Opinion: California tribes win compact case

Friday, September 19, 2008  

"In a win for California gaming tribes, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 9 revived two gaming device licensing suits brought by the Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community and the Rincon Band of Luiseño Mission Indians of the Rincon Reservation.

The suits challenged the state of California’s bizarre and complicated method of allotting gaming device licenses under the 1999 tribal-state compacts. In both cases, the tribes claim that the state obstructed their opportunity to receive their full entitlement of 2,000 gaming device licenses, provided for under their respective compacts, when former Gov. Gray Davis’ administration issued an executive order providing the California Gambling Control Commission unilateral, and seemingly unfettered, authority to issue and administer gaming device licenses covered under the compacts.

Upon receiving authority to issue gaming device licenses, the CGCC set up a tiered licensing cheme whereby licenses were issued by lottery draw based on the number of gaming devices already being operated by the tribes. Under this convoluted scheme, tribes participating in the license draws were required to submit a nonrefundable one-time deposit for licenses for the purpose of offsetting future payments, if any, required by the state’s Revenue Sharing Trust Fund. Both Colusa and Rincon received an initial set of licenses under a non-CGCC license draw, held prior to the issuance of the executive order.

Unfortunately, neither Colusa nor Rincon received licenses under subsequent CGCC supervised draws, nor did they receive a refund of their pre-payment licensing fees. Additionally, both tribes believe they were not placed in the appropriate licensing tier."

Get the Story:
Jack Duran: 9th Circuit revives slot suits (Indian Country Today 9/19)