Mike Malik's Public Comments on a Port Huron Casino

Excerpted from the published minutes of a Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Port Huron, Michigan, held Monday, March 6, 2006, at 8:01 a.m. in Conference Room 408, Municipal Office Center.

"2. Mike Malik, Blue Water Resorts, representing the Bay Mills Indian tribe, stated they are the only group that has a signed compact with the State of Michigan and that he thinks the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians does not have anything in writing, they haven’t talked to Frank Kelly and that the lawyers need to check this out. He also stated that a 500 room hotel is larger than what is currently going in downtown Detroit and that the cost would be prohibitive. Additionally, he said that until there is money on the table everyone should be cautious and that if this were to happen all 11 tribes in the state of Michigan would need to agree and he doesn’t believe that will ever happen."

"6. Dick Cummings, Avoca, talked about the time and money already spent by Mr. Malik on trying to get a casino in Port Huron following voter approval five years ago."

The Cullens of Grosse Pointe Shores

as printed in the C&G News 5.16.07:

For Matthew Cullen of Grosse Pointe Shores, Detroit isn’t just the city where he works...In his personal life, Cullen calls raising his sons his proudest achievement. He and his wife, Karen — who heads communications for Ilitch Holdings — are the parents of three boys, ages 6-10. Cullen received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan in economics, and got his master’s in business administration from the University of Detroit...

4.28.08

Wheat Government Relations, on behalf of the Bay Mills Indian Community, hired Alexander Beckles to lobby on the Farm Bill. Beckles is a former legislation aide to three congressmen, including Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.).

NOTE: Matt Cullen's wife, Karen Cullen is Vice President of Corporate Communications for Ilitch Holdings, Inc. Matt Cullen has a history of partnerships with associates of Michael J. Malik, Sr.

4.29.08

Matt Cullen, the man who engineered General Motors Corp.'s headquarters move to the Renaissance Center in 1996 and hatched the massive plan to overhaul Detroit's riverfront, is leaving GM to join entrepreneur Dan Gilbert and be president and chief operating officer of Rock Enterprises, a new umbrella entity for Gilbert's diverse holdings.

Gilbert, 45, founder of Quicken Loans Inc. and its Michigan mortgage arm Rock Financial, announced in November that he will move his mortgage-related firms and 4,000 employees from Livonia to downtown Detroit.

Gilbert also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers pro basketball team; the Lake Erie Monsters minor league hockey team, and Fathead LLC, a sports-themed wall graphics outfit. And he is a major investor in ePrize LLC, a fast-growing Internet promotions firm with 350 people in Pleasant Ridge, and other companies.

"I'm just out of time, that's all there is to it," Gilbert said Monday in a joint telephone interview with Cullen. He said that Cullen will work closely with him across all of the companies, looking for opportunities to collaborate, grow and do things faster.

Snagging Cullen, whom high-powered Detroit attorney David Page once called "absolutely the best consensus builder I have ever seen," is clearly a coup for Gilbert.

And it's also a vote of confidence by Cullen in Quicken Loans, which is navigating through the nation's mortgage and housing crisis. Gilbert said he sees opportunities to build market share as weak competitors fall by the wayside, although he added, "I don't want to imply that we're not hit at all by the radioactivity" of the financial crisis.

Cullen will play a key role in choosing a site by November for Quicken's new headquarters and in fulfilling Gilbert's vow to spark other development in downtown Detroit, especially cutting-edge entrepreneurial and technology businesses.

One of Gilbert's hopes is to jump-start efforts to beef up mass transit in the city. He and Cullen are both involved in talks regarding a possible light-rail line along Woodward that would be financed, at least in part, with private money. Neither would talk in detail about the light-rail efforts Monday, but said they expected John Hertel, CEO of the Regional Transit Coordinating Council, to reveal more soon.

Cullen, 52, is a 29-year GM veteran who leaves as its general manager of economic development and enterprise services. He was also the founding chairman of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and has chaired the Michigan Economic Development Corp. board under both Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her predecessor, John Engler.

In Detroit civic and economic development circles, Cullen has been GM's point man for the past 15 years, a much more visible figure on the local scene than even Chairman Rick Wagoner or Vice Chairmen Bob Lutz and Fritz Henderson. At GM, however, it has traditionally been the guys who run automotive operations -- be they engineers, marketers or finance specialists -- who rise to the very top jobs.

