- Picayune’s amended complaint seeks to vacate the NIGC’s approval of North Fork’s management contract with Red Rock Resorts.
- California’s Supreme Court denied North Fork’s petition for review in April, finalizing a ruling that the required governor’s approval was void.
- Red Rock has advanced $117.1 million toward the casino and stands to collect a 30% management fee once it opens.
- North Fork’s website lists an October opening for the 2,400-slot casino as the lawsuit remains unresolved.
MADERA, Calif. – The Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians is asking a federal judge to void the National Indian Gaming Commission’s approval of the management contract behind North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians’ casino, a project financed with a loan of nearly $725 million, arguing the site still lacks the state approval two California courts have ruled it needs before it can open legally.
A Management Deal Under Legal Attack
The National Indian Gaming Commission’s chair approved North Fork’s management contract with Red Rock Resorts, acting through its Station Casinos subsidiary, on Jan. 5, 2024, according to Red Rock’s quarterly securities filings, which Picayune’s amended complaint cites. The contract entitles the company to a management fee of 30% of the casino’s net income plus a development fee of 4% of construction costs.
Red Rock had advanced $76.8 million toward the project by September 2024, a figure that had grown to $117.1 million by April 2025, the filings show, covering the environmental review, the land purchase and litigation costs. The company’s most recent quarterly report puts the project’s total cost at about $750 million and its opening in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Picayune’s first amended complaint, filed Aug. 20 in the federal court for California’s Eastern District (case 1:26-cv-04343-KES-SAB), argues that the chair had authority to approve the contract only if the casino site qualifies for gaming under federal Indian gaming law. Picayune, which opened the case June 5, says the site does not qualify because the governor’s concurrence that law requires was never valid, which in its telling makes the approval arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
What The California Courts Already Settled
California’s Supreme Court took up the question of the governor’s concurrence power in 2020 and ruled that power is not “indefeasible.” On remand, the Court of Appeal found that voters had annulled it when they rejected Proposition 48 in 2014. Applying that holding, a Madera County Superior Court entered judgment in July 2024 declaring then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012 concurrence for the project void from the start.
The Court of Appeal affirmed that judgment Dec. 16, 2025, and the state Supreme Court denied North Fork’s petition for review on April 1, 2026, making the ruling final.
No One At The Commission To Revisit It
The commission has had no chair since Jan. 13, a vacancy that left California tribal gaming approvals stalled and management-contract approvals outside the vice chair’s delegated authority. Picayune’s complaint describes the chair’s seat as vacant in its list of parties. That leaves the commission with no one positioned to reconsider its own 2024 approval even if it wanted to, putting the dispute entirely in the Fresno Division court that now holds it.
Construction Continues Toward October
North Fork’s promotional site advertises an October grand opening for the casino, which the complaint says will house 2,400 slot machines and 40 house-banked card and percentage games on a Highway 99 parcel roughly 39 miles from Picayune’s own Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino.
The tribe posted video in August showing slot machines already on the floor as of June 30. The complaint quotes North Fork Chairperson Fred Beihn’s January 2024 statement calling Station Casinos “a partner so committed to the principles of tribal sovereignty,” and the casino’s website still advertises the October date.
The amended complaint asks the court for preliminary and permanent injunctions against gaming on the parcel, which would otherwise add to the tally of California’s land-based casinos that already anchor gambling in California, as October approaches.