LAGUNA PUEBLO PROTESTS NEW NAVAJO COMPACTS

LAGUNA PUEBLO PROTESTS NEW NAVAJO COMPACTS

According to an article today in the Albuquerque Journal, the Laguna Pueblo, which operates the Route 66 and Dancing Eagle casinos west of Albuquerque, is protesting the proposed new tribal compacts between the Navajo nation and the state of New Mexico.

Their main complaint appears to be the addition of two additional casinos in New Mexico, especially the potential casino at To’Hajiilee, just a few miles from the Route 66 casino.  The other tribes are limited by the 2007 compacts to two casinos apiece, unless others are grandfathered in.  The Navajos already have three casinos in New Mexico.

The two other issues of contention are the calculations for jackpots derived from “Free Play,” and a prohibition on Internet gambling by other gambling entities in the state.

Laguna and other pueblos are worried about saturation of the gambling market.  The Buffalo Thunder casino at Pojoaque and the Apache Nugget Casino at Mescalero have already had problems with their creditors, and growth of the gambling market in New Mexico has been fairly stagnant the last two years.  Add a couple of more casinos and we might get to see some casinos go bankrupt.

The Navajo compacts, as well as four other tribal and pueblo compacts expire in 2015, and if they don’t work out something with the legislature this session, they could end up operating without state compacts next year, which could violate federal law and lead to a shutdown.  We could hope as much.  It is suspected that the four other tribes/pueblos will sign onto the compacts that were approved by the state and nine pueblos in 2007.

None of the tribal compacts deal in any substantive way with auditing the operations of the casinos.  All of the records are “self-reported,” without documentation to substantiate the operational details.  Since the tax contributions are based on these “honor system” reports, it is likely the state is getting stiffed for millions of dollars in revenue sharing.