Absentee Shawnee lay off 60 workers following court order
NORMAN, Okla. ? A month after U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley found Thunderbird Entertainment Center manager Mickey Burke in criminal contempt, the Absentee Shawnee tribe have laid off more than 60 workers at the facility.
Five hundred gambling machines have been shut down after the court and the National Indian Gaming Commission ruled the games 'Buffalo Nickels' and 'Red Hot Re-Spin' were illegal in Oklahoma.
The tribe contended the games are legal and filed an administrative appeal with the commission. Absentee Shawnee Gov. James Edwards decided the deadlock between the commission and the tribe over the machines was doing little more than draining tribal coffers in an endless round of litigation that wasn't accomplishing anything.
"Tribal officials have to be good stewards of tribal funds," Edwards said. "And endless litigation uses precious financial resources."
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But ending the stand off over the machines extracted a human toll. More than 60 employees at the center had to be laid off. "It was one of the most painful decisions I've ever experience," Burke said.
He added that most of the center's employees were underemployed or had previously been on state welfare roles and he feared they would return to that status after the layoff.
Ninety percent of the tribe's general fund income has been underwritten by gaming revenues.
Officials said the tribe plans to reopen negotiations with the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office in an effort to resolve the lawsuit filed against the state by the tribe.