Cullen signed on with GM's real estate unit in 1978 after earning an economics degree at the University of Michigan, and soon got an up-close look at a huge controversy when GM was closing its aging Fleetwood and Clark Street assembly plants in the early 1980s. GM also built the Detroit/Hamtramck plant, infamously dubbed the Poletown plant, for the neighborhood where a furor erupted when a church was demolished to make way for the plant.

"All that really helped me to understand the huge impact GM has on the communities where it operates," Cullen told me in a 2002 interview. He got hooked on the community and real estate aspects of the GM empire and eventually wound up running all of GM's worldwide real estate operations.

Cullen said Monday that he and Gilbert began discussing a job switch just after Christmas, and that Cullen talked to his bosses, including Wagoner and Henderson, about it last week. "They were all supportive. They said it was clear that I'd thought it through."

Said Henderson, "Matt has made a significant contribution to General Motors over his 29-year career. I thank him and wish him well in his new endeavor."

He will transition from GM to Rock Enterprises over the next few weeks.

This looks like a win-win, a good move for both Dan Gilbert and the city. Matt's got a lot of ability and now he can really use his entrepreneurial instincts," said George Jackson Jr., president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.

Added Gilbert, "Matt is as dedicated as anyone to the transformation and revitalization of Detroit. The relationships he's formed in business and in government will be a huge asset to us as we work with others in the public and private sectors to transform our city."
Both Gilbert and Cullen sidestepped direct comment when asked whether the text-message scandal engulfing Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is affecting economic development efforts in the city.

"Frankly, we're just plowing ahead regardless," Gilbert said. "The city has been nothing but cooperative with us. We don't want to take a position on something where we can't control the outcome. We can't let a political situation today affect our long-term view of Detroit and its future."

"It will be nice," Cullen added, "when we're looking back on all this in the rear-view mirror."

Contact TOM WALSH at 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com.

Find this article at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/COL06/804290397

What's up in Nashville?

What's got the Ilitch Gulfstream shuttling back and forth between Detroit and Nashville?

The Ilitch corporate jet, a Gulfstream II that sports the Little Ceasars Pizza logo on its tail, made shuttle flights between Detroit's Metropolitan Airport and Nashville International on April 14th, 16th and 20th before heading to the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan outside of Denver, Colorado on April 29th.

Malik v. White

According to Justia.com, Michael J. Malik, Sr. has filed suit in federal court against Christopher P. White.

Plaintiff: Michael J Malik, Sr
Defendant: Christopher P White

Case Number: 2:2008cv11444
Filed: April 3, 2008

Type of Lawsuit: Other Contract

Court: Michigan Eastern District Court
Office: Detroit Office [Court Info]
County: Wayne


http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-miedce/case_no-2:2008cv11444/case_id-229179/

CA Bill Would Require Federal Approval Before Governor Can Negotiate Gaming Compacts

4.15.08

No Federal Approval, No Casino?

By John Myers, KQED

Legislation to change how, and possibly where, new Indian casinos are built in California cleared its first hurdle today at the state Capitol.

For years, the most controversial part of the tribal gaming process has been casinos proposed for land that either isn’t an ancestral reservation… or land that the federal government hasn’t yet recognized as part of a tribe’s reservation. Critics have derided such proposals as examples of “reservation shopping,” accusing tribes and their deep-pocketed investors of choosing locations solely based on how much money can be made.

The legislation in question, SB 1695, would change the way new casinos are approved, by prohibiting the governor from negotiating with any tribe whose casino land hasn’t yet been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Interior.

(A quick explainer to those who don’t follow this issue much: federal law lays out a long process for non-Indian land to become a reservation. It also requires a tribe to negotiate a formal gaming agreement, known as a compact, with the governor of the state before opening a casino.)

Governor Schwarzenegger has negotiated a number of casino compacts with Indian tribes since he took office, but his most controversial deals have seemed to be ones where the land hadn’t yet secured a federal OK. Most notable on this list: the long saga of the two tribes wanting to build side-by-side casinos in Barstow… even though the tribes’ reservations are in another part of the state. Schwarzenegger agreed to the casinos long before the feds had ruled on the proposal; earlier this year it was rejected.

