Kirk Adams hired to assist in Arizona tribal compact renegotiations

A little over a month after resigning as Chief of Staff for Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey (pictured left), and Kirk Adams (pictured right), has reportedly been hired by his former boss to oversee gaming and water issues throughout this year’s legislative session.

Gaming compact re-negotiations:

According to a Thursday report from the Arizona Mirror newspaper, the Republican is set to work on a contract basis for 54-year-old Ducey and assist his administration in helping to renegotiate gaming compacts with several of the western state’s tribes.

Educational wish list:

The newspaper reported that Arizona currently has gaming compacts in place with 16 tribes operating some 24 casinos. Although none of these 20-year deals are due to expire until 2026 at the earliest, Adams declared that Ducey’s administration is keen to investigate ‘how the state can increase revenues’ from aboriginal gaming so as to further fund a range of education programs.

The Arizona Mirror reported that there are six federally-recognized Native American groups in Arizona that do not operate casinos despite having compacts in place with the state although these do have permission to lease their gaming machine allocations to other tribes.

Considerable contributions:

The newspaper reported that Arizona has received almost $1.3 billion in tax revenues from tribal gaming since its most recent collection of compacts went into effect in 2004. It detailed that this amount includes the approximately $94 million gathered for the 2018 fiscal year as well as the around $54 million amassed since July.

Adams to the Arizona Mirror…

“I have an immediate knowledge of those issue areas and will be working with them on it.”

Sportsbetting landscape:

The Arizona Mirror reported that Adams may furthermore be tasked with helping the state to formulate its regulations on sportsbetting. The 45-year-old is a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives and purportedly declared following last year’s invalidation of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) that the activity should be limited to tribal casinos.