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Michigan’s governor has rejected a proposed $180m off-reservation on line casino from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
No deadline extension
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has rejected a proposed $180m off-reservation on line casino from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. The tribe has been attempting to get the western Michigan undertaking over the road for greater than a decade, however Governor Whitmer formally rejected the plan on Wednesday.
the US Division of Inside denied the request
She had requested final month to increase the June 16 deadline to determine on the undertaking, however the US Division of Inside denied the request. Whitmer needed to know if the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians had been going to be getting federal acknowledgment or to get a deadline extension. The Division of Inside had already granted Whitmer a 180-day extension.
The Grand River Bands is a neighboring tribe, one among numerous tribes to come back out in opposition to the on line casino proposal. Whitmer was involved that if the neighboring tribe acquired federal recognition that it would wish to open its personal gaming facility in the identical space because the proposed Little River on line casino.
Disappointment concerning the determination
In a letter to US Inside Secretary Deb Haaland, Whitmer stated that she had been put in an “unattainable place” by the division and that she didn’t have entry to ample “data vital to my determination.” Whitmer did go away the door barely open by saying that she could be open to revisiting the on line casino undertaking proposal as soon as there’s a determination made on the Grand Rivers Bands federal acknowledgment petition.
The present deadline for the Division of Inside to rule on the Grand Rivers Bands’ federal acknowledgment petition is October 12, 2022.
Reacting to the governor’s decision was Little River Band chief Larry Romanelli. Speaking to native media, he stated that the tribe is extraordinarily devastated and that it had met all the standards essential with a purpose to get approval. Senator Jon Bumstead additionally reacted strongly to the information, saying “I’m extraordinarily disillusioned, angered, and let down by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s determination to kill 3,000 good-paying jobs.”
A very long time within the works
The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians had been planning to have a on line casino on an 87-acre web site near Muskegon. The tribe bought the land in 2008. As the positioning was not tribal land, the on line casino undertaking required each federal and state approval with a purpose to proceed. The Inside Division authorized the proposal in December 2020.
The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians opened its Little River On line casino Resort in 1999 on tribal land. It provides a variety of desk video games and slot machines.
The brand new on line casino would have created an estimated 1,500 everlasting jobs and would have attracted about 1.8 million annual guests. The annual tax income would have been an estimated $15m. Within the historical past of Indian gaming in Michigan, a governor has given the go-ahead to an off-reservation on line casino solely as soon as.