Indian Gaming Now

Connecticut policymakers are listening to tribal concerns about online gambling -- including current illegal Internet gaming and the possibility of future state-regulated Internet gaming.  In this CBS story, representatives from the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan Tribes held out the carrot of the tribes' capacity to offer online gaming, should the state choose to legalize it.  As everybody knows, Connecticut profits from Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun -- this year, the tribes' payments to the state approached $360 million.  Negotiating online gaming with the tribes is an opportunity for the state to confine legalized Internet gambling and possibly to profit from increased tribal-state revenue sharing.  But the tribal representatives brought out a stick, too, stating

Kathryn's quoted in this Boston Globe article on the Mashpee Wampanoag's efforts to acquire tribal lands and open a casino, and the effect of the Carcieri decision on the tribe's land-into-trust application.

Off-reservation gaming is heating up in the Great Lake State (or, to those of us who are University of Michigan grads, the Wolverine State)!

Shortly before we rang in 2012, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a decision approving the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's application for an off-reservation casino in Marquette County.  This was a rare approval under the "best interests" exception to IGRA's general prohibition against gaming on lands acquired after 1988.

Then, just over a week ago, the news broke that the Menominee Tribe was once again aggressively pursuing its dream of a Kenosha casino, with help from KMD Consulting Services in California.

NIGC Chair Tracie Stevens issued a response to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK).  Earlier this month, Coburn and Sullivan had requested information about the legality of the Kialegees' construction of a casino in suburban Tulsa.

Stevens acknowledged that IGRA requires a tribe to operate Indian gaming only on "Indian lands," which has a specific legal definition, as explained in our earlier posts.

Kathryn's quoted in the Tulsa World on the legal requirements for the Kialegee Tribal Town to operate their under-construction casino in suburban Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

We're listening to the interview of Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier on CEM Audio Edge.  Heidi is speaking with host Valerie Red-Horse on various issues related to Indian gaming, particularly with regard to regulatory law.  We've had the chance to present alongside Heidi at many conferences.  As the partner coordinator of the Indian Law&Gaming Law Practice Group for Snell & Wilmer, L.L.P, she is extremely knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts of tribal gaming regulation.

An issue that arises repeatedly is "Can a tribe build a casino on this land?"  This is, of course, the essential question in the recent coverage of the Kialegee Tribal Town's plans for a Broken Arrow casino in Oklahoma.  We thought we'd break down this complex factual and legal question.