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Choctaw casino no sure bet
Sunday, May 13, 2007
By VETO F. ROLEY The Mississippi Press
BILOXI -- Even if Jackson County leaders indicate a proposed Choctaw casino on Mississippi 57 would not have a negative effect on the local area, leading Indian gaming officials said Wednesday the casino will not be built overnight.
Before they can build the proposed casino, the Mississippi Band of Choctaws will have to gain approval from two government bodies, the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Mississippi governor's office said Jason Giles, lead attorney with the National Indian Gaming Association.
Approval from either body is not assured, he said, particularly since the proposed casino is not on land within the original Choctaws' reservation. Giles said there are 34 current petitions for off-reservation gaming before Indian Affairs. Many of these petitions are three or four years old, Giles said.
"Only three applications for off reservation gaming have been approved over the last 19 years," Giles said, adding that it did not appear that the bureau intended to quickly approve any of the applications. "The Choctaw's petition will not be approved anytime in the near future."
Among the criteria the bureau uses to approve proposed casinos, Giles said, are potential harm to the communities near the casino and the distance the casino is from the tribe.
In some instances, such as the Fort Mojave reservation in Arizona, the proposed location is 2.5 miles from the reservation. Oklahoma Seneca Indians are looking to open a casino in New York, which is 1,600 miles away from their reservation.
The proposed Jackson County site is more than 200 miles away from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian's Reservation in Choctaw, Miss.
"Distance is a factor," Giles said. "The farther away the site is from the reservation, the harder it is to get the petition approved."
In the case of the Seneca Indians, Giles noted there is a historic connection between the Seneca and the New York location where they asked to build a casino.
"They did not ask to be moved to Oklahoma," Giles said. He said National Indian Gaming Association supported off-reservation casino sites if the tribe can show an historic connection to the area in question.
He would not comment, though, on whether the Mississippi Band of Choctaws have a similar tie to their Jackson County lands.
In an e-mail statement sent Wednesday, spokesman Chassidy Wilson said Mississippi Choctaws have a strong tie to their Jackson County holdings. "The tribe has historic ties to these lands and has been an employer and corporate citizen in Jackson County for several years with its manufacturing plants," she wrote.
The strongest obstacle, though, to the proposed casino might be with the governor's office in Jackson.
Dan M. McDaniel, a leading authority on gaming law, said the compact signed in the 1980s that allowed the Choctaws to build a casino near Philadelphia will not allow them to build in Jackson County. To build a casino near Ocean Springs, the Choctaws and Mississippi will have to renegotiate the compact.
"Everything will be subject to the renegotiation," McDaniel said, including payments the tribe will give to local governments in return for services.
Even though renegotiating the current gaming compact with the Choctaws would allow the state to tear up what many consider a bad document, Oneida Nation representative Keller George said it can be difficult to get a state governor to come to the table. He complained that governors in Alabama, Florida and other states would not meet with tribal leaders in their states to negotiate a compact that will allow casino gaming on tribal lands.
"The governors haven't come to the table and negotiated," George said. "That has caused a lot of problems."
Among the problems it has caused, George said, is a halt to plans to open casinos in the states where governors will not talk with tribal leaders. And, since there are no legal requirements forcing governors to negotiate following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in a dispute between Florida and the Seminole nation, he said the only thing tribes can do is wait for a governor who will negotiate.
Although national law prevents states from taxing Indian reservations, since the reservations are considered sovereign nations independent of the United States, he said governors are asking for payments for services of 25 percent or more of gaming revenues.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaws want to build a $375 million casino-resort on land it owns in the county. The 100 acres is located north of the Sunplex Industrial Park and the Ocean Springs city limits and south of Ocean Springs Road.
The casino would have more than 2,300 slot machines and a 400-seat buffet. The hotel part of the casino would feature 1,100 rooms, theater, indoor and outdoor pools, and a fitness center.
The Jackson County Board of Supervisors approved a Nov. 8 non-binding referendum on the proposal.
Reporter Veto F. Roley can be reached at vroley@themississippipress.com or (228) 934-1427.
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