By Kie Relyea / The Bellingham Herald
LYNDEN — The National Indian Gaming Commission has ordered the Nooksack Indian Tribe to immediately close its Northwood Casino, its last remaining casino since the tribe shut its Nooksack River Casino in December 2015.
The federal agency issued the order Thursday, citing “numerous violations of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.”
Northwood Casino, 9750 Northwood Road, north of Lynden near the U.S.-Canada border, remained open Friday morning. A woman answered the casino’s phone. And a caller to The Bellingham Herald, who identified herself as a customer of the casino, said she was told it was still open.
The casino provides more than 100 jobs, according to its website. It has more than 350 slot machines, three dining outlets and a gift store.
Nooksack Tribal Chairman Bob Kelly couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“We do not take lightly the issuance of notices of violation and closure orders against tribal gaming operations,” said Jonodev Chaudhuri, chairman for the National Indian Gaming Commission.
“We are taking this significant enforcement action only after a complete analysis of the unique circumstances involved, including a full review of the structure of the tribe’s governing and business bodies,” Chaudhuri said in a statement. “The violations set forth in the notice compromise the integrity of the Northwood Casino and the gaming industry as a whole, diminish the sole prioprietry (sic) interests of the tribe, threaten the health and safety of the public, and impede the tribe’s ability to make necessary decisions to administer their operations.”
The gaming commission laid out the following alleged violations:
• The tribe failed to maintain its sole proprietary interest and responsibility for the conduct of any gaming activity.
• The tribe failed to submit the required attestation certifying that the construction and maintenance of the gaming facility adequately protected the environment and public health and safety.
• The tribe failed to maintain and operate the gaming facility in a manner that adequately protected the environment and public health and safety based on Environmental Protection Agency orders that detailed significant deficiencies of the Safe Drinking Water Act that have occurred at six water systems, including the one serving the Northwood Casino.
• The tribe failed to perform required licensing actions for members of the Nooksack Business Corporation II, who are the primary management officials for the casino.
If the tribe doesn’t make corrections, it could be fined $50,276 a day for each violation, the agency said.
The National Indian Gaming Commission’s order is the latest blow in an ongoing legal battle over the tribe’s decision in November 2016 to remove 289 people from the Nooksack membership rolls because, the tribal council said, those people didn’t have strong enough blood ties to the tribe and had been erroneously enrolled.
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