{"id":15911,"date":"2015-04-23T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15911"},"modified":"2020-07-06T05:39:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T13:39:08","slug":"15911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/15911\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribal tensions in Indiana; Mississippi tapped out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana<\/strong> legislators are making it more difficult for the\u00a0Pokagon Band of Potawatomi<\/strong> Indians to reach a compact with Gov. Mike Pence<\/strong> (R), according to the tribe, which charges lawmakers with meddling in the compacting process. The Pokagon Band, which owns several casinos in Michigan<\/strong>, wants to extend its reach into South Bend<\/strong>, where it would build a tribal village, complete with casino. Lawmakers are mulling a bill that would put an extensive regulatory framework into place. This inspired Chairman John P. Warren<\/strong> to declare,\u00a0\u201cA lot of that language in there is a violation of IGRA, that\u2019s the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act<\/strong>. The management,\u00a0the infrastructure.\u00a0This legislation is actually inhibiting the governor from negotiating in good faith even before negotiations have begun.”<\/p>\n

The tribe took umbrage at state Rep. Thomas Dermody<\/strong>‘s assertion that it was the Lege’s job to make things “not so easy” for the tribe. Worse still was the attack of hoof-in-mouth disease suffered by state\u00a0Sen. Jim Arnold<\/strong> (D, below<\/em>), who said balefully that “The Indians are coming … we have to be prepared.” By circling the wagons, perhaps?<\/p>\n

Warren was not amused by Arnold’s rhetoric, saying,\u00a0\u201cWe hear people use the term Indian a lot, but the way he said it was very hurtful, very derogatory.\u201d Arnold claims he was referring \"Arnold\"<\/a>to an entirely theoretical scenario in which the tribe would be its Michigan tax rate (6%) while private-sector casinos continue to pay 39%, giving the Pokagon Band a competitive advantage. Warren sees the hand of “Nevada<\/strong> interests” behind Arnold’s remarks. Although the tribe is threatening to go to the Interior Department<\/strong> to get a gaming compact, that’s a long ways off, as it’s still 10 months to a year and a half away from a land-in-trust decision.<\/p>\n

In a more-pressing matter for Indiana solons, they still have to hammer out a compromise on a casino-reform bill and seem to be making little progress<\/a>. The question of whether to allow live dealers at\u00a0Hoosier Park Racing & Casino<\/strong> and Indiana Grand<\/strong>‘s table games now or in 2021 is proving particularly insoluble. A sweetheart provision for French Lick Resort<\/strong> would exempt it from the state’s admission tax, while all casinos would benefit from an indefinite extension of the tax credit for free-play promotions.<\/p>\n

The threat of a Pence veto still hangs over whatever the compromise committee hashes out. But the governor ought to reflect on all the spending and jobs that would be created were the state’s antiquated riverboats allowed to rebuild on dry land. If that isn’t economic stimulus, I don’t know what is, although there’s no telling whether Pence sees it that way.<\/p>\n

* Mississippi<\/strong>‘s Gulf Coast casinos continue to gain ground but the Mississippi River<\/strong> ones appear to be permanently past their peak<\/a>, down 12%. Even the subtraction of Harrah’s Tunica<\/strong> hasn’t redounded to the benefit of neighboring casinos.<\/p>\n

* Even as two-casino enabling legislation squeaked through the House Ways & Means \"D'Allesandro\"<\/a>Committee<\/strong>, the governor of New Hampshire<\/strong>, Maggie Hassan<\/strong> (D) reiterated her preference for a one-casino solution. The bill, as passed, would impose a one-year delay on the award of the second casino license to allow for a review of the process.\u00a0\u201cLook at Maine<\/strong>. We\u2019re the same size as Maine with the same population. The market will take care of itself in that context.\u201d said state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro<\/strong>, pushing back at Hassan’s contention<\/a> that the Granite State is too small for two casinos. D’Allesandro (right<\/em>) projects a gaming-tax haul of $80 million to $130 million, predicated on an installed base of 5,000 VLTs and 240 tables.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indiana legislators are making it more difficult for the\u00a0Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians to reach a compact with Gov. Mike Pence (R), according to the tribe, which charges lawmakers with meddling in the compacting process. The Pokagon Band, which owns … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,7,68,147,35,163,33,111,25,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15911"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27470,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911\/revisions\/27470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}