Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino and Hotel, opened September 28 in Murphy, North Carolina, is expected to generate more than million in gaming revenue next year for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The tribe also owns Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, operated by Caesars Entertainment, which opened in 1993 with just video poker following a decade of negotiations between tribal, state and federal officials.
Today gaming revenue represents half of the tribe’s new $557 million budget and helps pay for essential programs and services like health care, housing and education. Cherokee Indian Hospital Chief Executive Officer Casey Cooper said, “Gaming has made so many things possible that just were completely unheard of prior.”
The tribe’s 15,000 enrolled members share in the success in the form of bi-annual per capita payments from half of the gaming revenue received by the tribal council; the other half goes to infrastructure and operations. Chief Michell Hicks said the payments recently rose to “north of $9,000” a year.
According to a study by Professor Elizabeth Jane Costello of the Duke University of Medicine, the payments have directly enhanced the lives of children on the reservation. “Four years before the supplement, children in these families had high levels of anxiety, depression, and conduct problems. Four years after the supplement began, levels were no higher than those of children who were never poor,” Costello told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in February 2014.
Gaming revenue recently helped fund a new 155,000 square foot, $80 million replacement hospital, a $13 million residential treatment facility, recovery-support housing and a recovery and outpatient counseling center, in addition to other health services facilities and housing.
