Execs: Indian casino could gut northwest Indiana gaming

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians recently reached revenue-sharing and infrastructure financing agreements with local officials in New Buffalo Township, Mich., just 10 miles from the Indiana state line in southwestern Michigan.

Tribal leaders estimate their 164,000-square-foot casino would draw at least 4 million gamblers a year and generate more than $100 million in annual profits. It may open by late next year.

That would give the Pokagons the second-largest casino in the Midwest - larger than all five of northwest Indiana's riverboats.

For Chicago-area gamblers - the riverboats' main customer base - the drive to the Pokagon casino would be just a few minutes longer.

Jack Thar, director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, told a casino industry conference last fall in Detroit that the Pokagon proposal poses a much greater threat to Indiana gaming profits than the Illinois boats.

Indiana lawmakers and casino operators spent the last seven months focused primarily on the damage done to Indiana gambling profits and taxes by Illinois riverboats that are no longer required to cruise.

Lifting the cruising requirements in Illinois allowed casinos there to admit more passengers more often and to squeeze their wallets for longer periods of time.

Hoosier casino companies were able to blunt the impact of the Illinois boats by convincing Indiana lawmakers to lift the state's cruising requirements. But there appears to be nothing northwest Indiana casinos or government officials can do to minimize the Pokagon proposal.

American Indian tribes are generally recognized as sovereign nations under U.S. law. That means state and local governments have little ability to challenge or prohibit them from pursuing economic development projects on land under their control.

The Pokagons have been working on their casino proposal for six years, much of it spent waiting for federal and state government approval of various plans. Earlier this month, the band expanded the size of the proposal and moved it closer to the Indiana state line.

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