North Dakota Tribe to Spend $2B on Strip Property
While the Golden Knights say they have no plans to move from their home at T-Mobile Arena, a group of North Dakota Indian tribes says it is hoping to lure a professional sports team and build a casino on 23 acres they bought on the south end of the Strip across from the Luxor.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal March 13 wrote the “Three Affiliated Tribes — also known as Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, or MHA Nation — bought 23 acres along the south Strip for $115 million in recent years without concrete plans for the sites or public votes on most of the spending.”
Mark Fox, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, said he never intended to suggest that the Golden Knights would move from their arena. Rather, he “meant to convey the message that they were interested in our project, as are most of our neighbors. But it was never my intention to suggest that we are pursuing a business relationship with them. We are keeping all of our options open.”
The tribes are aiming to get up to $2 billion in outside funding.
Fox said the tribes will unveil plans for the parcel once they have submitted plans to local government agencies. According to the Review-Journal, the tribes appear to have already submitted preliminary plans to Clark County officials. Records filed February 19 show plans for an integrated resort, including a casino, hotel, convention space and entertainment venue. No renderings were included with the filing.
GeoComply: Tribes Have ‘Unique’ Opportunity
Tribes in every U.S. state have the opportunity to protect their sovereignty and create a solid income through their exclusive right to Class II gaming, GeoComply wrote in a blog post March 11. The company, which provides geolocation and location fraud protection services, wrote that because tribes have exclusivity for Class II gaming, they can get ahead of commercial competitors by offering Class II digital gaming on reservation.
A key sponsor of the Indian Gaming Association conference in San Diego, GeoComply wrote that “tribes can modernize gaming, meeting the changing preferences of today’s tech-savvy consumers while supporting sustainable economic growth within their communities.”
In the post, GeoComply details the rise of cashless gaming and how tribes can leverage that at land-based casinos, as well as how best to educate consumers on the registration process.
“As tribal casinos continue to evolve, they remain foundational to their communities, offering gaming experiences tailored to the needs of modern patrons,” the company wrote. “This path strengthens not only the economies of tribal nations but also ensures that tribal gaming remains a symbol of resilience and leadership in an ever-evolving digital landscape.”
Minnesota Lawsuit Against Tribes Tossed
Running Aces, a horse racetrack in Minnesota, last fall filed a lawsuit against five tribal casinos claiming they were illegally offering certain card games. A federal district court judge dismissed the case, MRP News reported March 12.
The relationship between Minnesota’s two racetracks and Indian Country casinos has been contentious in recent years. The tribes, who have federal exclusivity for Class III gaming, want to see legal sports betting passed in the state. But they want to retain exclusivity for it, while the racetracks also want a cut of the action.
The card-game lawsuit is one of a handful in progress between the tracks and tribes. In the Running Aces case, the judge said he dismissed the case because he believed it wasn’t correctly filed, not based on the merits of the case. Running Aces sued a list of executives, but U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said the executives don’t represent the tribes that run the casinos. He also raised concerns that the tribes were not named directly.
Nebraska Lawmakers Hear About Digital Sports Betting
Nebraska lawmakers heard three-plus hours of testimony during their first legal digital betting hearing of the session. There was no vote, but opponents dominated the session, reports iGB.
On March 10, the Nebraska Legislature’s General Affairs Committee heard from representatives from all sides of the issue concerning four legal sports betting bills. The Winnebago Tribe, through its Ho-Chunk, Inc. commercial arm, operates land-based casinos and sportsbooks in Lincoln and Omaha.
Ho-Chunk CEO and President Lance Morgan testified in favor of the gambling expansion. He pointed out that the biggest betting companies in the U.S. account for about 90 percent of market share across the nation. His company has plans to partner with one of those companies should sports betting become legal.
“There are four entities that are an oligarchy,” he testified. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel. But we are going to make it so that we are not victims in their growth – we are participants.”
The only thing proponents and opponents agreed on is that online wagering is already happening on the black market in Nebraska. Proponents say that legalizing will give law enforcement the tools to tamp down the illegal market. Opponents counter that legalizing will only increase the number of people gambling in total.
Retail betting has been available to Nebraskans in certain locations since 2023, and some lawmakers have been trying unsuccessfully for several years to add digital betting to the menu. Most recently, the issue failed to receive floor consideration during a summer special session.
Monday’s first committee hearing was for LR20CA, a constitutional amendment that would send the decision to legalize digital betting to the voters. That bill would have to pass for any of the filed framework bills to become law.
