Alabama-Coushatta Tribe to Open Temporary Casino Ahead of Major Texas Resort

• Temporary East Texas casino to create 110 jobs before resort opens
• Alabama-Coushatta Tribe breaks ground on massive new Naskila Casino Resort
• Supreme Court ruling clears path for expanded tribal gaming in Texas

The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe plans to open a temporary casino in East Texas this summer as construction begins on what is expected to become the state’s largest casino resort.

The temporary venue in Leggett will be open 24 hours a day and host 300 class II electronic bingo machines, according to a statement from the tribe.

“This temporary facility will provide a positive economic impact for Polk County, surrounding communities, and for the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe,” Tribal Council Chairman Ricky Sylestine said. “The temporary casino will create 110 new jobs, strengthen local partnership, and establish a foundation for long-term tourism growth.”

Resort Plans Advance

The tribe will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on June 18 to mark the official start of the larger, permanent resort’s construction.

Few details about the project have been released, but the venue, to be known as the Naskila Casino Resort, is expected to boast “a state-of-the-art casino floor, hotel accommodations, and diverse dining and entertainment options,” according to a press release from the tribe.

Currently, the biggest casino resort in Texas is the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, near the Mexican border. It’s one of just three gambling facilities in the state. These include the Alabama-Coushatta’s own Naskila Casino in Livingston, a modest gambling hall that will close to make way for the larger Naskila Casino Resort.

Off the reservation

Unlike the original facility, the new venue will be built off reservation on land owned by the tribe. Last September, tribal chairwoman Cecilia Flores told the Polk County Enterprise that the federal National Indian Gaming Commission had confirmed the land was eligible for gaming.

The expansion follows a landmark June 2023 ruling by the US Supreme Court, which found that Texas cannot prevent the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe from offering Class II gaming, including electronic bingo, on its reservation under federal law.

The decision capped decades of litigation between Texas and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe, along with the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, over tribal gaming rights.

Texas Gaming Battle

At the center of the dispute was the 1986 Texas Restoration Act (TRA), the federal law that restored the tribes’ federal recognition and lands but also included language restricting gaming activity.

Two years later, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), establishing a framework for tribal gaming nationwide and affirming tribes’ rights to operate Class II gaming on sovereign land.

Texas’ other federally recognized tribe, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, has long operated electronic bingo under IGRA because the federal law recognizing the tribe did not include similar nongaming provisions.

In 1994, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Alabama-Coushatta and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribes remained governed by the Restoration Act rather than IGRA. Nearly 30 years later, the Supreme Court reversed that decision, clearing the way for Class II gaming operations.