental impact statement before a final EIS document is published in the spring. At that time the plan would be placed in the federal registry, then await approval by Governor-elect Tony Evers, who will be inaugurated on January 7. Evers has said he would sign off in favor of the casino project. “When he says yes, we’re going to be ready to put shovels to the ground,” Price said.
Beloit City Manager Lori Curtis Luther noted, “”This is a potential game-changer for our local community and the impact is dramatic. The reason the city of Beloit has been so unanimously supportive of this project is the economic benefit.” She said the casino could create more than 1,500 permanent jobs. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration as this project is advanced and are confident that this proposed development is in the best interests of the City of Beloit due to the short- and long-term economic impact it will have on our region,” Curtis Luther added.
However, former Beloit City Council President Tom Warren said he was not in favor of the city and county benefiting from gambling revenue. “I am leery of proposed deals that seem too good to be true,” Warren said.
Price presented several options the tribe is considering. Option A would include a 300-room hotel, water park, conference center, entertainment space and adjacent retail development. A more modest plan would include a 99,500 square foot casino and retail development without a hotel, as well as a retail development without both a casino and hotel. Price said the tribe is optimistic the BIA will approve Option A. “The others aren’t really options from our perspective. We know that in order for us to deliver a quality project from our perspective to the community, it has to be all of it, from the entertainment to the convention center to the restaurants. We need it to be a facility that has it all in one,” he said.
An intergovernmental agreement, first approved in 2012 and re-approved last February, would direct 2 percent of all net win proceeds to Beloit and Rock County, generating $5 million in annual revenue with $3.5 million for the city and $1.5 million for the county.
Across the state line in Illinois, a gaming bill that would bring a casino to Rockford passed the Senate, but never came up for a vote in the House of Representatives. State Senator Dave Syverson said the proposed Rockford casino was projected to generate about $7 million annually; now he said it would bring about half of that amount. “You’re going to lose a lot of hotel tax because you’re going to lose a lot of people who will be staying in Beloit versus before staying in Rockford. They’re not staying in Rockford, they’re not paying the hotel tax and you would have revenue lost from hotels, you’d have revenue lost from the water park and you’d have other entertainment dollars lost.”
State Senator Steve Stadelman, who represents Rockford, said, “That’s potentially a lot of money that could be spent across state border into Beloit instead of the Rockford area and being spent on schools and roads here.” He said there’s a chance the Illinois legislature could pass an expanded gambling bill, due to sports betting. “Everybody wants a piece of sports betting. Casinos would like it, the racetracks would like it, it’s another revenue source for the state. I think you get more people to the table, more willing to reach a compromise and negotiate an agreement that would allow for an expansion of gaming,” he said.
Public comment on the proposed Ho-Chunk Beloit casino will be accepted by the BIA through December 24.
At the Fruitport Township, Michigan hearing, 50 out of 53 people supported the project as a means to bring 1,200 new jobs and economic development to the struggling area. The venue would include a 149,069 square foot casino with 1,700 slots and 35 table games, 220-room hotel, dining options, entertainment center and parking. Governor Rick Snyder approved EIS studies in 2013.
Tribal Ogema Larry Romanelli said he hopes the casino will “be one of the largest employers in Muskegon County.” Former state Rep. Julie Dennis noted these casino jobs will help to further diversify Muskegon’s economy.
“Our largest employers—healthcare, local government, schools, private industry—are not enough to sustain our employment base. The new casino will bring good-paying jobs. It will lift the base pay of all employees, as employers will compete for the best employees.”
Fruitport Superintendent of Schools Bob Szymoniak added, “The impact of this casino project on the success of business and industry in the Muskegon area and the lives of its citizens cannot be overstated. We need this project to be more competitive with our neighboring counties to the east and south, we need this project to fuel tourism infrastructure, and we need this casino to give citizens and businesses hope for a better economic future.” He noted, “Since the Great Recession hit around 2007, families in our school district have suffered. The economic downtown not only had an impact on these families, but dramatically impacted school funding, making it difficult for us to maintain a competitive educational program in this age of school choice. I am therefore excited about the large number of jobs this casino and all associated economic development would bring into our school district. The increase in employment opportunities would obviously do much to stabilize, and likely grow, our enrollment. It would also stabilize the financial conditions of our families to hopefully reduce our poverty rate.”