The bill, authored by Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter), simply says that the governor can’t negotiate a formal compact until the feds have had their say. The current version of the legislation is notably more tame than the original, which would have essentially banned any tribe from opening a casino on land away from its ancestral home… presumably even if that tribe no longer has a reservation (and many don’t).

The bill sailed out of the Senate Governmental Organization committee this afternoon, which Florez chairs (its one dissenting vote: Sen. Pat Wiggins, a Democrat whose northern California district includes one of the tribes that wanted to go to Barstow).

A spokesperson for Schwarzenegger said the guv won’t take a position on the bill until it reaches his desk.

If the Legislature sends it to him, it certainly puts him in an interesting position: if he signs it, it would seem to imply that some mistakes were made in the past. And it would seemingly derail secret negotiations he might currently be conducting with some tribes (though there’s no official confirmation that any casno negotiations are even underway).

But if he vetoes it, critics of the rapid expansion of Indian gambling will say the governor is ignoring the plight of communities that don’t want casinos, and that he’s being inconsistent with his earlier pronouncements about the siting of new tribal gambling facilities.

MotorCity Casinos fall; Detroit area casinos troubled

4.09.08

Casinos in Detroit hit by ill economy
MGM is only gaming hall to report a slight jump; combined betting revenues flat for month.

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Detroit's three casinos are feeling the sting of the state's economic downturn, even with two new resort hotels and expanded floor space for gambling, according to a report Tuesday to the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

Combined, the casino revenues in March were flat, rising a meager .02 percent increase over the same period in 2007.

MGM Grand Detroit was the only one to report a revenue increase year over year, gaining 5.94 percent, from $47.4 million in March 2007 to $50.2 million this March.

In contrast, revenue dropped in March at MotorCity and Greektown casinos. MotorCity reported revenues of $41.3 million, down 3.7 percent, and Greektown showed revenues of $32.2 million, down 3.58 percent.

The casinos' report to the Gaming Control Board also revealed that gaming taxes paid by the three casinos in March totaled $11.8 million, down 21 percent from $14.97 million last March. The decline was attributed to an expected tax reduction for the MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity casinos that followed last year's opening of their permanent complexes.

Eugene Christensen, CEO of gaming-analysis firm Christensen Capital Advisors in New York, said the paltry overall gain and downturns at MotorCity and Greektown were expected given Michigan's high jobless and foreclosure rates and consumers' worries about their financial futures.

"What you're seeing in Michigan is in line with other markets across the country," Christensen said. "Given the state of the economy, they're surviving pretty well."

The revenue declines at MotorCity and Greektown follow layoffs at the MGM Grand Detroit complex that began last month. A spokesman for the casino said the cuts would affect fewer than 100 workers, mostly people who worked in non-gaming operations.

Also decided at the Gaming Control Board's Tuesday meeting:

• Greektown Casino received approval to continue negotiating with potential equity partners that would help the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the casino's owner, to comply with debt covenants imposed by the board last year. The requirements mandate the casino maintain an undisclosed debt-to-equity ratio, which it would need additional funding to maintain.

Greektown spokesman Brian Brown said the casino has been in active talks with a number of investors. The casino hopes to close on a deal that would transfer ownership of between 26.5 percent and 30.77 percent of Greektown to an investor, in exchange for cash to ensure the debt ratios are maintained. The Chippewa tribe, unlike MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity, had to secure the majority of the financing for its hotel and expanded gaming facilities from outside investors, Brown said.

Those new facilities are expected to open in 2009.

• The board approved a request from Dubai World, the international investment arm of the United Arab Emirates, to increase its stake in MGM Mirage Inc., the parent of MGM Grand Detroit, from 9.4 percent to 14.75 percent. With that approval, Dubai World could purchase additional MGM shares on the open market. The request must be approved by regulators in states where MGM is licensed to operate.

You can reach Nathan Hurst at (313) 222-2293 or nhurst@detnews.com.

Find this article at:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/BIZ/804090360

Levin has raised $5.7 million for re-election bid

4.14.08

Levin pulls in $667K for re-election campaign

By TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin reported his first-quarter fund-raising totals today, showing he pulled in just over $667,000 for his re-election campaign during the first three months of the year.

