The Forest County Potawatomi Community owns and operates the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: John Begalke

Compacts | Litigation

Forest County Potawatomi Tribe updates gaming agreement

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

The Forest County Potawatomi Community has reached an update to its Class III gaming compact with the state of Wisconsin.

The amendment, signed with outgoing Gov. Scott Walker (R), addresses potential competition to its urban facility in Milwaukee. If a new casino opens within 30 to 50 miles of the facility and the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino suffers as a result, the tribe will be able to reduce the amount of revenues shared with the state, according to news reports.

"We appreciate the (Walker) administration engaging in good-faith, government-to-government negotiations to find agreement on this proposed compact amendment," Jeff Crawford, the tribe's attorney general, said in a statement, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The agreement must still be submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for review. Just three years ago, the BIA rejected a compact amendment which addressed the same issue of competition.

The tribe went to court to fight the denial but a federal judge in September ruled in favor of the BIA in the case, Forest County Potawatomi Community v. United States. The tribe is challenging the decision -- a notice of appeal was filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on November 16.

The competition issue arose when the Menominee Nation sought to open a new casino within 50 miles of the Potawatomi property. Walker, who lost his bid for re-election on November 6, cited the loss of revenues to the state when he rejected the Menominee project in 2015.

According to news reports, the new amendment would require the state to refund $250 million to the Potawatomis if another casino opens in the no-compete zone. The state's prior liability was $500 million.

The Menominees had pursued its casino in Kenosha, about 40 miles from Milwaukee, under the two-part determination provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Potawatomis opened their facility by following the same process -- the tribe in fact was the first in the nation to complete both steps.

"The Potawatomi were granted a tremendous benefit in 1990 when this Department and the Governor authorized the Potawatomi to open an off-reservation casino in Milwaukee, and they have now had the benefit of having the only lndian gaming operation in that area for 25 years," the BIA told the tribe in a January 2015 rejection letter. "But the Potawatomi were not promised an absolute monopoly in perpetuity."

There are no Indian gaming facilities within 35 to 50 miles of the Potawatomi casino in MIlwaukee. The Ho-Chunk Nation, whose leaders also opposed the Menominee proposal, operates a property in Madison, about 75 miles to the west.

The Ho-Chunks, incidentally, are pursuing their own two-part determination casino. It would located in Beloit, about 73 miles from Milwaukee.