Potawatomi signs deal with Wisconsin.

[jacki]

Good news for Milwaukee and Wisconsin players. Now that there's a signed contract, I think Potawatomi will go ahead with a long-planned expansion, including expanding and/or moving the poker room.



BC-WI--Potawatomi Compact, Bjt, 1st Ld-Writehtru,970 �
Governor signs new gaming compact with Forest County Potawatomi �
Eds: UPDATES throughout with comments, details �
With BC-WI--Potawatomi Compact-Summary Box �
jrrmmjac �
By JR ROSS Ž
Associated Press Writer Ž

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Jim Doyle and the Forest County Potawatomi signed a new 25-year deal Tuesday allowing the tribe to operate its casinos in Milwaukee and Carter in exchange for an estimated $750 million over the life of the compact.
The two sides reached the new deal after the state Supreme Court ruled last year the compact they approved in 2003 was invalid because it did not have an expiration date and expanded the scope of games the tribe could offer beyond blackjack and slot machines to include games like craps, roulette and poker.
While the new deal establishes an expiration date, it does not address what games the tribe can offer.
Assembly Speaker John Gard, who filed the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court tossing out the old deal, said he still was not satisfied. He complained the tribe was not paying enough considering its monopoly on casino gambling in the state’s most populated area and noted that tribes have offered other states as much as 25 percent of their net revenue.
The maximum the Potawatomi will pay is 8 percent.
“I’m ultimately disappointed that once again there is a bad deal for the taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin,” said Gard, R-Peshtigo.
But Administration Secretary Steve Bablitch, Doyle’s top aide, said the deal helps put Wisconsin among the top states in the country in terms of revenue from American Indian gaming. He said no American Indian casino is currently paying a state 25 percent of its revenue and circumstances for those tribes making the offers are unique. For example, they are pushing for off-reservation casinos; the Potawatomi casinos are on tribal land.
“How can anybody argue with a contract that calls for the Potawatomi to pay to the state of Wisconsin an amount of money that is two to three times the corporate tax rate?” Bablitch said.
The deal was the latest twist in an ongoing dispute between Republicans who control the Legislature and Doyle, a Democrat, over Indian gaming. Gard and other Republicans have fumed that Doyle signed deals they believed were a significant expansion of gaming in Wisconsin shortly after several tribes pitched in hundreds of thousands of dollars for his 2002 campaign.
Doyle has dismissed those concerns and said the deals represent a significant increase in gaming revenue for Wisconsin to help pay for schools, health care and other services.
Gard and former Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, R-West Bend, sued Doyle after he signed the 2003 compact with the Potawatomi. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ultimately ruled Doyle exceeded his authority by agreeing to compacts that permanently removed Indian gaming from legislative review because the deals had no expiration date. It ruled the new games violated the Wisconsin Constitution, and it found Doyle exceeded his authority in waiving the state’s sovereign immunity as part of the deals. That provision allowed the state and tribes to go to court to resolve disputes over the compacts.
Bablitch said the new deal was tailored to address those concerns, though Gard said he did not believe it went far enough.
Bablitch said the compact does not address what games the tribe can offer because the Supreme Court is expected to rule sometime on a separate lawsuit that seeks to overturn Indian gaming altogether in Wisconsin, arguing a 1993 amendment to the state constitution prohibits it. As part of that suit, the state has asked the court to reverse its previous ruling that games like craps and roulette are prohibited.
The tribe also argues what games are allowable is a matter of federal law and could go to federal court should the state court rule they are not allowed.
The Potawatomi paid the state $40.5 million in the first year of its old compact before the court decision. It then withheld $43.6 million that it had agreed to pay in the second year of the deal after the court nullified the compact.
The tribe said Tuesday it will now make that payment before a payment schedule kicks in requiring it to pay between 6 percent and 8 percent of its revenue each year. The payments are expected to average about $30 million a year.
Gard said he was also unhappy that the state and tribe agreed under the new compact to go to arbitration if a proposed Kenosha casino were approved. The arbitrator could decide to reduce the Potawatomi’s payments to the state based on such a casino’s impact on the Milwaukee facility.
Forest County Potawatomi Attorney General Jeff Crawford said the provision was key for the tribe to agree to the new deal even though it now has an expiration date. The tribes have argued the old five-year compacts made it impossible to get long-term financing for projects and longer deals were key to their development.
The Potawatomi now have plans for a $20 million expansion of the Carter facility and a $240 million expansion in Milwaukee — depending on what happens in the suit now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“We obviously had to give up the indefinite term, but there are other provisions in the compact that we did get that balanced things out,” Crawford said.
There are 11 tribes in Wisconsin that run casinos under agreements with the state. Of those, five had deals similar to the Potawatomi compact that was struck down by the Supreme Court that need to be renegotiated. The Ho Chunk tribe has been unable to reach a new deal with the state and has gone to arbitration. The others have deals in place, according to the Administration Department.
AP-CS-10-04-05 1929EDT �

[Shoe]

Good to hear, now if only ho chunk could strike a deal and bring poker back.

[JonPKibble]

pwned!

[STG]

any news on where/when the expansion will be?

