{"id":168625,"date":"2021-03-26T07:04:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T14:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=168625"},"modified":"2021-07-19T01:16:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T08:16:47","slug":"feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds Approve Compact for Vexed Catawba North Carolina Casino Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US Interior Department has signed off on a revenue-sharing compact between North Carolina and the Catawba Indian Nation, the tribe announced in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_168626\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-168626\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-168626 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg\" alt=\"Catawba\" width=\"1200\" height=\"751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves-142x89.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves-1024x641.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves-80x50.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves-768x481.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves-320x200.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-168626\"class=\"text-description\">Kings Mountain casino backer Wallace Cheves discusses the project during a public consultation in January. The tribe announced a new agreement on Thursday. (Image: Melissa Key\/CBJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The federal seal of approval greases the skids on a controversial $273 million resort near the state\u2019s southern border.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s controversial because the Catawba claim ancestral ties to the land around Kings Mountain, where the casino will be built. Meanwhile, their sovereign reservation is located in South Carolina, where there are no casinos.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, North Carolina\u2019s only federally recognized tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee, disputes the Catawbas\u2019 claim to the lands. The Cherokee argue the federal government has no right to create a new Catawba reservation across state lines \u201con historical Cherokee territory\u201d just to build a casino.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>This approval stems from the DOI\u2019s original illegal act to take land into trust and force an unwanted casino on North Carolina, a decision that we continue to challenge in federal court,&#8221;<\/strong> said Richard Sneed, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;We believe the facts are clear and that the court will invalidate this illegal casino, and along with it, this compact,\u201d Sneed added.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Land Grab\u2019 Claim \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Usually, under federal law, sovereign tribes can establish electronic bingo operations (class II gaming) on their reservations without permission from the state. But the federal bill that recognized Catawba sovereignty \u2013 the Catawba Land Settlement Act of 1993 \u2013 stipulated that the tribe must specifically abide by South Carolina law.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The only form of gaming permissible in South Carolina is the lottery, which somewhat limits the Catawbas\u2019 ambitions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, north of the border, Class II gaming has been a success story for the Cherokee, who run the only two casinos in the state with the help of Caesars Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>They want to keep it that way. The Cherokee have called the Catawba plans a \u201cmodern-day land grab,\u201d and have sued the tribe and the DOI in a federal court in a bid to torpedo the project.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Political Influence <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The lawsuit, which is pending, claims the King\u2019s Mountain casino has been fast-tracked because of the political influence of one of its major financial backers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Republican megadonor Wallace Cheves has contributed handsomely to the campaigns of US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) and others who have supported legislation to safeguard Catawba lands in North Carolina.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A video poker tycoon, Cheves was once the subject of a federal indictment for illegal gambling in Ohio, although the charges were later dropped. In 2014, his operations were the target of raids by authorities in Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>Video gaming terminals fall into a gray area of the law in many states, and Cheves has said lawsuits are simply an occupational hazard.<\/p>\n<p>He is planning to build nearly 600 homes and luxury apartments opposite <a href=\"\/real-money\/\">the casino<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Interior Department has signed off on a revenue-sharing compact between North Carolina and the Catawba Indian Nation, the tribe announced in a statement Thursday. The federal seal of approval greases the skids on a controversial $273 million resort near the state\u2019s southern border. It\u2019s controversial because the Catawba claim ancestral ties to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":168626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Compact for Vexed Catawba Casino Project Approved by Feds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Catawba casino compact with North Carolina approved by federal government, contentious King Mountain casino project ok\u2019d.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Compact for Vexed Catawba Casino Project Approved by Feds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Catawba casino compact with North Carolina approved by federal government, contentious King Mountain casino project ok\u2019d.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-26T14:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-19T08:16:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"751\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/\",\"name\":\"Compact for Vexed Catawba Casino Project Approved by Feds\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-26T14:04:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-19T08:16:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Catawba casino compact with North Carolina approved by federal government, contentious King Mountain casino project ok\u2019d.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":751,\"caption\":\"Kings Mountain casino backer Wallace Cheves discusses the project during a public consultation in January. (Image: Melissa Key\/CBJ)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tribal Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Feds Approve Compact for Vexed Catawba North Carolina Casino Project\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Compact for Vexed Catawba Casino Project Approved by Feds","description":"Catawba casino compact with North Carolina approved by federal government, contentious King Mountain casino project ok\u2019d.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Compact for Vexed Catawba Casino Project Approved by Feds","og_description":"Catawba casino compact with North Carolina approved by federal government, contentious King Mountain casino project ok\u2019d.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2021-03-26T14:04:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-19T08:16:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":751,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/","name":"Compact for Vexed Catawba Casino Project Approved by Feds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-26T14:04:24+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-19T08:16:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Catawba casino compact with North Carolina approved by federal government, contentious King Mountain casino project ok\u2019d.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/wallace-cheves.jpg","width":1200,"height":751,"caption":"Kings Mountain casino backer Wallace Cheves discusses the project during a public consultation in January. (Image: Melissa Key\/CBJ)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/feds-approve-compact-for-vexed-catawba-n-carolina-casino-project\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tribal Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Feds Approve Compact for Vexed Catawba North Carolina Casino Project"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}