Casino Coming To Kings Mountain Nc
A major new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is now in the works for the Charlotte region. The Catawba Indian Nation is now working with Hard Rock International of Orlando, Fla., to plan an unprecedented new $600 million casino in Kings Mountain, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. The Two Kings Casino Resort will open their doors for phase one of the facility’s opening and its activities beginning in the Summer of 2021. Estimates show the resort being able to bring in over $300 million yearly for North Carolina. KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. – The Catawba Nation in North Carolina has been working on constructing a $273.
Is A Casino Coming To Kings Mountain Nc
Amid this year’s continued pandemic and economic shutdown, the Catawba Indian Tribe and several area developers have continued to plow ahead with the Charlotte Region’s new $273 million casino in Kings Mountain, NC. This week, Tribal Administrator Elizabeth Harris said that the Catawba Indian Nation now plans on opening the first section of the ‘Two. North Carolina has two operating Indian casinos and an Indian bingo hall. All three are owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina. A new Indian casino resort at King's Mountain is under construction by the Catawba Indian Nation. The casino is named Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort and will open in the Spring 2021.
After years of on-again, off-again efforts, the Catawba Indians plan to break ground Wednesday on a nearly $300 million casino 35 miles from Charlotte in Kings Mountain.
A tribe official on Friday confirmed the plans that would bring Vegas-style gambling to the Charlotte area. The Catawbas plan to open the casino in late spring or early summer of next year.
”The Catawba Nation is excited to get this long awaited project moving forward,” Catawba Chief Bill Harris said Friday. “The project will have a huge impact on the Cleveland County region bringing much needed jobs as well as on the future of the Catawba Nation.”
The groundbreaking comes despite a lawsuit against the project by the Eastern Band of Cherokees, who operate their own casinos in western North Carolina.
Based in South Carolina, where gambling is prohibited, the Catawbas have looked across the border for at least seven years. The tribe finally won federal approval in March to acquire 16 acres near Interstate 85 in Cleveland County. The U.S. Interior department put the land in trust, a designation that gives it the right to develop a casino.
Casino Coming To Kings Mountain Nc
At the time Harris called it “a righting of a wrong.”
The proposed casino has reignited a feud between the Carolinas’ biggest tribes over centuries-old land claims and big money. At stake is a piece of the $32 billion Indian gaming industry.
The Cherokees, who have operated their own N.C. casinos since 1997, have called the Catawbas’ efforts “a modern-day land grab.”
The Catawbas say they have a right to the land based on a provision of a 1993 agreement that gave them federal recognition. The agreement also gave them a “service area” in six N.C. counties, including Mecklenburg and Cleveland. Tribe members who live in those counties are eligible for the same federal benefits and services as those living on the reservation. That’s the basis for their claim to the N.C. land.
This spring, when the federal government put the land in trust, the Cherokees sued.
A federal judge rejected their request for a preliminary injunction, saying the Cherokees had not suffered “irreparable harm” by the government’s approval of the Catawba casino. In a memo explaining his order, Judge James Boasberg cited the Catawbas’ “significant economic challenges.”
“Its unemployment rate, for example, hovers around 13.8%,” he wrote, “more than three times the corresponding rates in North and South Carolina. . . . (I)ts median household income — roughly $30,000 — is about 30% below the equivalent figures for the Carolinas. Given that it lacks a sustainable revenue stream, the Nation cannot adequately provide financial assistance to its members.”
He said the casino would generate $72 million in income in its first year and $150 million after five years.
This month the Cherokees filed an amended claim, arguing that political pressure from the project’s developer prompted the government to pave the way for the casino and bypass Congress in the process.
In a statement, Cherokee Chief Richard Sneed called the scheduled groundbreaking “a slap in the face to Judge James Boasberg.”
“It’s investors’ money to flush as they see fit,” Sneed said. “The facts are clear that the DOI violated federal law in their rushed, politicized decision and we are confident that the court will ultimately put an end to Wallace Cheves’ shady scheme to force this casino on North Carolina.”
Over the past 18 months, developer Wallace Cheves has given nearly $500,000 to President Trump, the Republican Party, U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Lindsey Graham and other GOP lawmakers, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The Eastern Band also has been a big donor. Since 2019 it has given $213,000 to national party groups, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans.
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