The Jamul Indian Village announces its intent to pursue revised plans for a new casino gaming development on its Federal Tribal Trust land located in San Diego County. Since 1999 the Jamul Indian Village has worked with Lakes Entertainment of Minnesota to develop a gaming facility. As of today, that agreement has been terminated and the tribe is moving forward with revised plans for its gaming facility. This revised direction will allow the Tribe to achieve an economic and cultural foundation for its membership, while also working with its neighbors and the County to address the development's physical scope and potential environmental impact.This sounds more like wishful thinking than substantive announcement. My first thought (and other observers have said similar things) is that with the huge debt they're saddled with, the tribe is going to have a great deal of trouble finding another funding source (although I will say that there is the possibility of some arrangement made with Lakes' agreement that allowed funding on the condition that Lakes was paid back out of the tribe's cut after the resulting project was up and running).
"Jamul Indian Village expresses its gratitude to Lakes Entertainment for its involvement in various aspects of development efforts since 1999," said Tribal Executive Chairman Raymond Hunter. "We look forward to proceeding with our efforts to strengthen the economic base of the Tribe and the region, consistent with the character of the Jamul area and respectful of the local processes inherent to this goal."
The Tribe will present its plans and environmental document beginning this week and will kick off a public review process and workshop to discuss its plans with local stakeholders. Through this process, the tribal leadership will invite community engagement and feedback before finalizing their plans. Pursuit of this new development direction emphasizes the Tribe's new vision for the Jamul gaming project -- one embodying a smaller, high quality facility that is respectful of its neighbors and its environment. Ultimately, the newly designed project will create jobs for its neighbors in the Jamul and Dulzura areas, allow the Tribe to become self-sufficient, and enable it to share gaming revenue with local governments and charities.
During the Lakes-funded Jamul Casino project's lifetime, the Jamul Indian Tribe has managed to build up a large reserve of bad feelings with respect to their non-tribal neighbors. I've lived out here for nearly 15 years now, and I've not seen any other issue that so aroused the ire of my neighbors. So the tribe's proclamation now that their new efforts will be “...respectful of its neighbors and its environment.” will be met with a great deal of skepticism and suspicion, I think. Certainly that's true for me...
There is potentially a LOT of money involved. They won't give up. Not with the current tribal leadership seeing dollar signs. Even if it takes a decade you can be they will keep at it. The only hope is that other potential investment companies, like the previous one did, find it too risky to pursue because the potential upside is pretty high. Just like any investment from savings, to stocks to sticking under your pillow, somebody out there is weighing those potential profits in an environment where there are few high potential opportunities.
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