Tribal gaming teams across the nation have made some main enlargement efforts over the previous few years, and now a kind of strikes is inflicting some controversy in Oregon. The state’s Coquille tribe has drawn criticism for trying to construct a on line casino greater than 150 miles from its lands.
The tribe is situated within the North Bend space on the west coast and is searching for to construct in Medford, situated within the southwest area of the state. The thought hasn’t been met effectively by different tribes.
Tribes Push Back
Some tribes are arguing {that a} new Coquille on line casino would harm their very own gaming properties. According to the Times-Standard newspaper, Karuk tribe chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery stated the Coquille have been trying to “reservation jump” with plans for a brand new on line casino.
Attebery stated the on line casino would end in a 27% income loss for the Karuks’ Rain Rock Casino, which is situated about an hour away in northern California. He added that the monetary loss may additionally harm his tribe’s plans to open a medical clinic. Other regional tribes have also expressed concern.
“When you come to tribes that want to reservation jump, if you will, to other areas that are in this case, 150 to 160 miles away from their casino, and their lands, their homelands, the precedent it will set could be very devastating to the very premise that the tribes, because they’re sovereign nations, were able to develop an economy that included in Nevada-style gaming on their homelands,” Attebery instructed the Times-Standard.
“This would open the doors to not only other tribes being able to jump to other areas, but other corporations being able to do that and it could be devastating. It would saturate that economy.”
The Coquille tribe operates The Mill Casino on the tribe’s lands in Coos Bay and leaders believe they have the right to place land in belief close to Medford for a on line casino.
“The Coquille Tribe has been waiting over a decade to complete an extensive review process that is required before Tribes can have lands taken into trust,” the tribe famous in November “As of this date, a decision to publish the final Environmental Impact Study (EIS) has not been made by the federal government. Hoping to capitalize on that lack of action, a growing collaboration of special interests have decided that opposing a small tribe’s ambitions to achieve self-sufficiency will somehow advance their political or economic self-interest.”
Adding extra casinos past conventional tribal lands has seen a number of main acquisitions lately. That has included some well-known casinos in Las Vegas with Florida’s Seminole tribe shopping for the Mirage in 2022 for $1.1 billion and California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians buying the Palms on line casino in 2022 for $650 million.
*Photo – The Mill