May
15
2012
A federal district court hearing starts tomorrow on the Kialegee's casino project in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. As the Tulsa World reports, the state Attorney General will seek an injunction against the tribe to stop construction of the casino. The state is expected to argue that the land on which the casino is being built does not qualify as "Indian lands" under IGRA. The tribe is expected to counter that it is building a casino, not conducting gaming, and so any alleged violations of IGRA are not yet ripe. Report from IMGL Spring Conference
May
11
2012
Steve and Kathryn recently returned from the Spring Conference of the International Masters of Gaming Law, held in Scottsdale, AZ, in April. The IMGL is an outstanding organization, with global membership of the best gaming attorneys, regulators, consultants, and educators. The Spring Conference, planned by John Roberts and John Maloney, included excellent panels on two tracks: legalized gambling around the world, and I Latest Gambling Industry Statistics from AGA
May
10
2012
The American Gaming Association is the best resource for statistics regarding the legalized gambling industry. The AGA just released its 2012 "State of the States" report, which provides national and state-by-state economic impact data, including
gaming revenues, tax contributions, and employment and wage figures for
the 22 states with commercial casinos operating in 2011. The report is downloadable from the AGA website.This Week's "Poor Choice of Words" Award Winner
May
4
2012
The Kialegee Tribal Town is moving closer to realizing its Red Clay Clay Casino in Broken Arrow, OK, on a privately owned Indian allotment just outside of Tulsa. The project is controversial, to say the least. Last week, Broken Arrow's longtime city manager was fired, apparently as a result of community
backlash against the planned casino. This week, Broken Arrow City
Attorney Beth Anne Wilkening updated the council on the status of
Attorney General Scott Pruitt's lawsuit against the Kialegee Tribal Town
in an effort to stop construction of the Red Clay Casino. She was quoted in the Kathryn Quoted on Compact Provisions re Casino Impacts
May
1
2012
Kathryn is quoted in this Press Democrat article on the compact provisions for the Graton Rancheria's casino in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, California. In short, the compact provisions require the tribe to reach additional agreements with the county and city to
alleviate a range of impacts. Not surprisingly, local officials are talking about alleviation in terms of dollars to the county and city.Follow Up on Carcieri Impacts: This One's for Rick
Apr
13
2012
We recently received a question from our pen pal Rick as a follow up to our post on Carcieri. (By the way, keep the questions and comments coming -- we love to hear from academics, practitioners, community members, and anyone else with an interest in tribal gaming law and policy!)Rick asks whether the bottom line of Carcieri is that newly recognized tribes (that is, tribes recognized after 1934, the date of the federal Indian Reorganization Act) should continue to be allowed to gain trust lands through the Secretary, but should be disallowed from operating gaming on those lands.
Kathryn & Steve Quoted in Indian Country Today Article
Apr
10
2012
We're quoted in this Indian Country Today article on Internet gaming. In the April 2 article, headlined "States and Feds Race to Get Internet Gaming Legislation; Indian Country Must Be Prepared," ICT reporter Gale Courey Toensing reports that federal legalization of online gaming is on the horizon. As we've advocated in a recent article, tribes should be prepared to deal with this issue not only as gaming operators, but as tribal governments and policymakers. Here's our qu 