{"id":100998,"date":"2019-03-20T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T17:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=100998"},"modified":"2019-03-20T10:36:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T17:36:09","slug":"michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Little River Band<\/a> of Ottawa Indians (LRBOI) has reacted angrily to a bid by three other Michigan tribal operators to derail its plans for a $180 million casino that would be built on the vacant Great Lakes Downs Racetrack, Michigan Live<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

\"Little
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Omega Larry Romanelli described the attempt to block the Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d (Image: Michigan Live)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tribe has been planning the casino in Fruitport Township, Michigan for the last 11 years, largely with the support of the local community. It already operates the Little River Casino Resort on its Manistee reservation, but since its second casino would be built off its sovereign land, it first requires the Department of Interior\u2019s Bureau of Indian Affairs to take the new land into trust for the tribe.<\/p>\n

This is the process in which the federal government takes non-tribal land by voluntary transfer and converts it into Indian land, thereby partially removing it from the jurisdiction of the state.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a long and thorny process, which involves — among other things — a tribe convincing the DOI that the land in question was once part of its \u201cancestral homelands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kick in the Teeth<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But a decision has been at best delayed by formal objections from the Gun Lake Tribe<\/a>, the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, and the Saginaw Chippewa Indians, all of whom operate gaming establishments less than two hours’ drive from the proposed casino.<\/p>\n

For Larry Romanelli, tribal Ogema or chief of LRBOI, it\u2019s a kick in the teeth, especially because LRBOI formally supported the Gun Lake Tribe\u2019s bid for a casino in the late 2000s, regardless of increased competition to its own operations.<\/p>\n

They’ve known about this project; this is an attempt to slow down the process,\u201d Romanelli told Michigan Live<\/em>. \u201cWe will prevail. \u2026 I just think some of their actions are shameful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apples to Oranges<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But spokesman for the three tribes James Nye told Michigan Live<\/em> that this was not some \u201celeventh-hour objection\u201d and that the tribes had made their feelings known for some time, as Romanelli was well aware, Nye added. Their issue with the proposed casino is that it is not confined to the LRBOI reservation and it encroaches on their own territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we support one another doing gaming where our reservations are located; GLT supports what they do in Manistee,” he said. “Going 100 miles away is apples to oranges.\u201d<\/p>\n

If approved, the facility would house around 1,700 slot machines, 35 gaming tables, and a 220-room hotel. Romanelli hopes ground breaking still could happen this year, with for a grand opening planned for 2020. The development would create several hundred construction jobs, and 1,000 to 1,500 jobs when — or if — it opens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians (LRBOI) has reacted angrily to a bid by three other Michigan tribal operators to derail its plans for a $180 million casino that would be built on the vacant Great Lakes Downs Racetrack, Michigan Live reports. The tribe has been planning the casino in Fruitport Township, Michigan for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":101000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,61,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMichigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has described an attempt by three Michigan tribal operators to block its Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has described an attempt by three Michigan tribal operators to block its Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-20T17:36:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1109\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"757\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/\",\"name\":\"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-20T17:36:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-20T17:36:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has described an attempt by three Michigan tribal operators to block its Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png\",\"width\":1109,\"height\":757,\"caption\":\"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Omega Larry Romanelli described the attempt to block the Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d (Image: Michigan Live)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tribal Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal","description":"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has described an attempt by three Michigan tribal operators to block its Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal","og_description":"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has described an attempt by three Michigan tribal operators to block its Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-03-20T17:36:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1109,"height":757,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/","name":"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png","datePublished":"2019-03-20T17:36:09+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-20T17:36:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has described an attempt by three Michigan tribal operators to block its Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/romanello.png","width":1109,"height":757,"caption":"Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Omega Larry Romanelli described the attempt to block the Fruitport Township casino as \u201cshameful.\u201d (Image: Michigan Live)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/michigan-tribes-squabble-over-little-river-casino-proposal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tribal Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Michigan Tribes Squabble Over Little River Casino Proposal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}