Gaming briefs for Sept. 8, 2003

Monday, Sept. 8, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

Union drive under way at Ameristar casino

ST. LOUIS -- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is trying to organize dealers at the St. Louis area's biggest gambling hall, the Ameristar Casino St. Charles, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Teamsters Local 600 has been working for more than two months with a group of Ameristar employees who want representation, said union official Steve Fields.

The dealers who sought out the Teamsters believe a union could help them to secure better wages, benefits and working conditions, Fields told the Post-Dispatch.

Officials at Las Vegas-based Ameristar have been meeting with the dealers, trying to dissuade them from unionizing, the newspaper said.

City offers to help casino

RIVERTON, Wyo. -- Mayor John Vincent and other city leaders are looking at ways they can help a planned casino on the Wind River Indian Reservation, such as by treating its sewage.

"We all work here and live here and we think we should all work together," Vincent told Northern Arapaho Business Council members during a City Council meeting last week.

Vincent said only half the capacity of the city's sewage plant is being used. "We have plenty of room," he said.

Architect Charles Schiffner said the casino's foundation is expected to be poured before the first freeze.

Leaders disagree on gambling

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. will consult with the tribe's attorney general and executive branch lawyers before deciding whether to sign a gaming compact with New Mexico approved by the tribe's Council, a spokeswoman said.

However, Shirley's opposition to legalized gambling on the reservation in light of its defeat in two previous referendums remains steadfast, spokeswoman Deana Jackson said Friday.

"Shirley is with the Navajo people," Jackson said. "They have said no to gaming."

She said his position will not change unless the people say otherwise in a new referendum.

Navajos at To'hajiilee, off Interstate 40 west of Albuquerque, have pushed for years for casino gambling on their 120-square mile reservation, which is separated from the main reservation by about a hundred miles of state, private and pueblo land.

Gambling is illegal on the main reservation, which covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the Four Corners area.

Navajos rejected gambling in referendums in 1994 and 1997. However, To'hajiilee voters supported it both times.