Wisconsin Think Tank Seeks Hard Rock Kenosha Casino Dismissal Over DEI Policies
Posted on: November 11, 2025, 10:35h.
Last updated on: November 11, 2025, 11:02h.
- A think tank in Wisconsin is hoping the federal government rejects a tribal casino in Kenosha
- The conservative advocacy took issue with Hard Rock Kenosha’s DEI hiring mandate
A prominent conservative think tank in Wisconsin believes local government officials in Kenosha agreed to a bad deal in their development agreement with the Menominee Indian Tribe for a tribal casino resort on the site of the former Dairyland Greyhound Park racetrack.
The Menominee, through a development pact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and its subsidiary, Hard Rock International, is awaiting federal approval to construct a $360 million tribal casino resort in Kenosha. Last year, the Kenosha Common Council agreed to sell the approximately 60-acre plot of city-owned land to the Menominee for $15 million.
The tribe claims historical ties to the region and, therefore, has the federal right to operate Indian gaming, as permitted by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), should the property be placed into the federal trust. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) continues to review the casino project’s Environmental Assessment, a process that has been stalled by the federal government shutdown.
Should the land-intro-trust application be accepted, as expected, the tribe and Seminoles would be free to pursue a tribal gaming destination. The county and city have already agreed to an intergovernmental agreement, which paves the way for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Kenosha to enter into a Class III revenue-sharing agreement with the state to include traditional slot machines, live-dealer table games, and sports betting.
DEI Inclusion
If the federal government signs off on Hard Rock Kenosha, the tribes plan to construct a 150-room hotel with a gaming area featuring around 1,500 slot machines, 50 tables, and a sportsbook. A concert venue with seating for 2,000, seven restaurants, three bars, a retail Hard Rock Shop, an outdoor pool, a fitness center, and an 8,500-square-foot ballroom are among the amenities.
As for staffing, the tribes claim Hard Rock will employ “more than 1,000 people once the project is fully built out.” How many of those jobs will be staffed by Kenosha locals is to be determined.
The ratified Inter-Governmental Agreement Between Kenosha County and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin mandates “a goal of 25% minority employment.” The terms additionally require that the casino “use its best efforts to award 15% of all contracts to vendors or enterprises certified as minority business enterprises,” and “10% of all contracts to enterprises which are certified as 51% owned, controlled, or managed by women or Native Americans.”
The Wisconsin think tank MacIver Institute raised red flags regarding the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) components.
This DEI-based hiring quota was proposed by the Menominee Tribe and approved by both the City and County of Kenosha during the Biden Administration — an administration that heavily promoted DEI mandates, pressuring public institutions and private corporations to adopt them while spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on related grants,” MacIver staff wrote.
“When paired with the likelihood that the Seminole Tribe will fill many key positions with its own out-of-state members, the promise of local job creation for Kenosha residents looks doubtful,” the think tank opined.
Calls for Rejection
MacIver suggests that the BIA reject the casino application outright.
“Given the discriminatory hiring provisions embedded in the Menominee Tribe’s IGA and the decades-long pattern of controversy surrounding previous Kenosha casino proposals, the Bureau of Indian Affairs should reject the tribe’s latest application outright. The risks to taxpayers, local workers, and the integrity of the process are simply too great,” MacIver concluded.
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