Following the 2007 recession, Muskegon’s unemployment rose to 17 percent in 2009 and 2010. Today it’s about 4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, equal to the U.S. unemployment rate, but that does not include individuals who lost jobs and have stopped looking for work. Chris Pelton, a member of West Michigan Plumbers, Fitters and Service Trades Local Union No. 174, stated, “It comes down to jobs for us. This is a huge socio-economic impact. Here in Muskegon and Ottawa counties, we have 360-some members. To have a job of this size in our own backyard is a huge thing.”
Andrew Gentile, general manager at the tribe’s Little River Casino Resort in Manistee, said the Fruitport casino, like the Manistee facility, could have a financial impact throughout the region. Since Manistee opened in 1999, the total local revenue share is slightly more than $35.5 million, Gentile said. “I’m sure Muskegon could do a lot with that. I know Muskegon wants to build a convention center and wants to build tourism. This would be another tool in the toolbox to attract people,” he said.
The BIA will take public comments on the draft EIS through January 7.
In Oregon, the Coquille Indian Tribe is awaiting a decision by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as to whether it can open a second Indian casino, this one in a former bowling alley in Medford, near Interstate 5, on land the tribe purchased in 2012.
Although tribes in Oregon have never had more than one casino per tribe, and other tribes and the governor, Kate Brown argue that they cannot legally have more than one, the Coquilles insist that nothing prevents it and that their tribal state gaming compact doesn’t contain such a restriction. They hope the federal government will agree.
The Oregon Lottery, on the other hand, is hoping that the tribe will be limited to one casino. Michael Rondeau, chairman of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, whose casino is near Medford, agrees. He told the Willamette Week: “It would change the face of tribal gaming in Oregon forever. Every tribe would be looking at the very edge of the envelope and pushing it. You’d see casinos up and down I-5.”
His tribe owns the oldest and one of the most profitable casinos in the state: the Seven Feathers Casino, near Canyonville, along the I-5. Currently it is the only tribal casino along the interstate in Oregon.
Oregon has nine gaming tribes and nine casinos, an arrangement everyone agreed to since tribal gaming commenced in Oregon 30 years ago.
Such limitations don’t govern other states. Washington has 35 tribal casinos. California has 69 and in Oklahoma tribal casinos bloom like desert flowers, with the current count at 143.
Governor Brown opposes the second casino because of the impact she believes it would have on the lottery and plans that she has made for at least one tribe to sell lottery tickets at their casino. In 2016 she wrote to the BIA: “State support for even a single, modest additional casino is likely to lead to significant efforts to expand gaming across Oregon, to the detriment of public welfare.”
Critics say that Brown’s opposition to gaming expansion is selective, and doesn’t include her proposed lottery partnership with the Cow Creek tribe, which is also a significant contributor to her past election campaigns. The lottery is also the state’s second largest source of governmental revenue.
Judy Duffy-Metcalf, chief executive officer of the Coquille Economic Development Council, recently called out the governor on this perceived conflict of interest. “She’s not only expanding the lottery but she’s cutting a side deal with the Cow Creek, our biggest opposition.”
The governor’s proposed 2019-2021 budget shows the lottery generating $1.3 billion. The lottery revenues are not growing and forecasts are not optimistic. The Millennial generation doesn’t buy lottery tickets as much as their parents and grandparents. That prompted the lottery to push for “tribal partnerships” and to begin working with the Cow Creek tribe.
This was done in secret, something that Duffy-Metcalf deplores. “Where’s the transparency,” she said.
Lottery spokesman Matt Shelby explains that the Cow Creek partnership is a “pilot program” where the tribe would sell “traditional” lottery products, and not install video lottery terminals. “We are using the project as a trial to see if lottery products can be sold on tribal lands,” he said. “If the answer is yes, we will offer it to all Oregon tribes.”
