MEDC Plans Job Cuts After Tribe Halts Casino Payments

By DAVID EGGERT
Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan's economic development agency is planning staff cuts after a tribal casino stopped paying the state a portion of its gambling profits.

The Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians owns the Gun Lake Casino south of Grand Rapids. It didn't make a $7 million payment in June because the state has introduced Internet Lottery sales.

Michigan Economic Development Corp. CEO Steve Arwood says in a statement Monday the agency is reorganizing to "address a significant shortfall in operating revenues." He says there will be an impact on staff, and the MEDC could lose "some truly great, hard-working and talented people."

The agency receives $60 million a year from American Indian casinos.

In the past, other tribes have withheld payments after contending lottery games or non-tribal casinos in Detroit violated exclusivity clauses.

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