That brings the Detroit Democrat’s totals to $5.7 million in total contributions for this election cycle – $4.8 million of which is from individual donations. And the vast majority of the money he’s raised -- $4.2 million – is still in his warchest.

Stabenow's husband caught in prostitution sting

4.02.08

Report: Stabenow's husband paid prostitute in sting

By KORIE WILKINS AND TODD SPANGLER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

WASHINGTON -- Speaking for the first time about her husband's acknowledgment that he paid for sex with an alleged prostitute, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow told the Free Press this afternoon she's going through a "very difficult and personal" time and will continue to work through it with her family.

The senator from Lansing did not want to talk about whether she and her husband are still together or how she learned of his being stopped by Troy police in February. According to a police report obtained this morning by the Free Press, Tom Athans -- a liberal radio talk-show executive -- told Troy detectives he paid a prostitute he contacted via the Internet $150 for sex at a Residence Inn in the metro Detroit suburb.

He was not charged with solicitation after being stopped as part of a police sting -- only cited for driving with a suspended license. He was stopped on I-75 driving a car registered to him and Stabenow, whom he married in 2003.

Stabenow spoke to the Free Press a few minutes after delivering a speech on the Senate floor on the need to help Michigan families fighting foreclosure and lost jobs -- a theme she has been pounding on for months, repeating her call for an extension of unemployment benefits.

Her demeanor showed none of the stress she acknowledged she's under now.

"I have a job to do and I'm continuing to be focused on the things that matter most to Michgian families," she told the Free Press.

Athans, 46, issued a statement through a Royal Oak law firm representing him, saying, "No words can fully express how sorry I am. At the time this incident occurred, I took responsibility for my actions and fully cooperated with law enforcement. My family and I are dealing with this matter in a personal and private way."

Without being specific, Stabenow, 57, said her colleagues have been showing their support for her. "I'm very grateful for the prayers and support I'm receiving," she said.

Find this article at:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080402/NEWS06/80402038

MotorCity Casino revenues ailing

4.08.08

MGM Grand's March revenues up; other 2 down

By MARGARITA BAUZA • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Revenue for all 3 Detroit casinos for the month of March was up .02% compared with the same month last year.

MGM Grand Detroit reported $50.2 million in revenues in March, compared with $47.4 million last March, up by 5.94%.

MotorCity Casino reported revenues of $41.3 million, compared with $42.8 million last March, down by 3.7%.

Greektown reported revenues of $32.2 million, compared with $33.4 million last year, down 3.58%.

For the month of March 2008, gaming taxes for the three Detroit casinos were $11.81 million, compared with $14.97 million for the same period last year.

The decrease in state gaming tax revenue is due to a tax roll-back for MGM Grand Detroit Casino and MotorCity Casino, whose taxes were lowered with the completion of its permanent facilities.

Contact MARGARITA BAUZA at mbauza@freepress.com.

Find this article at:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/ENT11/80408050

Moody’s sees bleak outlook for Gaming Industry; MotorCity Casino affiliate on downslide

Economic Slowdown Hits U.S. Gaming Sector

• The U.S. gaming sector is experiencing weaker visitation and spending trends as a result of the slowing U.S. economy. Moody's recently revised its outlook for the U.S. gaming sector to negative from stable to reflect these trends.


• The economic slowdown and possibility of a longer-term, consumer-based recession come at the same time that fierce competition within and among gaming jurisdictions is requiring gaming companies to spend heavily on promotion and capital investment.


• Reduced access to capital markets is increasing overall risks to the sector’s credit profile. Decreased access to capital is also likely to result in the cancellation or delay of some planned development projects, potentially hurting longer-term revenue and cash flow growth rates.


• Many U.S. gaming markets are in their relative infancy and do not have enough of a documented history to indicate how they will perform during a period of prolonged economic weakness.


• Unfavorable legislative initiatives designed to address possible state budget deficits could result in higher gaming taxes and/or increased competition.


• Long-term fundamentals of the sector, including increased acceptance and popularity of gaming and a demographic shift towards age groups that exhibit a high propensity to gamble, remain favorable, but they may not offset near-term economic and competitive challenges.


