The tribe has earned an enduring negative reputation stemming from internal, highly publicized, leadership disputes earlier in the 2000s, as well as from tribal citizen disenrollment issues involving divisions of gaming per capita payments. Want more news like this? Get the free weekly newsletter. Then COVID-19 forced the tribe to close the doors of its main moneymaker, the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, for a portion of the year. As well, the tribe was concurrently battling another casino-related management case for $21 million. Long before the pandemic - for much of the past decade, in fact - the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians in California has been in serious financial trouble.īy September 2020, less than nine months ago, the tribe owed $350 million on a loan, and a major bank was aggressively suing to get its money back.
