'92 Contract May Dictate Choctaws' Coast plan
If Jackson County voters approve the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians' plan to put a gambling operation near Ocean Springs, they may get high-end bingo instead of a Vegas-style casino. The 1992 compact signed by Gov. Kirk Fordice and Chief Phillip Martin that allows the Choctaws to operate Vegas-style casinos applies only to their reservation lands near Philadelphia, according to the state Attorney General's office.
The Choctaws may be hesitant to amend that compact. They pay only $250,000 a year to the state for tourism promotion to operate the Silver Star and the Golden Moon. Tribes with casinos in other states have less lucrative compacts. Martin, who has kept Gov. Haley Barbour in the loop about the tribe's proposed casino, told the Sun Herald he believes a new compact can be negotiated for a Jackson County casino. Native Americans can operate two types of gambling: bingo-based machines, referred to as Class II gaming, or Vegas-styled casinos, referred to as Class III gaming.
Regardless of the type of gambling, Coast casino operators are worried. A Class II gaming operation for all intents and purposes is a casino to the average slot player. The Choctaw operation would have profit and location advantages. The Choctaws would not have to pay a 12 percent tax on gross gambling revenues or other state and federal taxes. Their property would be the first and most accessible site for gamblers driving in from eastern markets.
June 14, 2006
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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