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Tribal Organization: North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians

Madera, CA

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The North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians plan to build a casino, a 200-room resort hotel, restaurants, an entertainment lounge, retail space and banquet/meeting rooms near Madera, California.

The tribe began their pursuit of this project in 2003 when they signed a development and management agreement with Station Casinos, who will oversee construction and manage the casino operations.

The proposed site is a 305-acre parcel on Avenue 17 just west of the intersection with State Route 99. It is on unincorporated area between Madera and Chowchilla and within the Tribe's ancestral lands.

Construction of the North Fork Rancheria Resort Hotel & Casino Project has not began pending final resolutions to legal issues. A gaming compact between the tribe and the state was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Aug. 31, 2012 and approved by the state assembly May 2, 2013. The state senate approved it June 27,2013 and Gov. Brown signed their legislation a week later. A lawsuit was decided March 14, 2014 by a Madera County judge who ruled state process authorizing the casino was constitutional.

In November 2014 a ballot referendum on off-reservation gaming (Proposition 48) was rejected by voters. This effectively stopped construction of this project. A legal challenge was started to determine if the referendum could nullify the tribe's gaming compact with the state.

In November 2015, a U.S. District Court judge ordered Gov. Jerry Brown and the North fork Rancheria to return to gaming negotiations. When that failed a mediator was assigned who decided in favor of the tribe. The state was given till April 11th to agree to the compact, otherwise the tribe could take the compact to the U.S. Interior Department for approval.

In July 2016 the Interior Department gave federal approval to the gaming compact.

Several lawsuits to stop construction are still pending. In the meantime the tribe has no construction timeline. However, it is considering several construction phases during the legal processing. They may begin with ground preparations and a smaller casino until the legal status allows for full-scale construction.

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Madera casino lawsuit moves to U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

January 10, 2020

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear a case Feb 11 against the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and its plans to build a casino in Madera County, California. This is case appealed from a district court that ruled in favor of the tribe over an opposition group of nearby private businesses and casino interests. The central issue was whether the U.S. Department of Interior followed proper procedures in approving the tribe's application for the Madera casino.

Since 2003 the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians has pursued plans to build a resort hotel and casino on ancestral land between Chowchilla and Madera, California. The location is a short distance from three other casinos which will be financially impacted by the new casino. These are Club One Casino in Fresno, Table Mountain Casino in Friant, and Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold.

Tribal leaders of the Mono Indians expect a favorable ruling from the Appeals Court, which will remove the last legal roadblock before starting construction.

Federal court ruling allows casino on North Fork Rancheria

July 23, 2018

The U.S. District Court has ruled in favor of a proposed gaming facility that would be tribal owned in Madera County.

The North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians have been trying to operate gaming on 300 acres of their land. Previously it was approved by the Department of the Interior. Shortly after the approval, a lawsuit was set against the Department and the tribe. Against the casino facility is The Deuce Lounge and the Club One Casino.

The opposing side to the tribe argued that it was not clear who had the right to give permission for the tribe to operate their casino on that land. Part of their case involved the Administrative Procedures Act. They believed that the Department of the Interior was not within their authority to approve the land use.

They also argued that the location of the North Fork tribe's casino would hurt their businesses. Deuce Lounge is located in Goshen. Fresno is the location for Club One.

The North Fork casino would also be classified as a Class II gaming facility. They would also be allowed to offer blackjack, poker, and baccarat. Games where players bet against each other and not the house. Games like slot machines would not be allowed.

Lawsuits to prevent the North Fork from moving forward with casino plans started nearly 13 years ago. This was when an application was submitted to have land placed into trust for the tribe. At that time the tribe knew they had interested in developing a Class III casino. A gaming compact was agreed upon between the governor and the tribe in 2012. Then it became part of Assembly Bill 277. It was signed the following year by the governor. In 2014 the gaming compact was set to go into effect. However, it was sent to the voters to decide and it failed.

The request to begin negations again happened early in 2015. However, the request was denied since a large number of voters rejected the compact.

Another lawsuit was filed. This time by the tribe seeking the state to come to an agreement. After 60 days had passed, and no new agreement could be reached mediation had to take place. In mediation the offer from the North Fork tribe was accepted.

In the court order, the tribe was voted in favor that they could operate a Class III casino without a compact with the state. This occurred in 2016. The order was issued by the secretary of the Interior under Secretarial Procedures.

The next lawsuit was then to determine if the Department of the Interior acted within their rights by granting the permission. Opposition argued that the this was not investigated.

Ultimately the courts sided with the tribe and closed the case to any further lawsuits.

