The City of Glendale also sued to stop the project, saying a tax-exempt casino would be a drain on city services and unfairly compete with other gaming facilities. Tribal leaders countered by saying the city would receive a percentage of gross gaming revenue and would bring in thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n
What upset city, state and tribal leaders so much was how the Tohono O\u2019odham acquired the land. In 2003, the tribe secretly bought a parcel of land in Glendale with the intention of building a casino.<\/p>\n
The Nation believed it had this right, because they purchased the land under an agreement with the federal government to replace a portion of its reservation that was damaged by a flood caused by a government-built dam.<\/p>\n
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But officials for the state say the tribe committed fraud, because it didn\u2019t disclose its casino plan until six years later. Lawmakers also maintained that voters had approved a bill in 2008 that would limit the number of casinos that could be built.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe case wound its way through the courts, and in 2016, the 9th<\/span>\u00a0US Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor for the tribe. The\u00a0Tohono O\u2019odham also sued the state of Arizona, who prevented them from getting the Class III gaming license that would allow the Nation to offer Las Vegas-style gaming, including slots and table games.<\/p>\nIn May, the tribe settled with the state and received approval for that Class III license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Arizona\u00a0casino for the\u00a0Tohono O\u2019odham Nation is finally underway. It took eight years and buckets full of cash for lawyers to fend off opponents, but its Desert Diamond West Valley casino is going up at last. Located in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, the $400 million venue will offer a 75,000-square-foot gaming area to include […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":65451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60,18,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Arizona Tohono O\u2019odham Nation Breaks Ground on $400 Million Casino<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n