Compacts

Gun Lake Tribe withholds revenue sharing payment in Michigan

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

A view of the Gun Lake Casino in Wayland, Michigan. Photo from Facebook

The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe, hopes to resolve a dispute over online lottery sales in Michigan.

The state started selling lottery tickets online late last year. Despite disagreeing with the approach, the tribe made a revenue sharing payment of more than $8.7 million in December, bringing the total to more than $60 million since the Gun Lake Casino opened in February 2011.

But the tribe is withholding the latest payment, estimated to be around $7 million. A statement attributed the dispute to a violation of exclusivity provisions in the Class III gaming compact.

"Clearly, when the tribe and the state negotiated our gaming compact we discussed internet lottery," the tribal council said in a statement. "Both parties agreed that if the state introduced internet lottery sales or expanded other forms of electronic gaming to social clubs within the tribe’s market area that the tribe would not have to make state revenue sharing payments. The state has decided to offer internet lottery sales and electronic gaming within the tribe’s market area."

“Despite these events, the tribe feels that a resolution to this disagreement is possible, which is why it made a state revenue sharing payment in December 2014 even though it was not required to do so," the statement read.

The dispute affects the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, a state agency that receives the state's share of gaming revenues. The agency already suffered from a $15 million cut in the latest budget and says it might have to eliminate jobs without the Gun Lake's payment.

Lawmakers have been considering bills to redirect the gaming payments to other programs. Tribes have shared about $60 million a year from their casinos.

Get the Story:
Tribe halts Gun Lake Casino payments to state (AP 8/17)
Dispute over online Michigan Lottery sales could hurt MEDC (Michigan Radio 8/17)
Michigan’s economic agency prepares to cut jobs (The Detroit News 8/18)
MEDC staff warned of possible layoffs (The Detroit Free Press 8/18)