POINT ARENA, CA – The Manchester-Point Arena Band of Pomo Indians have begun
grading a site for a 8,836 square-foot casino which they hope to open in Spring
2010. It is located on tribal land between Manchester and Point Arena, a little
over a mile east of Highway 1. The casino will have a barn-like design and
feature 249 slot machines.
A tribal spokesman, Anthony Cohen, said “The most exciting thing about the
project is that it’s being made possible by other tribes. With the economy the
way it is, it’s very difficult to borrow money, and it’s especially difficult to
borrow money for gaming enterprises, but what’s going on here is the
Manchester-Point Arena is working with two other tribes. We can’t identify the
other tribes yet, because nothing is finalized, but one is a California tribe,
the other is a New Mexico tribe, and they are considering and hopefully,
ultimately they will decide to go ahead with a loan of $10 million.
“The compacts that were entered into during the Gov. Gray Davis era (1999-2003)
call for gaming tribes to pay a fee into the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund. The
money in that fund is distributed to tribes that have less than 350 slot
machines operating. It comes to a little over $1 million a year that the
non-gaming tribes get from this fund. It’s a great secondary benefit from those
Davis compacts; $1 million a year is not a lot of money for a tribe with
thousands of members, but in this case it’s enough that tribal lenders see it as
security. So we not only have two tribes that are willing to stick their necks
out and lend money in these difficult times, but we also have the generosity of
all the other tribes who are contributing to the revenue trust fund, enabling
the two lending tribes to feel comfortable that this is a safe thing to do.”
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