Casino Stalker | Legislation

City won't allow vote on Tohono O'odham Nation casino plan

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Artist's rendering of the proposed West Valley Resort. Image from Tohono O'odham Nation

The city of Glendale, Arizona, won't allow residents to vote on the controversial Tohono O'odham Nation off-reservation casino.

Opponents filed two petitions to reverse the city's stance in favor of the $500 million West Valley Resort. But the city clerk determined that the subject matter was administrative, not legislative, and can't be put to a vote, The Arizona Republic reported.

The decision came as the Senate Indian Affairs Committee held an emotional hearing on S.2670, the Keep the Promise Act. The bill prevents the tribe from using its trust land for any forms of Class II or Class III gaming.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the sponsor of the measure, said Congress never intended tribes to open casinos in urban areas like Glendale. He repeatedly clashed with Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, over the legality of the tribe's project.

“It was never the intent … to have non-contiguous Indian gaming air-dropped in the center of a city,” McCain said.

Washburn, however, said the tribe has a right to acquire land under the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act of 1986. The law compensates the tribe for a reservation that was flooded by the federal government.

Washburn also pointed out that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act came two years later, in 1988. He said Congress knew about the tribe's situation and including a special section in the law that addresses gaming on land acquired through settlement acts.

McCain did not respond to the issues raised by Washburn. Later in the hearing, he tried to force Tohono O'odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. into revealing the tribe's gaming revenues to the public.