\nBy Ken Adams<\/p>\n
\tA California casino is closed after an armed standoff: the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino is closed and may remain that way for months. The area media is having a field day as daily new details unfold. Recently, the sheriff has said there will be arrests and prosecutions in the near future. And then, the two sides announced they would be meeting to discuss their differences \u2013 rather like the Palestinians and Israelis or the Russians and Ukrainians. \u201cWe have agreed to the terms of the meeting, not the terms of a settlement.\u201d As we all know, in international affairs that means a real settlement may never happen, or at least not in this lifetime.<\/p>\n
\tPatrons of Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino were abruptly ushered out of the casino in mid-game Thursday night, and the casino and hotel were apparently closed, according to patrons. Madera County sheriff\u2019s spokeswoman Erica Stuart said Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians tribal factions were feuding again and someone pulled a fire alarm to evacuate the building. She said it is not known who pulled the alarm. The Sheriff\u2019s Office is investigating, she said. Marc Benjamin and Rory Appleton, Fresno Bee, 10-10-14<\/p>\n
\tOn a June day in 1999, close to 20 Chukchansi members burst into tribal headquarters, banging on doors, screaming and terrorizing staff members inside. Daisy Liedkie, the Chukchansi tribal chair at the time, later said one of the aggressors spit on her\u2026 It would foretell the future. Control of the $180 million, 300,000-square-foot casino near Coarsegold has been at the root of an endless cycle of tribal chairs, power grabs and disenrollments. John Ellis\/ Marc Benjamin, Fresno Bee, 10-19-14<\/p>\n
\tIt might be good humor, the kind of thing that keeps Saturday Night Live writers employed for months. If so, many people\u2019s lives would not be affected. The closing of the casino, however, is a significant event to the tribe, its employees and the surrounding community just as the closing of four casinos has been to Atlantic City. Unlike the closed casinos in Atlantic City, this one will undoubtedly reopen. But the damage to everyone concerned will not be completely repaired by its opening. And, I cannot but think, it will cost the casino a great deal in future business by eroding the confidence of its customers by the violence and erratic behavior.<\/p>\n
\tMost of the 1,300 employees at Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino have been laid off. Now, only a skeleton crew will remain. The layoffs are the direct result of a federal shutdown caused by fighting among tribal leaders\u2026A single-page letter sent out to Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino employees paints a dire situation for staff members. One line in particular: \u201cWe cannot anticipate the duration of this closure because the government entities will not tell us how long this closure will remain in effect.\u201d Veronica Miracle, 10-19-14<\/p>\n
\tIt also clouds the Indian gaming measure, Proposition 48, that will be on the ballot in November. The hullaballoo gives the opponents of Indian gaming more ammunition. Proposition 48 puts two Indian gaming compacts up for vote. Both have been negotiated and signed by the governor and approved by the legislature. However, neither tribe would be using pre-existing tribal trust land for a casino. \u201cReservation shopping\u201d is loosely defined as a tribe seeking to build a casino in a location other than an existing and long-held reservation. It has become a very polarized debate nationally. The debate in California mirrors the national rhetoric with many well-known politicians coming out against the concept and in this case, these specific tribes.<\/p>\n
\tA high-stakes turf war involving a proposed Central California casino has put a wedge between some Native American tribes and even divided the governor and California\u2019s senior U.S. senator. The battle is embodied in Proposition 48 on next month\u2019s ballot\u2026 The financial stakes are high. The 59 casinos now operated by tribes in California under compacts take in $7 billion annually\u2026 \u201cProposition 48 will open the floodgates to countless more mega casinos in local communities across the state,\u201d Feinstein said\u2026 Supporters of the compacts include Brown, who told reporters last year that the effort to overturn the compacts is \u201cunfortunate\u201d and is about \u201cmoney and competition.\u201d \u201cVoting yes helps California\u2019s tribes help themselves \u2014 without costing state taxpayers anything,\u201d says a ballot argument signed by Brown. Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times, 10-24-14<\/p>\n
\tA statewide ballot measure for an off-reservation tribal casino in the Central Valley town of Madera faces stiff opposition from competing gaming tribes, who have far outraised supporters. If approved by California voters in the Nov. 4 general election, Proposition 48 would ratify an agreement between the state and the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians for a casino \u2013 with 2,000 slot machines \u2013 on land near Madera. The casino would be about 40 miles from the tribe\u2019s reservation. Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times, 10-8-14<\/p>\n
\tSadly, the story of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino plays into the anti-Indian casino rhetoric, although nothing about the story is applicable. It is not applicable to reservation shopping and it is not applicable to Indian gaming. This is not the story of Indian gaming; it is the story of one tribe.<\/p>\n
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By Ken Adams A California casino is closed after an armed standoff: the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino is closed and may remain that way for months. The area media is having a field day as daily new details unfold….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}