© Lisa Krantz, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

As state lawmakers consider expanding gaming options in Texas, Native American tribal leaders who operate the state’s largest casino are sounding the alarm, warning they would lose most of their customers and face possible bankruptcy under the leading plan to bring Vegas-style resorts to the state.

The prospect of competing with Las Vegas Sands, Caesars and other titans of the casino industry has long loomed over the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, which first opened the doors to its gaming operation in 1996. Set along the Rio Grande on the tribe’s Eagle Pass reservation, the Lucky Eagle Casino promptly brought the Kickapoos out of severe poverty, providing jobs for members who had toiled as migrant farm workers.

Casino revenue paid for new housing and other modern infrastructure — replacing structures made of reeds, cattails and cardboard — and unlocked new social services like health care and education.

Twenty-seven years later, the Kickapoos still generate most of their revenue from the Lucky Eagle, which is authorized under a federal law that gives Native American tribes special gaming rights. They are the only one of Texas’ three federally recognized tribes to have fully eluded the state’s strict anti-gambling laws, as state officials waged a decades-long legal battle to shut down gaming facilities operated by the Alabama-Coushatta in East Texas and the Tigua in El Paso.

Though the U.S. Supreme Court settled the matter in favor of the tribes last year, the decision followed numerous lower court rulings over the years that forced the tribes to shutter or scale back their operations — making the Lucky Eagle, for years at a time, the only legal casino in Texas. 

Boosted by their near-monopoly, the Kickapoos have transformed the casino from what was once a cramped, temporary structure into a glitzy six-story facility that offers a dozen poker tables, a 200-seat bingo hall and more than 3,000 electronic gaming machines. A 249-room hotel caters to the casino’s main source of business: San Antonio residents, who live about two and a half hours away yet make up around 75 percent of the Lucky Eagle’s customers, Kickapoo Tribe attorney Jennifer Hughes told a panel of lawmakers in March.

Kickapoo tribal leaders argue that most of their Alamo City traffic would evaporate under proposed legislation that seeks to authorize eight “destination resort” casinos across Texas’ major urban centers, including one in the San Antonio metro area. Given the option of a new casino closer to home, tribal leaders contend, San Antonio residents would have little reason to continue making the longer trek.

To preserve their access to the metro area, the Kickapoos are pushing lawmakers — without any success thus far — to amend the casino gaming legislation to allow the tribe to operate its own destination resort around the San Antonio area. The tribe, arguing its sparsely populated border region would leave them with nowhere else to turn, has gotten lawmakers to tack similar amendments onto gaming legislation in past sessions, though none of those proposals came close to passing the Legislature.

Kickapoo Tribe Chairman Juan Garza said the tribe’s “position has been consistent and crystal clear to the Legislature for at least the last 20 years.” He added that “promoters of these bills are ignoring us and our needs,” suggesting the gaming industry’s high-powered lobbying effort was to blame.

“It is extremely concerning that the out-of-state interests behind the casino and sports wagering bills have excluded the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas from their legislation,” Garza said in a statement. “Our Tribe has been in Texas for centuries, [and] it is disheartening to have these big corporations prioritized over the economic survival of the Kickapoo.”

A spokesperson for the Texas Destination Resort Alliance, a Las Vegas Sands’ lobbying group, declined comment. State Reps. Charlie Geren and John Kuempel, who are carrying the House’s casino gaming legislation, could not be reached for comment. 

Gambling legislation hits milestone

Amid an aggressive push from the gaming industry, the House State Affairs Committee last month advanced the chamber’s leading casino and sports betting measures, a milestone never before reached by comparable gaming legislation.

Still, both proposals will be put to the test in the coming weeks, starting with a Thursday deadline to reach the House floor for a preliminary vote. Opening the state to casinos and sports betting would also require amending the Texas Constitution, meaning each measure would need two-thirds support from the House and Senate and, finally, support from a majority of voters on the statewide ballot.

The legislation faces an especially steep climb in the Senate, where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a Republican who presides over the chamber and can block any bill from reaching the floor — has said he would only allow the Senate to vote if significantly more Republican members voice support.

Yet advocates of expanded gaming say a show of support from the House could help move the needle in future sessions, even if the measures die in the Senate this time. And Kickapoo leaders are still holding out hope their amendments will make it into the legislation if the House decides to vote on it this week.

Kickapoo officials declined to say how much revenue the Lucky Eagle generates. They argue that the economic boon extends beyond the tribe’s 1,120 members — who do not directly receive any casino revenue — and the reservation itself, with the tribe serving as the second-largest employer in Maverick County, where the median household income is among the lowest in the state.

Aside from the new casino location, the Kickapoos are also urging lawmakers to establish “Tribal-State compacts” for all three Texas tribes — a step required by federal law before the tribes can offer the traditional casino-style gambling that the destination resorts would have.

Without a compact, the tribes would remain limited to what’s known as Class II gambling, or bingo-based games that stand a notch below Las Vegas-style options such as blackjack, craps and roulette.

While Geren’s casino constitutional amendment would, at the request of a tribe’s governing body, require the governor to negotiate a compact “in good faith,” officials from the Kickapoo and Alabama-Coushatta tribes both argued for language that would simply codify the agreement within the bill, bypassing the governor altogether.

Geren noted that his latest draft includes a provision that would allow the tribes to bring the matter to federal court if they felt the governor had negotiated in bad faith. The state’s sovereign immunity — a legal principle that protects the government from being sued without its consent — would be waived.

Nita Battise, vice chair of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribal Council, told lawmakers on the State Affairs Committee that she did not believe the draft “clearly spells out that all three federally recognized Indian tribes are covered,” though she said her tribe appreciates that they would have a legal remedy if needed.

“This is a key provision because, to date, no Texas governor has ever agreed to negotiate a gaming compact with a Texas tribe,” Battise said.