Surprisingly, a proposal to someday build an American Indian-owned casino in Grand Forks was killed last week in the North Dakota Legislature. The shock isn’t from its demise – it was a high hill to climb from the start – but rather from the ignominious way it was defeated.
Tucked into Division C of SB 2018, the House voted 66-26 against it. If it had been approved, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa could have moved forward with plans to expand its gaming operations outside of the band’s traditional boundaries, in north-central North Dakota, to Grand Forks County. Approval of SB 2018 wouldn’t have necessarily led to a new casino along Grand Forks’ southern city limits, but would have allowed the tribe to begin seeking other approvals – from the city to federal level – to pursue the idea.
