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On Friday, a Department of Justice attorney told a federal judge that the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians knew the Interior Department could reverse an earlier determination that its Vallejo land was eligible for gaming.
Despite those warnings, the tribe opened its “Preview Casino” on July 24, offering Class II gaming out of modular structures.
Six days later, Interior determined that the land did not qualify for gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), forcing the tribe to shutter the operation and take the federal government back to court.
What is Hot Potato?
Unfortunately, because of that attorney-client privilege, it is difficult to know what types of ethical dilemmas Hasselback is facing. However, it’s likely just the mere hint at issues will be enough for IPI to find itself, once again, being more closely scrutinized. Where that leads is anyone’s guess, given gaming regulators’ reluctance to hold the company accountable for its actions.
IPI now has until this Friday to find a new lawyer to carry the six-case workload Hasselback had, but will most likely use this as an excuse to delay the ongoing legal battles. It won’t get very far with that, though, and perhaps Judge Kennedy expected IPI to try something. She added in her ruling that the attorney’s exit “may cause some delay, [but] that delay is not so much so that it would cause significant prejudice or adversely and materially affect the plaintiff.”
This particular lawsuit involving Fox Financial, one of a growing list IPI is battling, centers on an arrangement the company made with a third party, Forson Holdings. That entity had leased property from Fox in 2016, but fell behind. IPI had signed as a guarantor of that lease agreement and, as such, was responsible for covering Forson in the event payments weren’t made. However, it decided it didn’t need to follow the terms of the contract.
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Suffolk Construction, the project’s general contractor, used a crane weighing roughly 650,000 pounds for the lift, with a second crane assisting with the operation.
Durango opened in December 2023 following an impressive $780 million development. The property completed its first $120 million expansion in December 2025, and work on the latest project began in January 2026.
The second expansion is expected to take about 18 months and remains on schedule to open during the second half of 2027, according to Red Rock Resorts president Scott Kreeger.
