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Meeting Set on Indian Gaming

GRAND FORKS, North Dakota -- The North Dakota Indian Gaming Association board has called a meeting of tribal officials to discuss the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa's proposal for a casino here.

The meeting is scheduled Saturday in Hankinson. J. Kurt Luger, executive director of both the state association and the Great Plains Indian Gaming Association, said he was not comfortable discussing the issue until after the meeting.

In Minnesota, the Indian gaming association officially opposes off-reservation gambling, said its executive director, John McCarthy.

"We only have nine of the 11 Minnesota tribes involved with our association right now," he said. "That is because of the issue of off-reservation gaming. We are not happy with this issue. We would much rather be unified as one group."

If off-reservation gambling were approved, it would open the "floodgate," possibly making gambling available to non-Indian entities and running rural Indian gambling facilities into the ground, McCarthy said.

"It would mean the beginning of the end for all tribes in the state," he said.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun. Inc. Republished with permission.

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