California’s North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians has asked a federal judge to dismiss a rival tribe’s last-ditch attempt to block its $750 million California casino project.
The North Fork Mono Casino & Resort is on track to open in October, provided it can fend off a last-ditch lawsuit from the Picayune Rancheria. (Image: North Fork Mono Casino) The North Fork Mono Casino & Resort is nearing completion on a 305-acre site off Highway 99, north of Madera. The property is slating an October opening featuring more than 2,400 slot machines, 40 table games, eight dining options, and four bars.
However, a federal lawsuit filed by the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians—operator of the nearby Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold, Calif.—argues the project lacks valid state approval under federal gaming law.
The suit names the North Fork Rancheria, project development partner Station Casinos, and the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), which approved the 2024 management agreement between the tribe and Station.
Fork in the Road
Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), gambling is generally prohibited on tribal lands acquired in trust after 1988.
An exception known as the “two-part determination” allows off-reservation gaming if the U.S. Interior Secretary determines the project benefits the tribe without harming the local community—and if the host state’s governor concurs.
The federal government approved North Fork’s Madera site in 2011, and then-Gov. Jerry Brown concurred in August 2012, signing a tribal-state gaming compact the next day. The U.S. Department of the Interior subsequently took the land into federal trust.
Opponents, backed by Picayune, forced a statewide referendum on the legislative ratification of the compact. In November 2014, California voters rejected the measure through Proposition 48, blocking the compact from taking effect.
Despite that setback, opponents lost a major federal challenge two years later when U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell upheld the Interior Department’s land-into-trust decision.
‘Void Ab Initio’
Picayune now argues North Fork cannot satisfy IGRA’s requirements because the underlying gubernatorial concurrence is legally invalid.
In 2024, a Madera County judge ruled that Proposition 48 annulled Brown’s concurrence, rendering it void ab initio—invalid from the outset. California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal upheld that judgment in December 2025, and the California Supreme Court declined to review North Fork’s appeal in April.
North Fork maintains that its authority to operate gaming on federal trust land is governed exclusively by federal law, citing prior federal rulings that validated its site approvals.
The tribe is proceeding with its timeline toward an October launch. Red Rock Resorts, which is financing and developing the resort through subsidiary Station Casinos, informed investors last month that it expects the property to open during the fourth quarter.
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