It’s been two years since live dice and card games and additional slot machines have been available at the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, North Carolina. State lawmakers allowed the games as part of a new 30-year compact with the tribe. The expanded gambling offerings–totaling 3,600 slot machines and 130 table games–increased casino revenue above 0 million in 2013, first time that record was achieved. The recently completed 3 million upgrade, including three 21-story hotel towers, also helps attract more than 3 million visitors a year.
Under the compact, the state receives 4 percent from the live table games in the first five years, about $2-$3 million, and that amount will increase over a set time.
“The Eastern Band Cherokee experience is that gaming can dramatically impact the lives of Cherokee families, particularly our precious children, in ways even we never dreamed possible,” said Principal Chief Michell Hicks.
But looming out on the horizon is a $339 million casino planned by the Catawba Indian Nation, based in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Last year the Catawbas applied with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to use ancestral land it owns along Interstate 85 in Kings Mountain, west of Charlotte and 130 miles from Harrah’s Cherokee, for their proposed facility. But in March the Eastern Band filed a formal letter protesting the Catawbas’ application on the grounds that the new casino is not allowed under state and federal law. Catawba Nation officials reject that argument, but it could slow the application process which will take at least another year to complete. And even if the Catawbas’ application is approved, a court battle could commence, which could last even longer.
“We do not object to the Catawbas’ having gaming on their reservation in South Carolina. Our opposition to the proposed North Carolina land acquisition is based on respect for traditional tribal territory,” Hicks said. In response, Catawba Nation Chief Bill Harris said, “We were in the state before there was ever a state. What’s good for one nation should be good for others. We should all work together.”
The Catawba Nation is the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina, with nearly 3,000 members. About two-thirds of them live on the Rock Hill reservation or in surrounding counties. The tribe opened a bingo hall in Rock Hill last month, providing 40 new jobs. In his pursuit of the Kings Mountain casino, Harris has highlighted the tribe’s ancestral roots in North Carolina. That has caused some Cherokee tribal members to worry that other tribes claiming ancestral roots in North Carolina would try to open casinos there as well.
Harris said he has met with BIA officials in Washington, D.C. two times but no schedule has been established regarding the tribe’s application. He added the Cherokee’s opposition did not come as a surprise. He said he hopes someday the two tribes can work together, but “They refuse to talk,” Harris said.
“Our dream was never to alter what the Cherokee are doing. It was to mimic what the Cherokee have done. The Cherokee are a success story,” Harris said, adding if the Kings Mountain casino is approved, he can see similar benefits for the Catawbas.
Harris was referring to numerous ways casino gambling has served the Eastern Band. Half of casino profits distributed to the tribe is sent in two payments per year to the 15,000 registered tribal members. Those payments to each individual totaled about $7,700 in 2012, according to published reports. The first check this year, distributed in June, was for $4,023. The money is held in trust for tribal members younger than age 18, until they earn a high school diploma or receive an equivalency degree and take a financial management course. Otherwise, the money is not distributed until age 21. The other half of the tribe’s portion benefits local government services to address financial illiteracy, diabetes and other issues on the Qualla Boundary reservation, where more than 8,000 tribal members live.
Cherokee casino revenue also has enabled the tribe to build a new 475 million hospital, $13 million affordable housing project, $20 million justice center, $5 million downtown revitalization, a $130 million K-12 school and a $4.1 million youth center.
A tribe-commissioned study by UNC Chapel Hill indicated 2008 was one of the casino’s best years, in which it generated $450 million. An Indian Gaming Industry Report by Casino City Press showed revenue increased at Harrah’s Cherokee by 3 percent in 2012, but it fell short of the 5.8 percent growth in 2011. Last month, Hicks told a U.S. Senate committee that gaming revenue totaled $513 million in 2013, the first full year with the new games.
The new gaming compact allows the Eastern Band to build a second, $110 million casino in Murphy, about 60 miles southwest of Cherokee near the Georgia and Tennessee borders. Scheduled to open next year, the new casino is expected to a net increase in gambling revenue of $50 million. With 1,800 slots, it will employ more than 1,000 people; Harrah’s Cherokee has 3,000 employees.
The Eastern Band’s vast resources also give it tremendous political clout. The Republican state party convention was held at Harrah’s Cherokee this summer. And in the past decade, the tribe’s PAC has donated more than $1.3 million to candidates and other PACs in North Carolina, ranking it number 15 in the state, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
But with the possibility of competition for gambling dollars from the Catawba Nation, the Eastern Band is considering ways to develop a more diversified economy on the reservation, including technology and knowledge firms.
Meanwhile, the Catawbas’ Kings Mountain casino has drawn strong support from local officials in Cleveland County, who are anxious for the economic development and job creation it would deliver. But a bipartisan group of legislators and Governor Pat McCrory strongly oppose it. Last year McCrory’s office said the governor “remains unconvinced that any new casino proposal is in the best interest of North Carolina.” McCrory would have to negotiate a gaming compact with the Catawbas. To date, those discussions have not begun, a McCrory spokesman said.