• Negative rating actions are expected to significantly exceed positive rating actions in 2008. Eleven U.S. gaming issuers are currently on review for possible downgrade and six have a negative outlook -- those include CCM Merger, Inc. the parent of Marian Ilitch's MotorCity Casino. Combined, these issuers account for almost 25% of the total number of rated U.S. gaming issuers.

source: Moody's Corporate Finance, March 2008

Moody's drops MotorCity Casino's credit rating, again!

New York, March 31, 2008 -- Moody's Investors Service lowered the ratings of CCM Merger, Inc. ("CCM") due to the much slower-than-anticipated leverage reductions and fiercely competitive Detroit gaming market. A stable ratings outlook was assigned.

CCM Merger's debt/EBITDA for the fiscal year-ended December 31, 2007 was about 7.6 times. CCM Merger, Inc. is a holding company whose primary operating subsidiary is Detroit Entertainment, LLC doing business as MotorCity Casino.

CCM Merger's corporate family rating reflects the company's high leverage, highly concentrated operations in the fiercely competitive Detroit gaming market, average development profile, and adequate liquidity.

CCM Merger's profitability metrics are weak and largely reflect the company's ongoing construction and expansion.

3.25.08

Conyers and Dingell face off over casinos
By Susan Crabtree

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) is clashing with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) over the thorny issue of Indian gambling, setting up a standoff between two of the oldest bulls in Congress.

Conyers has stepped into an Indian gambling dispute that is dividing the Michigan delegation and the Democratic Caucus. After teaming up with Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the 22-term House veteran has used his position as chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee to oppose two bills that would settle tribal land disputes and clear the way for new casinos to be built near both lawmakers’ Detroit-area districts.

Conyers argues that the bills would change the way casinos are approved by allowing Congress to get involved in land dispute claims that the U.S. Department of the Interior routinely determines. He also cites the concern that the casinos would be located more than 350 miles from the tribes’ reservations.

“Without these constraints, there would seem to be no limit to how far Indian gaming could spread, far beyond reasonable bounds,” Conyers said at a hearing he held on the issue the day before Congress left for its spring recess.

On the other side, Dingell, a 27-term veteran of the House and its longest-serving member, has joined forces with Natural Resources panel Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), along with a bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers, to push for the bills.

Dingell argues that the cities where the casinos will be built — Romulus and Port Huron — are in dire need of the new jobs and economic stimulation that the casinos would provide. Romulus lies in his district, while Port Huron must compete with jobs right across the border in Canada, where a casino already exists.

But Conyers and Kilpatrick worry that the new casinos will cut into profits of existing Detroit casinos, including one owned by MGM Mirage, which is lobbying furiously against the bills. If built, the new casinos could cut into revenue that Detroit receives from taxes on those profits because Indian gambling revenues are exempt from local, state and federal tax.

Conyers has until April 4 to either rewrite the measure or decide to hold a committee vote on the bills.

Many of the panel’s members oppose the bills and would vote against them. The Judiciary Committee’s stamp of disapproval could help stir opposition once it reaches the House floor for a full vote.

The intra-party feud also is shaping up as the first major test for Democrats on the thorny issue of Indian casinos after the fall of Jack Abramoff, whose corrupt lobbying practices involving tribes and gambling helped propel Democrats into power in 2006.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been thrust into the middle of the gambling spat and has promised Dingell floor time for the bills, according to two sources tracking the measure. But the division runs so deep that the outcome of such a vote is unpredictable. MGM Mirage and the two tribes that stand to benefit, the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie, have spent the last month ratcheting up their lobbying blitz.

The intense battle over Indian gaming pits many CBC members, who side with Kilpatrick and Conyers, against proponents of the measure, such as Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), as well as Dale Kildee (D-Mich.) and Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), who co-chair the Native American Caucus. Many conservative Blue Dog Coalition members oppose casinos on principle, arguing that they create more crime and dependency.

At the pre-recess Judiciary hearing, several members on both sides of the aisle expressed deep reservations about the legitimacy of the land deals. The hearing was held to counter a previous hearing in the Natural Resources Committee, where Dingell and Conyers testified, along with three other sitting lawmakers.

The Natural Resources panel overwhelmingly approved both bills. One would settle the land claim of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians, and the other addresses the Bay Mills Community tribal land.

