"Sometime next year, southwestern Michigan will have another casino.

That became a virtual certainty late last week when the U.S. Department of the Interior put in trust 137 acres at U.S. 131 near Wayland for a $200 million casino, which will be operated by the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi. Opponents of the casino have all but exhausted their legal remedies.

When the Gun Lake Casino opens, probably in 2010, Kalamazoo area residents will have a choice of three such establishments that they can reach in an hour's drive or less. The other two are the Four Winds, now in operation at New Buffalo, and FireKeepers, which is nearing completion off Interstate 94 near Battle Creek and is expected to be operating this summer.

In the 20 years since Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, Native American tribes have been opening casinos and posting gambling revenues of more than $23 billion. Some two dozen casinos operating throughout Michigan have accounted for a sizable chunk of the national total."

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Editorial: Gun Lake band's battle appears over (The Kalamazoo Gazette 2/4)