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Initial drawing of the planned casino
A $400 million tribal casino resort planned for Madera County faces a fresh legal block after California Supreme Court declined to revisit a ruling against state approval for the project.
Good to Know
Construction has continued in Madera County, but the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians no longer has the state approval it needs for the long-planned casino resort.
The project has been in some form of review, challenge, or approval for more than 20 years. The tribe first saw casino gaming as a route to economic independence in the late 1990s, and the plan later grew into a resort with more than 2,000 slots and video poker machines, 40 table games, two full-service restaurants, and more than 3,000 parking spaces. A 200-room hotel was planned for a later phase.
North Fork finally held a groundbreaking ceremony in September 2024. The casino was then lined up for a fall 2026 opening. Now, that timeline looks uncertain.
The legal issue goes back to Proposition 48, which voters rejected in 2014. Lawmakers had ratified the compact signed by the governor in 2012, but the Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled that the state had no valid basis to enter the agreement after the referendum result. California Supreme Court declined to reconsider that decision, leaving the appellate ruling in place.
Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians brought the case in 2016. That tribe runs Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino in Coarsegold, about 36 miles from the North Fork site. A 100,000-square-foot casino on the Highway 99 corridor would be much larger than the 56,000-square-foot Chukchansi Gold gaming floor.
Madera County Superior Court sided with Chukchansi in 2024, and the Fifth District upheld that ruling in December 2025. Picayune Rancheria Chairperson Deann Kamalani said: “project was rejected at the ballot box, and the courts have now made clear that the outcome cannot be ignored or worked around.”
North Fork has argued that federal approval should control because the land already went into trust for gambling use. The tribe told the Fresno Bee: “Federal approvals of the North Fork project occurred in 2012 and 2016, and the federal courts have since upheld each approval in final, non-appealable decisions.”
The appellate court viewed the case through state gaming law instead. It found that federal approvals do not let the project proceed without a valid governor concurrence and compact.
North Fork has partnered with Station Casinos, the Las Vegas operator that previously managed Graton Casino and Resort and Thunder Valley Casino Resort before handing both back to tribal owners. The tribe now must look for another legal or regulatory path while work continues at the site.