"The recent piece by Tim Korte of The Associated Press, entitled "New Mexico casino lawsuit calls tribal sovereignty into question," may be news to New Mexicans but it is old news for many of us who follow the issue of sovereignty as it applies to business contracts as conducted by the tribes with non-Indians.

The reason we don't hear much about the connection with this lawsuit and the possibility of other lawsuits regarding sovereignty is because our local journalists can't connect the dots; what occurs in our local tribal casinos is also happening nationwide.

In the New Mexico case, attorney Sam Bregman has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case where a client, retired Albuquerque city worker Gary Hoffman, sued Sandia Resort and Casino over what the tribe characterized as a malfunctioning slot machine that displayed a $1.6 million "jackpot." In New Mexico, both the state District Court and the New Mexico Court of Appeals said that the tribes' sovereign immunity kept them from being sued.

Bregman may not be as crazy as some think and he may not be the only attorney suing tribes, including tribal casinos that have not only not paid up on "malfunctioning" machines but also on potentially much larger issues — like how are non-Indian investors going to get their money back if tribal casinos go belly up?"

Get the Story:
Orlando Romero: Questions arise on sovereignty for casinos (The Santa Fe New Mexican 8/22)

Related Stories:
Supreme Court considers petition in Pueblo casino jackpot case (8/17)
Man asks Supreme Court to take Pueblo casino 'jackpot' case (6/23)
Lawsuit over Sandia casino 'jackpot' dismissed (2/5)
Good Morning America to air casino suit segment (10/22)
Sandia Pueblo fights suit over $1.6M 'jackpot' (10/17)
Sandia Pueblo casino sued over unpaid 'jackpot' (8/28)