{"id":15922,"date":"2015-04-24T10:02:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T18:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15922"},"modified":"2015-04-24T10:02:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T18:02:58","slug":"shame-on-arizona-big-plans-for-gold-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/shame-on-arizona-big-plans-for-gold-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Shame on Arizona; Big plans for Gold Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With Gov. Doug Ducey<\/strong> opposed, along with a state gaming agency that refuses to OK its casino, the\u00a0Tohono O’odham Nation<\/strong> has to decide whether to insist upon a December opening or bow to the state’s objections. Despite having lost time and again in federal courts, Arizona<\/strong> state officials maintain that the Tohono O’odham committed “fraud and misrepresentation” to place a casino within a county island adjacent to Glendale<\/strong>. The tribe has allies in Glendale city council, which is counting on revenue sharing to shore up its sagging finances.\u00a0“Please get out of the way and let us bring back what we’ve always wanted, economic prosperity for the West Valley,” pleaded Councilman Sam Chavira<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“They’re saying they can have the resorts in the East Valley but we can’t,” said Vice Mayor Ian Hugh<\/strong>, blaming the state’s intransigence on political pressure from the Salt River<\/strong> and Gila \"Norris\"<\/a>River<\/strong> tribes, both of whom resent the prospective competitio<\/a>n.\u00a0Tribal Chairman Ned Norris Jr<\/strong>. (left<\/em>) \u00a0says he got short shrift from Ducey when the two met recently.\u00a0“I was referred to as defiant.\u00a0Who’s being defiant here? I’m complying with the requirements of the compact.” Damn those uppity Native Americans!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill<\/strong>, Arizona Sens. John McCain<\/strong> and Jeff Flake<\/strong> — who should be ashamed of themselves — are trying to husband legislation that would explicitly outlaw the Tohono O’odham casino. Rep. Trent Franks<\/strong> goes one disgraceful step farther. His HR 1410 would forbid land taken into trust after April 2013 for being used for gaming purposes for at least 14 years.\u00a0While some of the Tohono O’odham’s tactics were sly, such as buying the Glendale-area land behind the front of Rainier Resources<\/strong>, they basically played the game better than rival tribes and state authorities — a stance that has held up in federal court. Arizona should quite hassling the tribe and welcome the economic stimulus it will provide.<\/p>\n

* While I wish outgoing Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> member\u00a0Joe W. Brown<\/strong> nothing but good will, his resignatio<\/a>n gives Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (R) the chance to further diversify the expertise of a panel that was exclusively packed with lawyers during the Jim Gibbons<\/strong> administration.<\/p>\n

\"Twin<\/a>* There’s nothing like the threat of competition from Massachusetts<\/strong> for Rhode Island<\/strong> to lift the ban<\/a> on a hotel at Twin River Casino<\/strong>. The project will give the casino 400 rooms. The owners of Twin River were so grateful that they didn’t ask for any financial incentives<\/a> or tax breaks.<\/p>\n

* The Herbst family, under the guise of its JETT Gaming<\/strong> firm, is continuing on the comeback route by closing the purchase of Gold Strike Hotel & Gambling Hall<\/strong> for MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, sitting all by its lonesome between M Resort<\/strong> and the the Primm<\/strong> market. Tim Herbst<\/strong> allowed that the casino was “struggling.”\u00a0He\u00a0characterized the acquisition as being more focused on real estate than gambling (the number of slot machines will be cut by over 50%). The casino comes with 167 acres<\/a> that the Herbsts hope to develop into a massive truck stop, including a 15,000-square-foot convenience store<\/a>. (At that size, wouldn’t it qualify as a supermarket?) No fewer than 20 fast-food restaurants are contemplated. We’ll see if this fares better than the family’s disastrous tenure as the monopoly owner of the three Primm casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Gov. Doug Ducey opposed, along with a state gaming agency that refuses to OK its casino, the\u00a0Tohono O’odham Nation has to decide whether to insist upon a December opening or bow to the state’s objections. Despite having lost time … 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":[109,112,11,33,25,141,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15922"}],"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=15922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15925,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15922\/revisions\/15925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}