Southwest Michigan tribes point at rival gambling operators as the cause of the delay in the opening of their casinos in the area. For years, three Indian tribes have been trying to start up new casinos in this area without success. According to them, rival operators want to prevent new competition in the casino business, which is believed to have revenues of nearly 2 billion dollars.
In total, there are 20 casinos in Michigan. 17 of them are run by Indian tribes, and 6 more are still in the planning stage. Tom Shields, owner of Marketing Resource Group, works as a public relations of Pokagon Band and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians. The first tribe recently won a challenge at the federal court and now hopes to open a casino in 2007 near New Buffalo. The Gun Lake tribe, in its turn, is still in court after having filed a quest for a casino in 2001 near Wayland. The Nottawaseppi Huron Band that wants to start up a casino near Battle Creek is in the same situation.
The tribes believe that casino owners of the area have supported anti-gambling groups to prevent their casinos to be built. Actually, these groups filed lawsuits against the building of the Indian casinos. According to the supporters of the tribes, Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, which is very near to the New Buffalo site where the Pokagon tribe wants to open its casino, could have made pressure against their casino projects. This casino is owned by Boyd Gaming of Las Vegas. This company bought the casino in 1999 from Kevin Flynn, who stayed in the company as a consultant and has been recently rewarded with 5 million dollars for preventing the Indian casino to be built. In its turn, Boyd Gaming says that Flynn was paid this extra amount because of the lack of competition in the area and not for his lobbying against the Indian casinos. However, Flynn is believed to have made contacts with the lobbying firm Cusmano, Kandler & Reed Inc. to make pressure against the Indian casino projects.
