Tribes at odds in competing casino plan

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — A glittering casino that has brought financial success to a tiny Indian tribe is drawing covetous eyes from a larger neighbor.

The Kalispel Tribe's off-reservation Northern Quest Casino has been so successful in tapping the lucrative Spokane, Wash., market that the Spokane Tribe of Indians is seeking rare federal approval to build a similar Vegas-style resort nearby.

The quiet but intense conflict is enmeshed in a larger federal study of Indian gambling that critics fear could lead to a boom of off-reservation casinos in cities around the country.

The Spokanes believe having two casinos will increase business for both tribes, just like clusters of casinos are a draw in Las Vegas and Reno, tribal chairman Greg Abrahamson said.

"We are not trying to fight with them," Abrahamson said. "We're trying to be good partners and make it a win-win for them."

The Kalispels disagree.

"It would be a competing business" and likely cut revenues, said Nick Pierre, director of the Kalispel Tribal Gaming Agency.

Approving an off-reservation casino strictly on the grounds of generating higher revenues for a tribe could lead to an explosion of Indian gambling sites near large cities, Pierre said.

"It would open the flood gates," Pierre said. "You could have casinos in downtown Seattle."

Indian gambling is big business, and many tribes want in on the action. In 2009, the 238 tribal casinos nationwide brought in $26.2 billion, according to the National Indian Gaming Association.

The Obama administration last summer launched a review of Bush-era rules that dramatically limited off-reservation gambling. The U.S. Department of Interior conducted six hearings around the country to take testimony on whether it should be easier for tribes to build off-reservation casinos. Only five such casinos, including the Northern Quest, have been approved in more than 20 years.

Other tribes that got off-reservation casinos were the Forest County Potawatomi of Wisconsin, the Keweenaw Bay of Michigan, the Fort Mojave of California and the Northern Cheyenne of Montana.

The Interior Department has been tightlipped about its review of the rules, and it's not clear when any decisions will be made.