Revived casino appears to be a good bet
LIVINGSTON — After a busy hour of burning money at the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe’s new gaming hall in this East Texas town, the three retired ladies from Trinity retreated to the cafe to moan and crack jokes about their misfortune.
“If you are looking for winners, you’re looking in the wrong place,” said Jan Pistole, 69, who was already down $100.
“We can’t afford a meal. We’re eating crackers and butter,” joked her friend, Patti Rau, who admitted to being even deeper in the hole.
“We’re over here whining about not hearing the bells go off,” added Shirley Sheffield.
Fourteen years after it was forced to close under threat of legal action by the state, the tribe’s modest casino reopened three weeks ago with little fanfare but great expectations.
Now, the vast, once empty parking lot outside the Naskila Entertainmnet Center is packed with cars by noon, as gamblers from around East Texas roll in to play electronic bingo under a vaulted ceiling of knotty pine.
The 365 blinking, beeping machines, with names like Gecko Wild, Moo La La and Double Hotness, draw players long starved for local gaming, and thus far, the reviews — even by folks losing money — are fivestar.
“I came here before when it was open, and all I remember is the low ceilings and that it was real smoky,” Rau said. “Now it’s clean and neat, although I haven’t had much luck.”
Around the corner, in the “high rollers” alley, Tom Hudgens of Lufkin was manically pressing the $3 dollar play button on the Golden 777 machine, with the whirling screen showing him to be $1,000 ahead.
“The Indians did great here. I usually go to Shreveport, but it’s 120 miles,” Hudgens said during a brief pause.
“I put $20 in and I’ve already cashed out three times. I’m gonna get the money before they tweak the machine. That’s what you have to do when you find one that’s paying,” he added.
For the needy tribe of about 1,100, whose reservation is tucked into the Big Thicket about 90 miles northeast of Houston, having a casino, or “entertainment center” as they prefer to call it, is widely seen as the ticket to self-sufficiency.
“It makes me feel good that we don’t have to rely on the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and what very little we get from the state. Now we can provide for our own health, education and senior services,” Councilman Clint Poncho said.
Already more than 1,000 people have applied to work at the facility, and over 200 people have been hired, about two-thirds of whom are not tribal members.
“We have almost a sense of electricity. You can feel the positive energy from these people. A lot of them were out of work, or working minimum-wage jobs. We’re paying well over minimum wage with full benefits,” said Carlos Bullock, a tribal spokesman.
When it closed in 2002, the earlier gaming center was pouring about $1 million a month in to tribal coffers. If this one is as successful, the tribe will be able to address pressing needs, he said.
“We’re looking at building an education building with a library for our Head Start program. We’re also looking at a water tower for the east side of the reservation, and we want to build more homes for our people. That’s something we’ve struggled with,” he added.
More than 240 Indian tribes around the country offer certain types of gambling under the oversight of the National Indian Gaming Commission. In Texas, only the Kickapoo in Eagle Pass have done so without a legal challenge from the state.
The crucial breakthrough came late last year, when two federal agencies ruled that national Indian law superseded Texas’ authority to block either the Alabama-Coushatta in East Texas and the Tigua in El Paso from offering gaming.
Almost three decades earlier, the two small tribes had agreed to accept a ban on gaming as a condition of becoming federally recognized tribes. The Kickapoo received recognition without this condition and have offered gambling since 1996. They now have 3,200 machines in a large modern casino-hotel complex.
The state had sued the Tigua and the Alabama-Coushatta, forcing each to close its casino in 2002. While the Tigua have been in near constant litigation since, the Alabama-Coushatta adopted a less confrontational posture.
When both the U.S. Department of the Interior and the NIGC decided late last year that both have the right to offer Class II gaming, including bingo, electronic bingo and certain card games, the Alabama-Coushatta were quick to act.
What if anything the state now intends to do remains unclear. A spokesman for Attorney General Ken Paxton last week declined to comment on the issue.