The Indiana State Senate approved on Tuesday a resolution that would prevent the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians from building a casino in South Bend.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 54 was voted in favor of by the Senate Rules Committee on Monday, and was given the green light by the Senate only a day later. Yesterday’s debate over the potential construction of an Indian village and casino lasted about two minutes and featured one speaker.
A voice vote was then taken and Senate members voted unanimously in favor of the resolution. SCR 54 calls for the state government to get involved in the matter and for the Congress to prevent the construction of gambling venues on tribal lands across Indiana.
State Sen. Carlin Yoder, sponsor of SCR 54, said that back in the 1990s, when the Pokagon Band was federally recognized after recommendations from Congressman Fred Upton and Congressman Tim Roemer, it said that it was not interested in offering gaming options to residents of the state. However, according to State Sen. Yoder, the tribe started doing so several months after their recognition.
For the time being, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians is the only tribe that resides on the territory of Indiana to have been granted federal status.
State Sen. Yoder, who proposed the resolution together with State Rep. Tom Dermody, noted that if the the Pokagon Band’s casino project gets the necessary approval, the tribe will not pay the same taxes as the owners of Indiana’s 13 gambling venues and will not follow the same regulations.
He also pointed out that the state would lose millions of dollars if a tribal casino that pays only a portion of the gaming revenue Indiana annually collects is launched. Furthermore, hundreds of state residents would lose their jobs, as the Pokagon Band’s property would have a competitive advantage over the rest of the venues.
Yet, State Sen. Yoder said that his disapproval of the South Bend project does not mean that he opposes the expansion of the gambling industry on the territory of the state.
SCR 54 will now be sent to the state’s 11-member Congressional delegation and its sponsors hope that it would result in a change in the current federal law. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is to announce its decision about the Pokagon Band’s casino proposal within the next 18 months.
As previously reported, the tribe had proposed to build a tribal village in South Bend that would include a hotel, hospital, and casino, which would be the largest one in Indiana. The whole project was estimated at $480 million.
