A recent column got us thinking about Class II gaming and Alabama, in light of our last post on Gov. Riley's attack on bingo machines in tribal casinos.  In this month's issue of Casino Enterprise Management magazine, JR Mathews writes about Class II gaming as an important exercise of tribal sovereignty.  JR is an outspoken, "tell it like he sees it" advocate of tribes and tribal peoples, and we've had the pleasure of being on panels with him at various conferences.  In his column, JR calls for tribes to embrace Class II gaming and, in so doing, exercise and protect tribal sovereignty.  Being JR, he says some controversial things -- and along the way he makes a number of points that are right on the money.

The first is that gaming is an inherent tribal right.  As we explain in detail in our first book, Indian Gaming and Tribal Sovereignty: The Casino Compromise, the right of tribes to conduct gaming on tribal lands stems from their status as sovereign governments.  The right to game is not, we repeat, not one granted to tribes by the federal government.  The U.S. Supreme Court recognized gaming as an aspect of tribal sovereignty in the landmark Cabazon case, and Congress codified that understanding of tribal gaming in IGRA.

Of course, Congress also placed some limits on tribes' right to game through IGRA, and the significant limit for Class II gaming is that it must be legal in the state where the tribe is.  Or, put a slightly different way, where a state does not wholesale prohibit bingo, then the state can't stop a tribe from operating bingo under IGRA.

Bingo's legal in Alabama.  That means that tribes in the state can operate Class II gaming under IGRA, including electronic bingo.  IGRA is crystal clear on this.  If those machines are Class II, then they're legal under IGRA, regardless of what the state thinks.  Alabama may not like it, but that's federal law -- and it's also tribal sovereignty.

Which is JR's second point -- the fight in Alabama and elsewhere isn't really over electronic bingo.  It's a challenge to tribal sovereignty.  Alabama should think again about whether they're on the right side of that fight.