Ongoing construction of the West Valley Resort in Glendale, Arizona. Image from Facebook
The Tohono O'odham Nation is on track to open an off-reservation casino later this year but other tribes in Arizona aren't happy about it. The rival tribes say a provision in the Class III gaming compact restricts where casinos can be located. The so-called poison pill relieves tribes of revenue sharing obligations and eliminates other restrictions if gaming is expanded outside of Indian Country. “Our biggest concern is that breaking the compacts creates chaos in the Arizona gaming market,” Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community, told The Arizona Capitol Times. The rival tribes also claim they agreed not to open any new casinos in the Phoenix area. A federal judge, however, didn't buy this restriction because it isn't found anywhere in the compact. “There is no dispute that the actions by the Nation would, or even could, cause the poison pill to be implemented,” the Tohono O’odham Nation said in a statement to the Capitol Times. “And the Nation, like other gaming tribes in Arizona, absolutely opposes implementation of the poison pill.”
Artist's rendering of the West Valley Resort under construction in Arizona. Image from Facebook
The tribe's $500 million West Valley Resort is under construction on trust land near Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix. An initial structure is due to open by the end of the year. Members of Arizona's Congressional delegation introduced the Keep the Promise Act (S.152 and H.R. 308) in hopes of stopping the project. The legislation doesn't mention the tribe by name but it bars Class II and Class III gaming on land acquired in trust in the Phoenix area after April 9, 2013 -- a condition that only applies to the Tohono O'odham Nation. Get the Story:
Dissecting the ‘poison pill’: A new West Valley casino can’t trigger it, but tribes remain opposed (The Arizona Capitol Times 2/9)
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