Cheyenne – The U.S. Department of the Interior has signed documents allowing the Northern Arapaho Tribe to begin offering Las Vegas-style gambling.
Jim Conrad, chief executive of the Wind River Casino, said Thursday that there were still a few procedural hoops the tribe had to jump through, but he expected to have Class III machines and the first blackjack tables installed in the tribe’s existing bingo parlor within 60 days.
James Cason, associate deputy secretary of the interior, signed the agreement Wednesday, according to Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“It was a day the tribe has been working at for many years. It’s a major step,” Conrad said.
The Northern Arapaho is one of just a handful of tribes that have won federal approval for Class III gambling – which ranges from slot machines to table games – without signing a compact with an adjoining state.
The Arapaho first asked the state to enter into negotiations in the mid- 1990s. In November 2000, after years of talks failed to produce an agreement, the tribe sued Wyoming, saying that the state had failed to negotiate in good faith and that the tribe should be allowed to bypass the state and open a casino.
Federal courts consistently sided with the tribe, and this summer the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Northern Arapaho were entitled to operate a full range of Class III games. Following that ruling, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, which shares the Wind River Indian Reservation with the Northern Arapaho, announced its intention to operate a casino.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal was traveling Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Conrad said the agreement signed Wednesday was based on prior talks between the tribe and the state and allowed only a limited range of Class III games. But he said the tribe would seek an amendment, based on the 10th Circuit ruling, to allow all Class III games.
The tribe has plans for a $10.3 million casino that Conrad said would probably hold 600 to 700 machines and expanded table offerings.
