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Dec
04
Arizona fights against push for urban casino
by spgadmin
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer filed a legal brief Friday in support of Glendale’s challenge to a federal decision to designate land near the city’s sports and entertainment district as an Indian reservation. The Tohono O’odham Nation plans to build a casino and 600-room resort on the site.
“This massive casino plan in the middle of an urban area is exactly what Arizona voters soundly rejected in 2002,” Brewer said. “The proposed casino not only undermines the limited gaming model that the state and tribes agreed upon in entering the compacts, it also violates federal law.”
The tribe, whose reservation is primarily in southern Arizona, received approval by the U.S. Department of Interior’s approval to put the 54 acres near Glendale into trust status.
This casino proposal is yet another example in this how predatory gambling interests, this time in partnership with the federal government, are attempting to overpower community interests. The Indian Gambling Regulatory Act is one of the nation’s biggest policy failures in last twenty-five years and the time has come for citizens, legislators and the media to end it.