Juneau's casino opened on shifting ground and now faces suits on two fronts

Juneau's first casino opened during a brief window when federal policy allowed tribal gaming in Alaska. That window has since closed, and the casino is now contested on several fronts.

Tlingit & Haida soft-opened Two Coppers Casino in early June, with about 100 Class II electronic gaming machines on the Jimmie George allotment on North Douglas Island, developed in partnership with the George Family. Class II gaming means electronic machines, not house-banked games like poker or blackjack. It is the second tribal casino to open in Alaska within months, both products of the same shift in federal policy.

For decades, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 was understood to have extinguished almost all "Indian country" in Alaska, leaving jurisdiction over Native land with the state, not tribes, and foreclosing the tribal casinos common in the Lower 48. A 2021 federal court ruling had blocked the Native Village of Eklutna from gaming on its allotment on those grounds.

That changed in 2024, when the Interior Department's top lawyer issued an opinion finding that Alaska tribes hold governmental authority over Native allotments. The National Indian Gaming Commission relied on it to approve gaming ordinances for Eklutna, near Anchorage, and Tlingit & Haida in Juneau. Eklutna opened the state's first tribal casino in early 2025; Two Coppers followed.

Then the ground shifted again. In September 2025, Interior withdrew the 2024 opinion and directed agencies back to a 1993 reading that the state holds jurisdiction. The move requires the gaming commission to reevaluate its approvals and clouds the status of Two Coppers, Eklutna's hall and other Alaska tribes pursuing gaming on allotments. The state has separately sued to close Eklutna's.

The Juneau project faces a second challenge closer to home. In a federal lawsuit, some members of the George Family — the allotment's own heirs — allege the gaming isn't properly licensed and that conditions at the site pose health and safety hazards, and have asked a court to order federal officials to halt it.

Tlingit & Haida says it is operating legally. President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson says the tribe has jurisdiction over the family allotment and worked through Interior and the gaming commission, and that those approvals stand. Gaming revenue, the tribe says, will fund tribal services, culture and language programs.

The casino sits on land the city cannot zone, permit or regulate. Juneau's city manager has told the Assembly the tribe wants to compensate the city for police and fire protection, and that the site sits just outside the city's fire service area. Whether it is legal at all now rests with the federal government and the courts.