The Gun Lake Tribe has announced local revenue sharing payments this spring have amounted to more than $2 million in casino money.

The State of Michigan received $4,268,003, the Local Revenue Sharing Board received $2,134,001, and GLIMI, an economic development entity, received $1,280,401. The figures are calculated from electronic gaming revenues reported from Oct. 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018.    

Wayland Union Schools are the biggest recipient of the funding, with more than $1.6 million annually. Area municipalities near the Gun Lake Casino are getting more than $30,000 apiece.

“We are proud to continue offering great benefits to the local community in the form of jobs and revenue sharing payments,” said Scott Sprague, chairman of the Gun Lake Tribe. “These economic impacts are growing through employee wages, vendor spending and state and local revenue sharing payments.”

The tribe reinvested $76 million into an expansion of Gun Lake Casino that opened May 3, 2017. The benefits were immediate to the surrounding community with dozens of new construction jobs, and more than 100 new permanent employment positions offered. The expanded gaming area enabled revenue to grow by nearly 25 percent.  

The tribe’s revenue sharing payments are based on a percentage of gross revenue; not on much smaller profit figures, officials asserted. This results in much larger payments to units of government than corporate tax payments. The tribe’s business operations are also not dependent on tax abatements as a means to justify reinvestment. Nor will the tribe’s operations ever relocate oversees or to other states with lower business taxes. 

Sprague noted that as the tribal government and casino operations have grown, so too has the workforce. The tribe is now the fourth-largest employer in Allegan County, at 1,300 positions which Sprague said offer very competitive wage and benefit packages. 

The tribe’s state revenue sharing payments depend on continued preservation of exclusive gaming rights within its competitive market area, as defined by the tribal-state gaming compact, which also includes statewide expansion of certain lottery games.  The market area includes the cities of Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Lansing, as well as the entire counties of Kent, Kalamazoo and Ingham, among others.

The tribe has now shared more than $75 million with the State of Michigan, which directs the payments to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The MEDC in turn awards grants to businesses to invest in Michigan and create jobs.  One such project is the recently announced plans for an Amazon warehouse near Grand Rapids that will seek to fill 1,000 jobs.  The MEDC has offered Amazon $4 million to locate to Grand Rapids.    

The Local Revenue Sharing Board receives and administers the semi-annual payments. The gaming compact prescribes mandatory funding to local municipalities for: costs incurred due to the operation of the casino; public safety services; and replacement of tax revenue. The board established by-laws to govern the distribution process.  The local payments are made under terms of the gaming compact independent of gaming exclusivity.