State pacts put gambling on a roll

Deals and tribal dreams are near as governor's team continues compact talks

By STEVE SCHULTZE AND DENNIS CHAPTMAN sschultze@journalsentinel.com

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

The days of greater gambling for Wisconsin are rapidly approaching.

Consider:

-- The Forest County Potawatomi tribe, its freshly approved gambling deal in hand, plans to add more slot machines to its Milwaukee casino within weeks and craps tables and roulette in perhaps two months, tribal officials said Monday. Construction work doubling the Menomonee Valley casino's size is expected to start by fall.

-- State-tribal gambling deals for Wisconsin's other 10 tribes should be finished in a week or two, state Administration Secretary Marc Marotta said Monday. That will likely prompt a race to add more slots, craps and roulette at the rest of the state's Indian casinos.

-- The prospects for new off-reservation casinos have grown brighter, with Gov. Jim Doyle taking a cautiously welcoming view.

The broader and open-ended gambling deals Doyle's administration has been cutting with the tribes have triggered the anticipated burst of gambling development. In exchange for the expansion, the tribes will pay the state some $237 million more over the next two years and help pare the state's $3.2 billion deficit.

"The question isn't whether we'll have Indian gaming here, the question is how much more money we are going to get," Doyle told reporters at the Capitol. "We've delivered compacts that bring four to five times more money than previous compacts."

Marotta said Doyle hasn't had time to think much about adding more off-reservation casinos because of his focus on completing deals with all 11 Wisconsin tribes. He wants to make sure the pledged money will actually materialize as part of his budget patch before digging into the nitty-gritty of off-reservation deals, Marotta said.

However, Doyle's deals have given hope to tribes yearning for a more lucrative casino locale close to a large population center.

The Potawatomi deal as originally negotiated would have created a 50-mile "zone of exclusivity" around the Potawatomi's Milwaukee casino. But that was junked at the 11th-hour of a 45-day review of the tribe's deal conducted by the U.S. Department of Interior, after an objection was raised by the Menominee tribe.

Doyle signed the change Friday, reviving the Menominee tribe's hopes for a Kenosha casino. An earlier Kenosha plan fell through in 2001.

"It's a major victory for the Menominee," said Joseph Strohl, a lobbyist for the tribe.

Kevin Osterbauer, attorney and lobbyist for the Bad River Chippewa, said he was optimistic that Doyle would rule favorably on a joint Bad River and St. Croix Chippewa tribal proposal for an off- reservation casino in Beloit.

"We expect he'll be impressed with what the whole project will do not only for Beloit, but for Rock County," Osterbauer said. The two northern Wisconsin-based tribes have proposed a $130 million project with casino, hotel, water park and convention center.

The Lac du Flambeau Chippewa are working toward a similar off- reservation casino project in Shullsburg, and three other tribes still have hopes for a casino in Hudson.

Doyle on Monday downplayed such plans, noting that they require a complex series of approvals.

"There are still so many hurdles for Kenosha, Beloit and anybody to get over that we're talking about years and years down the road," Doyle said.

However, the Beloit deal already is under review by federal officials and could go to Doyle for his OK within a year, said Osterbauer.

Marotta said Doyle has some concerns about a proliferation of off- reservation casinos, but "his mind is not closed. There are tribes that are struggling and would benefit significantly from an off- reservation site," Marotta said.

Doyle would insist on agreement from local communities before adding his final stamp of approval on any off-reservation casino, Marotta said. The governor also would require assent by other tribes, Marotta said. That could be tougher to get because any off- reservation deal would likely pose some competitive threat to existing casinos.

Marotta said tribes "hopefully would come to the table and work out some sort of agreement between them" over off-reservation casino proposals. He gave a hypothetical example of the Potawatomi tribe helping the Menominee finance a Kenosha casino in exchange for a portion of proceeds.

A Kenosha casino would hurt the Potawatomi operation, Potawatomi Attorney General Jeff Crawford said Monday. However, Potawatomi officials said they couldn't say whether they eventually might work out something with the Menominee on a Kenosha gambling hall.

Richard P. Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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