Ah, but it does: Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, in Eagle Pass, Tex., along the banks of the majestic Rio Grande. It’s got bingo, poker and 1,500 gambling machines. Now that the Texas Treasure casino gambling ship has been beached, Lucky Eagle is the lone casino in the Lone Star State.
In 2002, then-state Attorney General John Cornyn (now the junior U.S. senator from Texas) succeeded in persuading the courts to close the Tigua Tribe of El Paso’s casino (Speaking Rock) and that of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe, near East Livingston. In this cause, Cornyn and Gov. Rick Perry were in cahoots with political operative Ralph Reed, who in turn was coordinating his activities with D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
As the Dallas News wrote, "The tribal leaders learned about the legislative process the hard way, through past defeats and costly connections to convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff." The latter’s sleazy endgame was to get the tribal casinos shut down, whereupon he would sweep in with grandiose – and ultimately undeliverable – promises to get them reopened by means of his Beltway clout. In the process, Abramoff and fellow douchebag Michael Scanlon would bilk the Tiguas of enormous sums of money. (Both Scanlon and Abramoff are doing well-deserved jail time.)
Although the Alabama-Coushattas were smarter than the Tiguas and didn’t buy the Abramoff/Scanlon snake oil, that didn’t prevent them from suing the duo and several co-conspirators in 2006. "Ultimately, the defendants' greed and corruption led to the Alabama-Coushatta tribe permanently shutting its casino. The funding for economic programs evaporated, over 300 jobs were lost in Polk County and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe has spent years struggling to recover and revitalize its economy through other means," read the lawsuit.
During the nine months it was open, the Alabama-Coushatta casino generated $1 million in revenue and created jobs paying as much as $15/hour. Christian conservative groups like the Eagle Forum, however, are dead-set against allowing it to reopen, evidently preferring that tribal members live in poverty than spin so much as one roulette wheel. (Unemployment amongst tribal members stands at 32%.)
Why has the Kickapoo casino been spared this fate? It’s compacted under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta casinos lacked this status and were found to be in violation of the 1987 federal Restoration Act (whereby they achieved tribal status) as well as a subsequent appeals court ruling which "plainly prohibit gambling on an Indian reservation if that same type of gaming is also prohibited by state law," according to the Texas Attorney General’s office. That same office is suing to close the Kickapoo casino, IGRA status be damned, a case currently wending its way toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
