Lumbee Tribe Sets June 23 Special Election on Casino Gaming Authority

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina will hold a special election on Tuesday, June 23, asking tribal members to approve constitutional amendments that would give the Tribal Council explicit authority to regulate casino gaming. The vote is the most consequential step yet in the tribe's fast-moving push toward a Lumbee Tribe casino in southeastern North Carolina, coming just months after the tribe secured the federal recognition it had pursued for more than a century.

The Tribal Council voted in the spring to place several constitutional changes on the ballot. The central question is whether members wish to vest the council with the power to authorize and regulate gaming on tribal land — a foundational legal requirement before any casino project can advance. The amendments need a simple majority to pass.

Enrollment rolls closed ahead of the casino vote

In preparation for the election, the tribe closed its online enrollment period on May 13 and froze its rolls on May 22. Tribal citizens must hold an updated enrollment card to cast a ballot, a requirement leaders say is intended to protect the integrity of a vote that could reshape the tribe's economic future. With more than 55,000 members, the Lumbee are among the largest tribes east of the Mississippi, and turnout across a membership spread through Robeson and surrounding counties will be closely watched.

The land component is already in place. Late last year the tribe purchased roughly 240 acres off Interstate 95 in Robeson County, paying at least $6 million for parcels that tribal leaders have openly described as a potential casino site. The I-95 corridor location would position a future resort to draw from traffic between the Northeast and Florida, in a region with no significant casino competition for more than an hour's drive.

A third tribal gaming market in North Carolina

If members approve the amendments, the Lumbee would move toward becoming the third tribal gaming operator in the state. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians runs two casinos in the western mountains, and its market performance since sports wagering arrived is detailed in our two-year Eastern Band retrospective. The Catawba Indian Nation, headquartered in South Carolina, operates Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain near Charlotte, which opened its first permanent phase after years of temporary operations.

A Robeson County casino would sit far from both, in one of the poorest regions of the state. Supporters frame gaming revenue as a tool for jobs, health care, housing, and education funding in a county where economic options have narrowed for decades. Opposition has emerged as well: the North Carolina Family Policy Council has publicly urged tribal members to reject the proposal, arguing gambling brings social costs that outweigh the revenue.

The market case, though, is hard to ignore. Robeson County sits at the midpoint of one of the busiest interstate corridors on the East Coast, and the nearest full-scale casinos are hours away in Cherokee, Kings Mountain, or across state lines. North Carolina's legislature has repeatedly flirted with — and abandoned — commercial casino legislation, most recently in 2023, leaving tribal gaming the only realistic vehicle for a casino in the eastern half of the state. A Lumbee facility would fill a vacuum that commercial operators have lobbied over for years without result, and the tribe's leadership has clearly studied how quickly the Catawba converted a temporary facility into permanent revenue once its land question was resolved.

The federal path is longer than the ballot

A yes vote on June 23 would not, by itself, authorize a casino. Gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requires eligible Indian lands, a tribal gaming ordinance approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission, and — for Class III casino games — a compact with the state. The newly purchased Robeson County acreage is held in fee, so the tribe would need to navigate the trust acquisition process before IGRA gaming could occur there; our land-into-trust and Section 20 explainer walks through why that step is often the longest part of any new tribe's gaming timeline.

The terms of the Lumbee's federal recognition will shape that analysis, and attorneys on all sides are expected to scrutinize how recognition legislation treats the tribe's land and jurisdictional status. Any Class III ambitions would also require negotiations with the state of North Carolina, which has existing compacts with the Eastern Band and Catawba. The mechanics of those agreements — exclusivity zones, revenue terms, and game types — are covered in our Legal Guide.

For now, the question before Lumbee citizens is narrower: whether their government should have the authority to pursue gaming at all. Tribal leaders have characterized the amendments as enabling rather than committing — a vote to open the door, with project-level decisions to follow. The result on June 23 will signal whether southeastern North Carolina becomes the next frontier in the state's tribal gaming economy, and how quickly the newest federally recognized tribe in the country intends to move.