Gaming machines being installed at the Desert Diamond Casino – West Valley in Glendale, Arizona. Photo from Facebook
The Tohono O'odham Nation fooled Arizona voters by pursuing the Desert Diamond Casino - West Valley, which is due to open December 20, columnist Laurie Roberts argues:
Arizonans got played, just as they got played in 2002 when voters narrowly approved giving the tribes exclusive rights to gaming, based in part on a promise that no new casinos would be built in the Valley. The compact had been negotiated between the tribes and the state and the bar on more urban casinos was a major selling point. "Voting yes on Proposition 202," then-Gov. Jane Hull wrote in the publicity pamphlet sent to voters, "ensures that no new casinos will be built in the Phoenix metropolitan area and only one in the Tucson area for at least 23 years." Within a year, the Tohono O’odham secretly bought unincorporated land next to Glendale, to replace reservation property that was flooded by a federal dam project in the 1970s. Under terms of a 1986 settlement, the feds bought the nearly 10,000 flooded acres for $30 million and agreed that the tribe could buy an equivalent amount of land for its reservation as long as the land wasn’t within a city. In 2009, the tribe revealed that it was the proud property owner of county island at Loop 101 and Northern and surprise, a casino was going in.Get the Story:
Laurie Roberts: Credit Tohono O'odham for putting one over on Arizona voters (The Arizona Republic 11/18)
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