The Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians hope to reopen their casino, closed since October, sometime in September.
The Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino was closed October 10 the day after one of several factions struggling for control sent an armed group into the casino to seize financial records. Due to the raid the state and federal governments ordered the casino closed.
Now the tribe is ready to reopen, although that process is complicated by an IRS investigation of a member of the tribal council, Jeffrey Chance Alberta, who was issued a summons for a criminal investigation on August 7. The investigation includes a business of the tribe, Chukchansi Incorporated of Coarsegold, that Alberta led.
Some members of the tribe are calling for Alberta’s expulsion from the council, while others support him. The latter includes some of the 150 members that he supported keeping in the tribe when there was a movement to disenroll them.
The tribe has reached a collective bargaining agreement with the union that represents most of the casino’s workers. According to CEO Christian Goode, the agreement was necessary for reopening the restaurants and hotel. He told the Sierra Star: “We have to make sure all the systems will be back online, employees are properly trained. The long and short is it will happen in September. We’re not quite clear on the exact day, but we’re hoping for sooner rather than later.”
About 1,000 total employees will be hired.
Tribal Chairman Reggie Lewis, who would like to see Alberta suspended, issued a statement recently about the IRS investigation: “While the IRS investigation has just begun and in itself is not evidence of any criminal wrongdoing … I urge all tribal members to fully cooperate with these investigations.” He said the investigation wouldn’t stop the casino from reopening.
Goode agrees. “It’s an entirely separate business entity of the tribe which has no impact or relevance to what we’re doing here at the casino,” he said.
