The Yurok Tribe of California is defending plans to use a portion of a $27.5 million trust settlement to build a casino resort.
The tribe wants to use about $10 million of the settlement to build a casino and a hotel.
Chairman Thomas O'Rourke said the facilities will generate at least $3.7 million a year.
”The numbers will get better, not worse,” O'Rourke told The Eureka Times-Standard. “The numbers were feasibly done at the height of the recession.”
Some tribal members, however, don't think the reservation's rural location will be a draw to gamblers or tourists. They want to distribute all of the settlement on a per capita basis.
“This is a short-sided gamble -- gambling with the tribe's money," organizer James Dunlap told the paper.
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Yurok Tribe pressed to share all of $27.5M trust settlement (1/29)
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