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Comanche Nation voters want share of casino profits

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.

LAWTON, Okla. -- The 12,500 members of the Comanche Nation will share $11.6 million in profits from the tribe's four casinos, or about $900 per person.

Tribal voters overwhelmingly approved a plan for the distribution of revenue from the $29 million the tribe expects to make from its four casinos for the year ending Sept. 30, Chairman Wallace Coffey said Monday.

Coffey said he opposed the plan because it eliminates any reserve funds. It also forces him to shelve a proposed seven-story, 100-room hotel and convention center in Lawton.

Coffey said he will submit the Sept. 10 election results to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

If that agency approves, tribal members could receive a check before Christmas, he said. Minors' payments will be put into a trust fund to be administered by a new tribal office, he said.

Clyde Narcomey, one of the tribe's eight elected business committee members, said this was the third such plan in 18 months.

The measure never has progressed, he said, because Coffey refuses to submit the election results to federal officials.

"He doesn't want the people to share in any kind of money at all," Narcomey said.

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