[magoo]

Whatever will happen regarding expansion will be down the road, at least four years. What to expect regarding poker, who knows? You see, the Indians ALREADY HAD A SWEET DEAL with the state, underwhich they opened and operated that tiny "poker closet". The deal they had with the state was the nature of the beef. Legislators wanted a bigger slice of taxes. They settled on 8%, which is still a good deal for the Indians. Some states are getting 25% of all Indian revenues. Those Indians are taking a lot "off the top" for themselves (investors etc.).

[Krazy Dan]

My only thought is that beggars can't be choosers. If we let it up to our state Assembly Republicans, they'd either try to squeeze an unreasonable amount of the tribe (meaning no compact and no money) or try to ban it altogether. For all the things I love about this state, the politicians in our State Senate and Assembly rank somewhere below last place.

I have serious problems with any Wisconsin casino having to pay even 8% of its net revenues to the state on top of the corporate tax, but recognize that the current budget problems mean we can't do everything we should. However, now this is settled, it is possible for the Potawatomi to go forward with their rumored planned expansion of the poker closet.

[Fishwhenican]

Hey Magoo,

You have a real problem with Indians don't You! Do you realize you are a racist or are you just stupid and don't see it.

I normally wouldn't say anything cause I am pretty laid back and mild mannered but I have seen a couple of your posts where you are just openly racist in your attitude towards Native Americans and I, for one, am pretty tired of it.

Native Americans are people who were here minding their own business until others came along and basically started our own version of the holocaust. If we could have wiped them out we would have. Some of the crap they have been through is enough to make normal people sick to their stomach.

If Native Americans can earn a living from taking a cut of our gambling money then I am all for it. They have been crapped on for a long time and I personally do not have a problem with an Indian Casino making money for INDIANS! That is the name of the game, just like Harrah's or any of the other gambling companies. Make a PROFIT! In this case though we are trying to make amends for crapping on Native Americans for so many years by giving Native Americans the abillity to derive income from gambling in a place where gambling is pretty much not allowed in any other way.

So, if you have a problem with Indians and Indian casinos STFU and don't go to them. I would much rather hear about poker than some idiot's ranting, racist remarks about Indians

[magoo]

No problems with native Americans. I am not a racist. My problem is the way the CORPORATE JOINTS are robbing the public, (Indian joints included).I like to play cards, but that doesn't mean I like the joints. That poker closet at Potawatomi (Milwaukee) is being run on a shoestring budget. It's one of those places where they will let a list grow fifteen deep, rather than have a few more dealers on the early day shift. The poker chips look like they have been in service for ten years, and the room is so tiny, a person with a "space phobia" couldn't stand it for a minute. I repeat, "the Indians are taking a lot of money off the top", because they have made enough money to build an on-site hotel, and have not done so.

I just returned from playing at Taj, another ripoff joint, where I spent nine days, and stayed in a hotel OUT OF TOWN, because I don't have enought player "points". Being in the joint everyday for eight or more hours isn't enough. The food at Taj buffet is the worst I've experienced at any casino. In nine days, I never saw a slot supervisor paying off a single winner in Resorts, Showboat, nor Taj.The casino hotel rates in Atlantic City are an outrage. Did you know there is a new "fee" in addition to "entry" fees for tournaments? It's being utilized on the west coast in some joints, and will probably spread. It's "s/c"...a fee for the staff.

What about Harrah's Entertainment? They are the largest casino company in the world, due to recent buyout of Caesar's Entertainment. I don't know how you view it, but Harrah's is now a government sanctioned monopoly. Look at the poker scene in Tunica County Mississippi. As of this date, it's HARRAH'S WAY OR THE HIGHWAY. Did you know that should you have a problem with Harrah's, they can keep you out of all their joints nationwide, without actually barring you, by putting a "STOP" on your Harrah's player's card, in their computer system? There was a time in the past, if five of my friends went to Vegas, one or two of them would hit the slots for between a grand or five grand. Now everyone I know, comes back broke. I like to play cards, but I DON'T LIKE THE JOINTS.


[ QUOTE ]
Hey Magoo,

You have a real problem with Indians don't You! Do you realize you are a racist or are you just stupid and don't see it.

I normally wouldn't say anything cause I am pretty laid back and mild mannered but I have seen a couple of your posts where you are just openly racist in your attitude towards Native Americans and I, for one, am pretty tired of it.

Native Americans are people who were here minding their own business until others came along and basically started our own version of the holocaust. If we could have wiped them out we would have. Some of the crap they have been through is enough to make normal people sick to their stomach.

If Native Americans can earn a living from taking a cut of our gambling money then I am all for it. They have been crapped on for a long time and I personally do not have a problem with an Indian Casino making money for INDIANS! That is the name of the game, just like Harrah's or any of the other gambling companies. Make a PROFIT! In this case though we are trying to make amends for crapping on Native Americans for so many years by giving Native Americans the abillity to derive income from gambling in a place where gambling is pretty much not allowed in any other way.

So, if you have a problem with Indians and Indian casinos STFU and don't go to them. I would much rather hear about poker than some idiot's ranting, racist remarks about Indians

[/ QUOTE ]