After years of negotiation, multiple Arizona tribes entered into compacts with the state to offer casino style gaming operations in 1993. As part of these agreements, the number of facilities and machines allowed were based on tribal membership. The compacts were for ten-year terms and were updated in 2002 with the passage of Proposition 202.

Proposition 202 allowed the state to enter into tribal-state compacts with Arizona’s Indian tribes that updated guidelines for Indian gaming and ensured its continuation well into the future. Under these compacts, tribes are authorized to operate limited gaming in a fixed number of gaming facilities around the state. Because the Nation is one of the largest tribes in Arizona, Prop 202 and the tribal-state compacts allow the Nation to construct up to four gaming facilities. The Nation currently has three operating facilities, which are leaders in the Indian gaming industry.

Additionally, because of the Nation’s land settlement with the federal government under the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act, Prop 202 and the compacts allow the Nation to operate limited gaming on lands acquired under the Lands Replacement Act. Once constructed, the West Valley Resort will be subject to the limitations explicitly provided for in Prop 202, the compacts and the Lands Replacement Act.

Click here to download an Issue Brief on the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act.

Click here to download a timeline of activities leading to the West Valley Resort.