BETRAYAL ON CANAL STREET: TRIBAL WARFARE EXPANDS TO KENOSHA

Special to the readers of milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

The Potawatomi Bingo Casino website has a graphic display of the expansion project underway that will transform its vulgar sewer-side facility into an even more hideous haven of depravity. But the tribe has been relatively circumspect about how it plans to occupy the hundreds of thousands of square feet it is adding to its property at 1721 W. Canal St., in the heart of Milwaukee’s old cholera district. However, what started as a Bingo hall now is now a full-fledged gambling hellhole, thanks to the State of Wisconsin Second Amendment to the original Potawatomi Compact signed by Governor Doyle February 19^th 2003.

The Supreme Court, which forbade other games during its ruling on the unconstitutional expansion of gaming, (not that it mattered) permitted the off track pari-mutuel wagering in explicit language.

This would permit horse, harness and dog races from tracks across the country to be shown in the Potawatomi Casino. Furthermore, casino patrons would be able to place wagers on those games at the casino when its expansion is complete. But the Potawatomi told a credulous public it had no intention of offering the very games they lobbied so hard to include in the state’s tarnished compact.

According to a 2003 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on the subject, written by Steven Walters and Meg Jones, “To protect 300 jobs at the Kenosha greyhound track, the Potawatomi Indian tribe agreed not to offer simulcast betting on live horse or dog races at its Milwaukee casino as long as the dog track is operating. [Emphasis added.]… State Administration Secretary Marc Marotta said Potawatomi officials voluntarily agreed not to exercise a clause in the proposed new gaming compact with the state that allows them to offer simulcast betting. …

“Marotta said the Potawatomi Tribe ‘just wanted to show some support’ for Dairyland.”

However, now that the Potawatomi’s deceit has been revealed, Marotta, today an attorney at Foley & Lardner, sings a slightly different tune. When milwaukeeworld asked if the Potawatomi had reneged on their promise, he responded, “not at all. Wasn't part of the executed deal. The Tribe just wanted to do it as a good will gesture. If we wanted to bind them, it would have been part of the executed deal.”

So, it looks like Marotta is more interested in spreading Potawatomi deceit than in preserving existing jobs by executing a fair and just contract, his quote notwithstanding. The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, which hopes to open a casino at the track, is upset, and calls the Potawatomi’s promise “worthless.”

Ken Walsh told the Small Business Times today, Tuesday January 8^th, 2008, that simulcast has “always been part of the plan. There was never an agreement not to offer it by the tribe,” also contradicting Marotta’s 2003 statements. Walsh works for Martin Schreiber & Associates, Inc. [MS&A] and is the spokesperson for the Potawatomi. Schreiber negotiated the compact for the Potawatomi. According to the company website, “MS&A developed a comprehensive plan - including polling, advertising, public relations and lobbying - that allowed the Forest County Potawatomi Community to win approval of a Milwaukee casino expansion, despite the determined opposition of the state's strongest mayor and its largest newspaper.”

However, legal issues may arise if the casino attempts to offer simulcasts in its Milwaukee facility, due to provisions in its agreement with the city and city zoning and occupancy regulations that the tribe must obey – if it feels like it.

Here is a link to the City agreement. Here%20is%20a%20link%20to%20the%20City%20agreement.