Federal court docket upholds Coquille Indian Tribe’s Medford land and gaming choice

Federal court docket upholds Coquille Indian Tribe’s Medford land and gaming choice

Published 7:16 pm Friday, September 4, 2026

After greater than a decade of authorized back-and-forth battles over a on line casino in South Medford, a federal choose has dominated in favor of the Coquille Indian Tribe by upholding a U.S. Department of the Interior choice to put roughly 2.4 acres right into a belief for the tribe and to authorize gaming on the location.

In a briefing filed Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta denied an enchantment beforehand filed by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, the Karuk Tribe, and the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, and granted abstract judgment to the federal authorities and to the Coquille Tribe, which had joined the case to defend the choice.

The lawsuit challenged a January 2025 approval by the Department of Interior, after which the on line casino opened on a small scale with about 30 Class 2 video games, which was swiftly appealed by varied tribes from Southern Oregon and Northern California.

The on line casino on the former website of the Roxy Ann Lanes bowling alley alongside South Pacific Highway in Medford has been in steady operation since January 2025, and there have been job openings for safety, on line casino membership providers and different positions since operations started, in accordance with Rogue Valley Times’ evaluations of native job itemizing boards on-line.

The Coquille Tribe additionally operates the adjoining Bear Creek Golf Course and the Compass Hotel Medford by Margaritaville inside steps of the on line casino.

Visions for the on line casino, first dubbed Cedars at Bear Creek however now referred to as Ko-Kwel Casino Resort, embrace a 16,000-square-foot gaming flooring with 650 Class II gaming machines, a bar and different providers. Class II gaming machines embrace video gaming units comparable to slot machines and video poker. The plan doesn’t embrace desk video games comparable to blackjack, poker or cube.

Central to Mehta’s ruling was the Coquille Tribe’s Restoration Act of 1989, a Friday late afternoon press launch mentioned, which restored the Tribe’s federal recognition and licensed the Secretary of the Interior to take land into belief throughout the Tribe’s five-county service space — Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson and Lane.

The act designated the land in Medford as a part of “restored lands” beneath the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, that means gaming is permitted there. The choice affirms the Tribe’s authority to function the Medford facility, which opened following Interior’s approval in January 2025.

The Friday ruling is a last, appealable order, which suggests the plaintiff tribes might search assessment within the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in accordance with the Friday launch.

In an announcement on Friday, tribal officers mentioned the gaming facility would proceed to function and would use revenues to “fund critical services, programs, and support for current and future generations of tribal citizens.”

“Today a federal judge confirmed what we have always known: that the Coquille Restoration Act allows us to provide for our citizens and rebuild our economy in the five counties identified by Congress,” Brenda Meade, chairperson of the Coquille Indian Tribal Council, mentioned through the discharge on Friday.

“This ruling ensures our sovereignty is stronger than ever and strengthens our Restoration Act. We celebrate this significant ruling and also remember our past Chiefs and Elders who walked this road before us. They believed in this project when it was only an idea, and they trusted us all to see it through,” Meade mentioned.

Medford City Council, which initially took a stance towards the on line casino, ultimately softened its place. However, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., blasted the Interior Department choice as a “casino arms race” and “reckless choice by D.C. bureaucrats (that) catapults Oregon into an uncontrolled escalation of gambling with no end in sight,” in accordance with reporting by the Rogue Valley Times.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or buffy.pollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.