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Cherokees Seek To Expand Casino Operations
Published: 2005-04-28
 Cherokees Seek To Expand Casino Operations
POSTED: 2:11 pm EDT April 28, 2005
CHEROKEE, N.C. -- The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians wants to change the deal with North Carolina that allows it to operate the state's only gambling casino, a spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Easley said Thursday.
The casino is limited to video gambling machines and digital blackjack with a live dealer, but would like to open poker and blackjack card tables with a dealer.
Easley wrote the tribe's leaders Monday asking them to specify changes in writing to the compact signed by Gov. Jim Hunt in 1994.
"The governor has asked tribe to get back to him on what points in the compact they want to negotiate," spokeswoman Sherri Johnson said. "They have not done that."
Easley has assigned three top legal aides to represent him to the tribe, along with David McCoy, the state budget officer, who helped write the original gambling compact.
The tribe has sought since at least 2003 to expand the types of games it can offer at its casino.
States have been required since 1988 to permit Indian tribes to engage in any gaming allowed under state law. A 1993 amendment to North Carolina's slot machine law allowed the operation of video gaming machines in certain circumstances.
The casino, owned by the Eastern Band and operated by Harrah's Inc., opened in 1997 and has become one of western North Carolina's biggest businesses with more than $155 million in profits a year and about 1,800 workers.
This year, the 13,000-member tribe finished a new hotel tower, boosting the complex to more than 600 rooms.
Joyce Dugan, the casino's spokeswoman and the tribe's former principal chief, said competition from other casinos in the Southeast could hamper the growth of Harrah's Cherokee Casino, which is starting to flatten out.
Customers in the casino's largest markets, Southeastern cities such as Atlanta, can take a flight to Gulf Coast casinos that offer live card games, Dugan said. The trip is not much longer than the drive to Cherokee, she said.
"We have not leveled out yet nor have we gone down in revenue," she said. "But we have to have more to offer. We used to think we had no competition. Table games would change (the trend) 100 percent."
Harrah's and the tribe are working on a master plan that details future growth strategy. Dugan said the tribe wants the casino to become a resort destination and is planning to build a golf course.
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Husband 'Kidnapped' by Poker Buddies
Published: 2005-04-14
 Husband 'Kidnapped' by Poker Buddies
Thursday, April 14, 2005
A California woman was sure her husband was being abducted — but it turned out just to be his buddies getting him to play poker.
It was close to midnight Saturday when the unnamed couple pulled into their driveway in Rialto, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, reports The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
As they got out of their car, two strange men suddenly jumped out, threw the husband into a waiting vehicle and sped off.
The terrified woman immediately called 911.
"She didn't know who the guys were," Rialto Sgt. Carla McCullough told the newspaper. "She was all frantic. She thought her husband had been kidnapped."
City police and a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department (search) helicopter scoured the area and quickly found the getaway car less than two miles away.
"We were treating it as a big deal," said McCullough. "But we get to the car, and the guy says, 'These are my friends — they just wanted me to play poker.'"
Police let the jokers go. No one answered the door at the couple's home the following afternoon.
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