Dingell has said he is supporting the casinos because the residents of his district and the neighboring district of Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) want them.

“I will say it again — the people of Romulus approved a referendum supporting the opening of a casino in their community,” Dingell said in February. “It would be the only casino in my district. It would be run by a Native American tribe that has a legitimate land claim issue and that also operates a casino in Detroit.”

He said the tribe is not concerned about the effect a Romulus casino would have on its Detroit operation. But the opponents of the Romulus casino say that the lack of concern stems from their belief that the casino in Detroit was hurt when MGM built a newer, more elaborate operation in the city.

Reservations Rebuffed: Off-Reservation Gaming Policy

3.23.08

Reservations Rebuffed

By Shawn Zeller, CQ Staff

Tribal casinos, which have bulked into a multibillion-dollar industry since Congress first gave them its blessing two decades ago, now possess all sorts of economic and political clout — but not enough, it seems, for them to go off the reservation.

American Indians marooned on reservations far from population centers have long pressed the Interior Department to grant them the authority to launch gambling operations closer to where the people willing to risk their money live — and rake in the sort of revenues that the more fortuitously situated tribes have enjoyed.

These tribes argue that the mass repatriation of Indians onto federal reservations in the 19th century was originally an unjust process driven by little more than federal fiat and so shouldn’t form any basis for sound policy now. What’s more, they argue, tribes now flush with gambling money, such as Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, came into possession of optimally sited reservation land via controversial treaties that often had little or nothing to do with the location of ancestral land.

But in January top Interior officials wrote to rebuff 11 tribes that were waiting on applications to acquire new land for casinos. (Eleven others were told their applications were incomplete.) At the same time Interior made public a new policy that, in the tribes’ view, makes it nearly impossible for them to win approval for any desirable off-reservation site.

Their letters contended that siting casinos too far from existing reservations would not produce meaningful employment opportunities to tribe members — a claim the petitioning tribes hotly dispute.

“When I received the notice, I hit the roof,” says Lorraine White, chief of New York’s St. Regis Mohawks. “It is completely contrary to our belief about the law.” The Mohawks, whose reservation is on the Canadian border, have plans with Empire Resorts Inc. to construct a 125-table, 3,500-slot-machine casino 350 miles to the south in the Catskill Mountains — less than a two-hour drive from Manhattan — and had secured the backing of local leaders and the state of New York.

What usually does off-reservation casinos in is opposition from local communities, as opposed to policy judgment calls from Washington. But the sweep of this year’s rejections by Interior suggests the federal consensus is hardening further against off-reservation gambling. And Interior’s new policy “makes impossible what was already nearly impossible,” says I. Nelson Rose, a law professor at California’s Whittier Law School who specializes in gambling.

In setting the policy, Interior cited a 1934 law intended to promote reservations as economic hubs for tribes. Under that law, the department says, it must subject off-reservation sites to greater critical scrutiny — the more so if they’re far removed from a tribe’s reservation. Applying that reasoning to the pending casino operations, Interior ruled that gaming facilities that are not within commuting distance of a reservation, apparently about 75 miles, could undermine reservation life.

“Interior essentially said they know better what’s good for the tribe than the tribe does,” says Tom Shields, a spokesman for California’s Los Coyotes Band of Mission Indians, who have been seeking for years to build a casino in Barstow, 150 miles north of their reservation and a couple of hours by car from Los Angeles. That tribe’s plan has overwhelming local support, Shields contends, but it was among the 22 nixed in January.

Interior spokesman Shane Wolfe said he could not comment on the policy change because of pending litigation. Wisconsin’s St. Croix Chippewa filed suit in federal district court in Washington in December charging Interior with violating Congress’ intent in the 1988 law sanctioning Indian gambling.

The Mohawks also filed suit in January but have since dropped the case, White says, in order to step up efforts to lobby Congress on the issue. West Virginia Democrat Nick J. Rahall II , the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced a bill this month that would mandate a consultative process with Indian tribes before Interior could adopt further changes.

The federal government has “a moral obligation” to consult with the tribes, Rahall says; the Bush administration’s handling of the issue, he adds, evinces “a clear disregard for that legal, political and moral responsibility.”