The consultant, Lawrence Larsen, 39, collected $301,287 from the tribe's St. Croix Casino Turtle Lake from August 2015 to September 2017, the National Indian Gaming Commission said in a 29-page. Croix Casino - Danbury property details page: This casino is a tribal casino and can be found in Danbury, Wisconsin. Croix Casino - Danbury features 500 slots and 10 table games for your enjoyment. World Casino Directory also books hotel rooms in the major casino resorts in Danbury. The IRS and a lawyer for the St. Croix Chippewa found that millions of gambling dollars were being misused and that some leaders were pocketing money 11 years before gaming regulators cited the tribe.

The setting says Las Vegas: all clinking change and flashing lights and crisply dealt cards as a paunchy, graying army of tinhorns gambles the day away.

But this is not Las Vegas. This is Chippewa Indian country in northwest Wisconsin. And in the not-too-distant future it may also be suburban Chicago. Last month the St. Croix Chippewa Indian tribe opened the $11 million roadside St. Croix Casino here, 90 minutes northeast of Minneapolis in a hamlet amid rolling farm and lake country, filling a warehouse-sized gaming hall with slot machines, blackjack tables, Native American bric-a-brac and, most important, eager bettors.

Now, as quick as a player tells a dealer to 'double down,' the tribe and its non-Indian management firm want to build another, far-more-elaborate casino in a Chicago suburb. Their first choice is Rolling Meadows, which they favor for its highway access and wealth of hotels and restaurants.

How a group of Wisconsin Indians came to propose building a $30 million casino in the northwest suburb is the improbable story of an alliance between a poor Indian tribe and a suburban Chicago gym teacher, and how they seized on ambiguities in a 1988 law to launch a gambling empire.

St Croix Casino Tribe Misused Money Today

Of course there is no guarantee that the Rolling Meadows casino will ever be built. The St. Croix Chippewa must leap numerous governmental hurdles first, including winning approval from Gov. Jim Edgar, who currently opposes the expansion of gambling in the state.

But if Mayor Richard Daley can persuade Edgar and the General Assembly to allow Chicago to build a $2-billion casino-entertainment complex, an issue that probably will not be addressed until the fall legislative session, that could boost prospects for the tribe`s proposal. Backers say the suburban casino would attract a sizable clientele that would balk at going downtown.

The Turtle Lake casino already is averaging 3,800 visitors a day and as many as 10,000 daily on weekends, according to early reports from the management company.

Even if the suburban Chaicao gambit fails, the tribe`s effort dramatically illustrates the new opportunity afforded Native Americans by the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The act was intended to give Indians the same rights as states in the use of gaming for economic development. It dictated that once a state allows any form of gaming for any purpose, even for charity, Indians must be allowed to run the same kind of games for profit without government interference.

Through legal challenges and entrepreneurship, tribes have quickly expanded the scope of the act well beyond what many considered its original intent, said Tommy Garrett, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are currently about two dozen Las Vegas-style Indian casinos in the U.S., the majority of which are in Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission. The total is expected to reach more than 100 by 1996, according to a 1991 report by the Wall Street firm Raymond James & Associates.

This expansion is being challenged. In Wisconsin, for example, Gov. Tommy Thompson is pushing for a state constitutional amendment that would narrow the definition of lotteries and could scuttle Wisconsin`s Indian casinos when existing contracts expire in several years.

Such opposition does not sit well with Indians like the St. Croix Chippewa, who now feel compelled to push as hard as they can into new markets to make money before laws might be amended.

'There is a belief that there is only a short window of opportunity, that the white man really doesn`t want us to succeed,' said Morrie Anderson, a St. Croix Chippewa who is chief of operations at the Turtle Lake casino.

Despite some concern over the spread of Indian gaming, which coincides with a similar expansion for mainstream gambling enterprises nationally, few could deny the benefits Indian tribes have reaped from gambling.

In one dramatic example, the Mille Lacs Chippewa tribe of Minnesota, which owns the two Grand Casinos in Mille Lacs and Hinckley, Minn., is floating a $15 million bond issue to build a school and clinic. The 2,500-member tribe, which suffered 40 to 60 percent unemployment, now claims near total employment.

The same tantalizing prospects loom for the St. Croix Chippewa, a tribe of 1,800 members who come from the border area of Wisconsin and Minnesota along the St. Croix River.

The St. Croix Chippewa, by their own account, are quite poor, having had years of high unemployment, heavy reliance on government aid and a lot of debt.

Suddenly, with the St. Croix casino and several other smaller facilities in Wisconsin, the tribe stands to make millions that members hope will be used for job training and other programs.

'I don`t want my children to grow up with their hands held out asking the government for their Indian relief check every month,' said Wayne Mosay, a tribe member and casino manager.

The tribe`s fortunes started turning last year after the settlement of a legal challenge by Wisconsin paved the way for local casino-style Indian gambling.

At the same time, three incumbents on the St. Croix Chippewa tribal council were ousted in the biennial election, replaced by liberals more eager to exploit the changes in gaming laws and build on the tribe`s modest bingo operation. Within months the tribe had signed a management contract with a Palatine company called Buffalo Brothers and was planning to replace one of its bingo parlors with a lavish casino.

Like the St. Croix Chippewa, Buffalo Brothers stumbled into gaming success. The firm was started in 1989 by Ron Brown, 49, head track coach at Maine West High School in Des Plaines, who made a small fortune on several side businesses including real estate.

In retirement and looking for new ventures, Brown became involved in leasing slot machines to Indians, including the St. Croix Chippewa. In partnership as Buffalo Brothers with Roy Palmer, a Park Ridge attorney, the two struck the deal to manage of the St. Croix Chippewa`s gaming business. They also agreed to bankroll the building of the St. Croix casino.

The 65,000-square-foot casino, with slot and video poker machines and several blackjack areas, is modest by Las Vegas standards. There is no belching volcano, caged bear or other cartoonish attraction. The Native American motif is vivid, however, from the etched glass portrait of the St. Croix Chippewa chief in the bar to the name of the restaurant: the Me-Ke-Noc, which means turtle.

Rick Cole, the casino`s chief executive and a former Las Vegas casino worker, said the gaming house, which employs 750 people, has the potential to generate more than $30 million annually in winnings.

St Croix Casino Tribe Misused Money From Charity

Generally, the money trickles in. The casino`s customers are mostly older low rollers, many living within a two-hour drive and spending no more than $30 or $40 per person on a visit.

But some, like Gordon and Jan Normand from Wausau, Wis., spend more. The couple was on a road trip last week visiting Indian casinos in Wisconsin and Minnesota and brought more than $1,000 to gamble.

The Normands, he a 55-year-old mill worker, she a 52-year-old insurance administrator, could be the models for the Rolling Meadows casino proposal. They are quiet and affluent.

Buffalo Brothers maintains that these are the kind of people who would come to the suburban casino, which they project would create 1,200 jobs and contribute at least $16 million annually to the state and local government.

Brown, Buffalo Brothers` president, said the casino would be privately financed. He said two unidentified Wall Street firms and a banking group have approached him about financing the Rolling Meadows casino, perhaps through the sale of stock.

But