Indian Gaming

A federal judge has affirmed the legality of the Seneca Nation off-reservation casino in downtown Buffalo, New York.

The tribe acquired the site of the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in connection with the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990. The land is held in "restricted fee" status under the terms of the law.

As such, the site is not covered by Bureau of Indian Affairs regulations governing gaming on newly acquired lands, Judge William M. Skretny concluded. The Section 20 regulations only apply to land placed "in trust" after 1988, he said.

"[T]he BIA removed all reference to restricted fee land from its final regulations, published May 20, 2008, and stated its revised position that section 20, by its plain language, applies only to lands held in trust," Skretny wrote in the 39-page decision.

Skretny also determined that the SNSA does not bar gaming on the tribe's restricted fee lands. The law was passed two years after the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, so Congress could have included a gaming prohibition, he noted.

"There is no such statement of intent in SNSA, express or implied, nor has Congress acted, in the many years this dispute has been pending, to limit gaming on land acquired with SNSA funds," the judge stated.

In a footnote, Skretny said the SNSA is unique in that it appears to be the only land claim settlement in which settlement lands are placed in "restricted fee" status. That means other tribes with land claim settlements should not be able to avoid the Section 20 regulations, he observed.

Generally, IGRA bars gaming on land acquired after 1988. However, Section 20 contains an exception for land acquired in connection with a land claim settlement.

In the history of IGRA, only the Wyandotte Nation has been able to open a casino under the Section 20 land claim exception.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Citizens against Casino Gambling in Erie County v. Stevens.

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