Ho-Chunk looks south

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jun 07, 2003 | by Magney, Reid

The Ho-Chunk Nation is looking to expand its gambling and entertainment operations into Illinois.

Tribal officials announced plans this week to build a $120 million casino and family entertainment complex in the northwest Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates. Their plan has the blessing of Hoffman Estates' mayor, but not the Illinois governor.

The nation, based in Black River Falls, Wis., has casinos there and in Nekoosa and Baraboo, Wis. Under a new compact with the state of Wisconsin, the nation could open a casino in Madison, provided voters approve a referendum next year.

Tribal officials, including President Troy Swallow, went public with their plans Wednesday in as meeting with the editorial board of the Daily Herald newspaper in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Nancy Lee Carlson, a special counsel to the Ho-Chunk Nation, told the newspaper that tribal officials believe they have the authority to open a casino in Illinois because northern Illinois was part of the ancestral lands that once belonged to their tribe, which also extend throughout Wisconsin and into Minnesota and Iowa.

The nation has hired the law firm of former Illinois Attorney General Roland W. Burris to lobby for the proposal. Rick Davis, who works for Burris, told the Tribune on Friday that the nation has been working on the proposal since 2002.

The nation has an option to purchase 125 acres north of Interstate 90 in Hoffman Estates, said Davis.

The Chicago Bears considered using the site for a football stadium before deciding to rebuild Soldier Field.

Davis said the new casino would have 6,000 slot machines and 200 table games, but it would be more than a place to gamble. It will also feature an 800-room hotel, an 8,000-seat auditorium, restaurants, a museum/cultural center and a Wisconsin Dells-style indoor-outdoor water park.

"Illinois has a rich Native American culture," Davis said, and the Ho-Chunk Nation will use the museum to education visitors about that cultural heritage.

"We hope this will be to the benefit of Illinois schoolchildren," Swallow told the Daily Herald.

The 6,000 slot machines proposed are five times the number of total gaming positions currently allowed at any of Illinois' current riverboats, the Daily Herald said. It would be about twice the size of the Ho-Chunk Casino in the Wisconsin Dells.

Illinois has no tribal casinos. Its nine riverboat casinos, including four in the Chicago suburbs, are overseen by the Illinois Gaming Board. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley recently said he'd like Chicago to have a city-owned casino, too.

Davis said the plan for the Ho-Chunk is to work first on the federal level to have the land placed in trust for the nation, possibly through Congressional action. After that, the nation will work on getting approval for the casino, he said.

There's some dispute, but it appears that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, has the power to veto a tribal casino, much the same way that Wisconsin's governor does.

Blagojevich has said he's opposed to a tribal casino in Illinois. On Thursday, his spokeswoman, Abby Ottenhoff, said the governor will not entertain the idea of a Hoffman Estates casino this year and is not in favor of using a tribal casino as a tool to balance the state's budget.

"I can't really speculate what would happen in the future," Ottenhoff told the Daily Herald. "But he's made clear this year that it's something he's not willing to look at."