Arizona’s Tohono O’odham Nation will finally be able to add Las Vegas-style gambling in its casino property in the area near the city of Glendale, Capitol Media Services has reported for The Daily Courier.
It has become known that the US Department of the Interior gave last week the nod to the proposed changes to the tribe’s compact with Arizona.
Under the new terms, the nation will be able to operate real slot machines and table games at its casino site. This will end a prolonged legal battle between state and tribal officials.
However, it is believed that it will take some time before West Valley Desert Diamond Casino adds actual casino-style gaming at its premises as certain preparatory work needs to be completed first. The gambling venue, part of a larger hotel and casino resort, currently hosts slots-style machines that actually offer bingo games.
According to a tribal spokesperson, the 1,089 bingo machines will need to be replaced with actual slots that are operated by a different type of software and the process requires time.
As for table games, the current floor where gaming options are provided does not have enough room to accommodate those. The facility was built as a temporary host to the gaming devices, while the main floor is under development. The actual casino is yet to be completed together with the other parts of the resort, including a hotel and multiple dining options. Construction work is slated to begin later this year and the property is expected to swing its doors open in 2019, if no further delays prevent this from happening.
As reported by The Daily Courier, under a 2002 referendum vote, tribes were allowed exclusivity over casino gambling in the state, which opened the door for Tohono O’odham to build its own casino. The tribe bought a portion of land in 2003, asking for it to be recognized as reservation land.
Under a previous agreement between tribal officials and the state, Tohono O’odham was allowed to purchase any land in the Maricopa, Pima, or Pinal counties and that land to be recognized as part of the reservation as long as it was outside any city.
That unlocked multiple litigations that took several years to be closed. The tribe eventually opened its gaming facility in late 2015, operating bingo machines that did not require state approval to be added.
Last spring, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with the Tohono O’odham Nation in its battle to expand its gaming offering, ruling that the tribe should be allowed to add table games and slot machines. The court thus cleared the legal challenge presented by the Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. The latter tribes had argued that the Tohono O’odham Nation had violated the 2002 tribal gaming compact by building a gambling venue on a site that had not been included in its original land.
Earlier in 2017, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey gave the green light to the addition of Las Vegas-style casino options. The tribe, in exchange, agreed not to build any new casinos in the Maricopa County for the next 25 years.
The Tohono O’odham Nation currently operates two more gaming and entertainment properties in Ariziona – Desert Diamond Casinos & Entertainment Sahaurita and Desert Diamond Casino & Hotel Tucson.
