Mashantucket Tribe wins suit over taxation of slot machines

Friday, March 30, 2012  

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation doesn't have to pay taxes on slot machines it leases from non-Indian vendors, a federal judge ruled this week.

The tribe filed suit after the town of Ledyard sought to tax slot machines owned by two non-Indian companies. Judge Warren W. Eginton agreed that the town's actions were pre-empted by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and violated the tribe's sovereignty.

"[C]onsistent with IGRA’s comprehensive framework for regulation of Indian gaming, the Court finds that the property tax on the leased gaming equipment is preempted," Eginton wrote in the decision.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation v. Leyard.

Get the Story:
Tribe prevails in tax dispute with town of Ledyard (The New London Day 3/30)

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Decision awaited in taxation of tribe's leased slot machines (1/24)