BOWLER, Wis. — The Ho-Chunk Nation tribe is planning to expand its Wisconsin casino into a full-fledged resort that would rival the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe’s casino and threaten its primary source of revenue.
They are among several Native American tribes across the country that are clashing as they battle for gambling business in anever- tightening market.
According to the National Indian Gambling Commission, 240 tribes offered gambling in 28 states as of January. With casinos restricted to reservations and land held in federal trust, tribes have been left to beef up their existing facilities to grow revenuerather than expand into new territories.
That means more tribes have found themselves in direct competition with their neighbors, said Steve Light, codirector of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gambling Law and Policy at the University of North Dakota.
Intertribal disputes over casinos have happened in Connecticut, California, and Michigan in the past five years.
Just two years ago, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker refused to give the Menominee Nation permission to build a second casino on trust land in Kenosha after the Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk complained about competition.
The 7,000-member Ho-Chunk Nation has no true reservation. The federal government moved the tribe from Wisconsin to Nebraska in the 1830s; members who returned to Wisconsin in the 1870s received or purchased homesteads.
As a result, the tribe has established six casinos on trust land around Wisconsin, including in Wisconsin Dells, the state’s tourism center. They also have established office supply distribution centers, gas stations, an RV park, and a theater.
The Stockbridge-Munsee, by comparison, have about 1,400 members. About a third live on a swampy, rural reservation in Shawano County, about 50 miles east of Green Bay.
The tribe runs a banquet hall, a golf course, an RV park, and a gas station but depends almost entirely on revenue from its North Star casino. The money funds tribal health care and elder centers, elder chore assistants, and the reservation’s police and fire departments.
The money also has paid for body cameras for county sheriff deputies, a police liaison officer and tutors in Shawano County schools, and workers who help the county with road repairs, tribal President Shannon Holsey said.
But the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation is about 10 miles from US Highway 29, the main thoroughfare that crosses the state. Gamblers have to travel winding two-lane roads through a bog to reach the North Star.
The Ho-Chunk, meanwhile, have run a casino just off Highway 29 since 2008. Last year, the tribe began work to add hundreds more slot machines, a hotel, and a restaurant to the site.
The Stockbridge-Munsee estimate the expansion will cost them $22 million in lost gambling revenue.
‘‘The only issue here is dealing with competition,’’ Ho-Chunk spokesman Collin Price said. ‘‘The tribes own businesses. These businesses provide resources and programs for tribal members. That’s why it’s so important to protect them and try to offer more.’’
Associated Press
