Gaming briefs for Sept. 22, 2003

Monday, Sept. 22, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

Group seeks to block vote

WATERLOO, Iowa -- A group opposed to gambling wants to stop an Oct. 7 vote on whether a riverboat casino should be located in Black Hawk County.

"The benefits to the local community are far outweighed by the detriments of having a gambling operation in your own back yard," said Jay Nardini, a local attorney and a spokesman for Citizens Voting No.

The group successfully opposed two 1994 votes to add slot machines at the Waterloo Greyhound Park. A rally to opposed next month's vote is scheduled for Thursday at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.

Supporters began circulating petitions calling for the vote in June. It would need a simple majority to pass.

Navajo president signs compact

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- After years of reluctance, the Navajo Nation took a major step toward casino gaming when President Joe Shirley Jr. signed New Mexico's gambling compact Friday.

A resolution accompanying the compact says it applies only to a small Navajo enclave called To'hajiilee, just west of Albuquerque and not far from where the Indian pueblos of Acoma and Laguna already have casinos. In all, 12 tribes have casinos in New Mexico.

Shirley -- who has opposed gambling on the Navajo "Motherland," as he refers to the larger reservation -- made the point that To'hajiilee, a satellite Navajo chapter, is separated from the main reservation by about a hundred miles of state, private and pueblo lands.

"I'm in support of chapters going out after revenue," Shirley said.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Lawrence Morgan said the To'hajiilee casino would be an experiment that, if successful, could be adopted by the tribe as a whole.

"I know it focuses on To'hajiilee, but it's a trial run," Morgan said. "If the council thinks it works, eventually it will expand."

Karen Francis, a spokeswoman for Morgan's office, said revenue from To'hajiilee's gambling operation would go toward benefiting the entire 27,000-square-mile reservation, with its population of about 180,000. The reservation covers parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

There is an ancient Navajo cultural taboo against gambling. Francis said she grew up hearing the legend of a gambler figure who fleeced the tribe and left it penniless.

Shirley's opposition may grow indirectly from that taboo.

"I think his opposition was due to the fact that the Navajo people said they did not want it (gambling)," she said.

Under the compact, the Navajos are supposed to pay 8 percent of their slot machine revenue plus $100,000 a year to reimburse the state for the cost of regulating the industry.