Native American tribes have announced casino expansions in Washington and South Dakota.
On June 8 Washington Governor Jay Inslee approved of a casino that the Spokane Tribe proposes to build just west of the city at West Plains. The Department of the Interior had approved of the application the year before, but because it was for an off-reservation casino, Inslee’s approval was necessary.
The tribe proposes a $400 million casino with 450 slots, 12 gaming tables, dining and eventually a resort hotel, retails stores, police and fire department and a tribal cultural center and wellness center. This will all be located on 145 acres. The casino is expected to provide hundreds of jobs for a tribe whose unemployment rate is 50 percent. The project will be developed in phases over 10 years. The first phase will open in 2017 with 450 slot machines and 12 game tables.
The tribe celebrated the approval. “We’re so happy with the governor approving for us to build a casino,” said Tribal Chairwoman Carol Evans.
Tribal Vice Chairman David Browneagle declared, “Our people used to go across the mountains to the plains to hunt buffalo. Or go to the waterways for the fish and trading and all the things we’ve always done. The wherewithal to provide for our people was very important then as it is today. This is the same principle, providing for all our people today as our ancestors did. We were their future. It’s a continuance of the same belief and value system, taking care of our people.”
The process has been long. The final environmental impact report was completed in 2013, followed last year by the Interior approval. The lands put into trust are part of the traditional homeland of the tribe, but not on the reservation.
Critics point to the site’s close proximity to Fairchild Air Force Base as potentially interfering with he base, although the Air Force has said that is not a factor.
In South Dakota, Governor Dennis Daugaard approved the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe’s casino expansion, doubling its slots offering to 1,000. As a result, the tribe will increase its annual revenue sharing to Moody County to $350,000. That amount would be the largest revenue-sharing amount ever given in one year by a tribal government to a non-tribal government in South Dakota.
The South Dakota state government and the Yankton Sioux Tribe are planning a public hearing for a proposed compact that would allow it to keep 500 slot machines at its casino. At that level, the tribe is not required to share revenue.
In addition, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe’s new agreement will allow them to expand to 850 slots by 2022, up from its current 750 slot machines at the tribe’s two casino locations in Watertown and Sisseton. In exchange, Oyate will pay Codington County and Roberts County for more than 500 machines. As a result, in 2017 and 2018 the tribe will give $225,000 annually to Codington and $75,000 annually to Roberts, and for 2019 through 2022, the tribe will provide $300,000 each year to Codington and $100,000 each year to Roberts.
