Lac du Flambeau say compact with state doesn’t prevent second casino

Sunday, April 30, 2000 | 10:25 a.m.

"I have talked with the governor. He has never asked me to close our gaming operation to the north," Lac du Flambeau Chairman Tom Maulson said in a recent interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

The Lac du Flambeau also operate the Lake of the Torches casino in Vilas County, the tribe's only gaming site. The casino is part of a hotel-convention center complex and offers slot machines, blackjack and bingo.

The governor's office has said Thompson will not sign off on the Lac du Flambeau's proposed $80 million casino complex in Brown County unless the tribe closes its existing casino.

An April 19 memorandum by the Wisconsin Legislative Council said the tribe's compact amendment "may permit a gaming facility to be located on land that is located outside the boundaries" of the tribe's 98,000-acre reservation under certain circumstances.

It says endorsements by Brown County and the U.S. Interior Department would require Thompson to negotiate with the tribe on the proposed casino in good faith.

The governor hasn't approved any off-reservation casinos since state-tribal compacts were signed in 1991-92.

A second Lac du Flambeau casino would, at least on the surface, seem contrary to an April 1993 referendum in which a constitutional amendment to limit the expansion of gambling statewide won the support of 59 percent of Wisconsin voters and 61 percent of Brown County voters.

But the Lac du Flambeau say there is no legal reason to prohibit a second casino. A section in the compact extension on the governor's casino-approval process contains the language "site(s)," the tribe said.

That keeps the door open for more than one casino site - and thus, more than one casino, said Al Bahcall, an attorney for the tribe.

The governor has not publicly commented on the proposal. But lengthy hurdles at the local and county levels make the question of whether the governor would sign off on a second casino "barely worth discussing at this point," said Thompson spokesman Kevin Keane.

"They still need to get it to the governor's desk before the question even comes into play," Keane said. "We'll talk about it at that point, if it ever gets that far."