Casino News Source: http://www.grandforks.com
Study:
Turtle Mountain Band releases figures from its economic impact study
By Tu-Uyen Tran
Herald Staff Writer
The proposed tribal casino in Grand Forks would bring as many as 446 jobs to town, with wages totaling $12.3 million a year, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa said today.
Tribal chairman Ken Davis released the long-awaited economic impact study that, he said, shows the project would benefit both the tribe and the local community.
Besides local workers, the study, done by Klas Robinson Q.E.D. of Minneapolis, also said the local hospitality industry would benefit from 1.1 million tourists a year.
All this data is meant to convince the City Council to fully support the casino. Tribal leaders have said all along that local support is the critical factor.
At the federal level, the Turtle Mountain tribe has cleared a small hurdle having, in Davis' words, been "grandfathered" into proposed changes to Indian gaming laws that would make it harder for tribes to build off-reservation casinos. That grandfathering, however, is only in the Senate version of the bill, not the House.
At the state level, the tribe might be able to work around state restrictions on off-reservation casinos. According to Davis, those restrictions apply only to casinos that have slot machines, and the tribe could decide to have only electronic bingo machines.
But none of these would mean anything if the city or voters do not support it.
Davis said he would support a referendum on the casino, if that's what the community wants.
Council members have said they would rather not make such a controversial decision that could have serious impacts on the city.
Asked if the tribe would come back with a different proposal if the referendum fails, as casino opponents fear, Davis said: "If the referendum fails, we'd get the message."
He said there are other opportunities that the tribe could pursue, meaning other communities that might prove more welcoming to a tribal casino.
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