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Texas Tribes Fight To Revive Gambling
Tribal leaders want Texas lawmakers to help them reopen a shuttered casino.
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4 Comments 
(December 12, 2008)—Alabama-Coushatta tribal leaders want Texas lawmakers to help them reopen a shuttered casino on the tribe’s reservation where a tourist train sits idle and a once-grand outdoor amphitheater is falling apart.
Tribal council chairman Carlos Bullock is working with the Tigua tribe of El Paso to get an Indian casino bill passed when lawmakers convene in January.
Casinos operated by both tribes were closed in 2002 by court orders sought by then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn.
Bullock predicts that in the end the casinos will be successful, but he says "It's just not easy."
The Associated Press reported that both tribes have hired prominent Austin lobbyists and consultants.
Baptist and social conservative activists are lining up in opposition to the casinos.
Currently the Kickapoo tribe in Eagle Pass is the only one of the three Texas tribes operating a limited casino, which is governed by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act rather than the more restrictive Restoration Act that applies to the Alabama-Coushatta and Tiguas.
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Latest Comments
Message to "Proud to be of Native American ancestry": I agree with you, Texas Laws and US laws should not apply to Native American Tribal Lands and Reservations. White people have been screwing people of color and Native Americans for centuries and it needs to quit. I apologize for my ancestors...they came over on the Mayflower and signed the Declaration of Independence. I have no Native American blood in me and that is my loss!!!
Wake Up Texas, How much money does Texas lose in a year from people going out of state to gamble. Hotels, Meals, gifts, etc... come on now...we already gamble on horse's, Dog's, lottery, bingo...why not let casinos open...by the way...there might be a great chance that people from outside the state of Texas would travel here just like they do to Las Vegas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Wonder how many baptist and social activist travel outside the state to gamble.
I am all for this, I hope they are successful in re-opening the casino, that will also light the way for the other tribes to re-open their casinos. How the Texas government could shut them down, is something I dont understand because I know that those lands were given to the Indians by the American government after the shamefull way the Indians were treated. The Indians dont even consider themselves to be part of us, and I dont blame them! If you get into trouble on reservation lands, you dont call the regular police, you call the reservation police. They have their own laws, their own court system also, so how can the US goverment laws affect them? If you have ever been on the reservation @ Livingstone, the poverty is awful! This tribe was just trying to support themselves, ...just as the one in this story. I think the American government needs to leave the Indians alone ( Yes I am part Indian!)