North Fork Rancheria's casino plan wins another step forward

April 13, 2018

A recent ruling by the federal appellate court has moved plans forward for the proposed casino for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians. The casino would be developed four miles north of Madera and off of Highway 99.

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On April 10 the Circuit Court panel in Washington, D.C. decided that a ruling made by a lower court should be upheld. In that lawsuit the Interior Department was challenged over a decision to approve land be taken into trust for the tribe. The court sided with the tribe ruling that the department acted within the proper authority.

Stand Up For California was the group of organizations and residents that opposed the casino project. A petition was circulated to stop it from being developed. The issue for the lawsuit by the group was due to the land being taken into trust illegally. One reason was that the proposed casino site property was not considered tribal land. North Fork is located nearly 35 miles from the proposed site.

However, it was decided by the federal appellate court that the land was lawfully taken into trust by the Interior Department. The North Fork tribe was within their right to move forward with their casino project. It was decided by the panel that the previous court ruling was consistent with the law.

When completed, the $250 million casino will operate 40 table games and 2,000 slot machines. In time, there will also be multiple restaurants and a hotel added.

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Indian reservations were one of the forerunners of providing broad access gaming around the country based on the fact that their land is not considered part of the US. At the beginning, before the expansion of state operated casino licensing, it was a win-win situation since most tribes were able to skirt around state laws as they were not building casinos on federal land. The divide seemed clear until it hit the three P’s, over population, politics, and profit.

Take the California proposed casino near Route 99 as an example. Anyone who knows business could see the almost guaranteed short term profitability of having a casino on the busy 99 near Madera, California. Current estimates are in the millions daily from its exposure to one of the most traveled roads in America.

Now the opposition is finally gathering steam with current mentality in the local area shrouded in such statements as, “I’m not saying we can put gaming back in the bottle in California, although I would like to – it’s here to stay.”

Nevertheless, it is currently on the ballot for the November 4th primary is Proposition 48 which asks voters to approve the construction. The proposition was necessary because Governor Jerry Brown signed a compact with the North Fork tribe two years ago, allowing them to build the casino. So Stand Up for California wants to make this not happen, and I agree with them in this instance.

What we do not need is more Indian owned gaming establishments that pad the pockets of corrupt politicians and that provide little in return for Californians. Luckily the technicality here that had to go through federal and state hoops before the governor could reach an agreement with the North Fork tribe. The casino is being built on Indian owned land, not strictly designed as part of an Indian reservation. North Fork is the only tribe in 25 years to successfully complete the process. It seems the anti-gambling groups thought the tribe’s attempts were in vain – until now.

But there is yet another group who wants their hands in preventing the casino from being built – the Chukchansi tribe and Table Mountain casinos which are nearby. Naturally, they do not want the competition with the argument is that the North Fork casino will not be viable because of its location and the small pool of potential players. Madera has a population of about 61,000 and limited disposable income. So the question then becomes, if construction of the casino is doomed to failure, why are so many people willing to gather more than 4 million dollars to stop its construction? That is the amount Stand Up for California and other anti-casino and tribal groups have collected to make their case to the public.

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A fear factor exists here that goes beyond the spread and acceptance of casino gambling in the state. If the argument is that the construction of off-reservation casinos, and potentially the hotels and restaurants that would follow, will consume the landscape, we all know that just because a casino is built there is no guarantee of its survival. And given that North Fork is the only tribe to be granted such a license in two and a half decades of trying, it seems just trying to get approval for such ventures is a year’s long process most tribes would not give serious consideration to complete.

Beyond the competing tribal casinos, local restaurants and businesses fear that should the casino be allowed, they would lose business. Like the tribes, they are content with their profits without the competition. What is the most interesting angle to this competition issue is the anti-casino groups have decided to be tools for these local concerns. Anything to advance their agenda, even though they admit gambling is here to stay in California.

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The political strategy being exercised by Stand Up for California and their cohorts is a simple one. Because the issue is primarily a local issue, putting the question on the November 4th ballot may gain them a win by apathy. Since the majority of Californians do accept the existence of casinos in the state, the hope is that many voters will simply choose not to vote on the issue. The collection of anti-casino voters, even though they may be few and far between, will actively vote and increase their chances of getting Proposition 48 approved.

You can’t fault their strategy. The pro forces of the North Fork casino have raised about $350,000 in their effort to oppose Proposition 48. Outspending your opponent to secure political victory has a long history in America. But throughout all this tug of war between the groups, the point that seems to have been missed is that there are people at the federal and state levels who believe the casino actually is a good thing for the area.

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