The Stockbridge-Munsee Community owns and operates the North Star Mohican Casino Resort in Bowler, Wisconsin. Photo: North Star Mohican Casino

Compacts | Litigation | Openings & Closings

Stockbridge-Munsee Community loses ruling over rival casino project

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community has once again been turned away in its effort to challenge another tribe's casino in Wisconsin.

The tribe sued the state after the Ho-Chunk Nation announced an expansion of one of its gaming facilities. But the case was filed too late, a panel of three judges on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals determined.

At the earliest, the tribe should have filed suit after the land for the Ho-Chunk casino in Wittenberg was place in trust in 1986, Judge Frank Easterbrook concluded. At the latest, the tribe should have sued after the Wittenberg opened in in 2008, he said.

"Either way, the community waited too long," Easterbrook wrote in the cour'ts decision, which affirmed a lower judge's ruling in the case.

Indianz.Com on SoundCloud: Stockbridge-Munsee Community v. State of Wisconsin - 7th Circuit Court of Appeals - September 26, 2018

The Ho-Chunk Nation operates multiple casinos on its homelands in Wisconsin. Its Class III gaming compact defines Wittenberg as an "ancillary" facility, meaning "fifty percent of more of the lot coverage of the trust property" is to be used for non-gaming purposes.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community contended that an expansion of Wittenberg violated that provision. But a decision was never reached on that issue because the tribe went to court to late.

The Ho-Chunk Nation was named as a defendant but was dismissed from the case in 2017. The tribe was able to unveil the $41 million expansion later in the year without any problems.

The Wittenberg casino is about 16 miles from the North Star Casino Resort, operated by the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler.

Going forward, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community could ask the 7th Circuit to rehear the case. Or it could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court which rarely hears Indian gaming disputes.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Stockbridge-Munsee Community v. State of Wisconsin.