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Settlement Allows Full-Fledged Gambling At Tohono O'odham Casino

The state of Arizona and a southern Arizona tribe have settled a lawsuit that will allow the tribe to operate full-fledged Indian gambling at its casino in Glendale.

The agreement ends a years long dispute over the Tohono O’odham’s Desert Diamond Casino near 91st and Northern avenues.

The tribe opened the casino in 2015, but Gov. Doug Ducey's administration denied it a gambling license.

The casino instead had bingo-style slots and no table games like poker and blackjack. In exchange, the tribe says it will not attempt to open any more casinos in the Phoenix area.

There had been a legal question about whether a 1986 federal law actually permitted such a move.

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KJZZ senior field correspondent Kathy Ritchie has 20 years of experience reporting and writing stories for national and local media outlets — nearly a decade of it has been spent in public media.