A welcome sign on the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation in Texas. Photo: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe

NIGC | Openings & Closings

Tribes in Texas win NIGC approval of Class II gaming ordinances

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Two tribes in Texas have won federal approval to offer Class II games on their reservations.

According to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act applies to the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe and the Tigua Tribe. Both tribes were restored to federal recognition a year prior to the law and both exercise jurisdiction over their lands, Chairman Jonodev Chaudhuri said in one of the decision letters.

"Because the Pueblo has a reservation -- established a year before Congress passed IGRA -- the Pueblo has IGRA-defined Indian lands," Chaudhuri wrote to the Tigua Tribe, also known as the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo.

The letters approved Class II gaming ordinances for both tribes. The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe now hopes to open a facility that could offer bingo and electronic forms of bingo.

The Speaking Rock Entertainment Center on the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo in El Paso, Texas. Photo from Facebook

"A Class II facility will allow the tribe to better address the needs and functions of the tribal government, and take care of our people," Chairperson Nita Battise said in a press release.

Both tribes previously operated casinos on their reservations. They were forced to shut them down in response in the early 2000s due to litigation from the state.

At issue were identical provisions in two federal laws that read:

All gaming activities which are prohibited by the laws of the State of Texas are hereby prohibited on the reservation and on lands of the tribe.

The federal courts interpreted the provision to bar Class III-style gaming for the tribes because those types of games are barred in Texas. Efforts to change the two laws, or to change state law, have not been successful so the tribes asked NIGC to revisit the issue.

According to Chaudhuri, the Office of the Solicitor at the Interior Department also concluded that the tribes could follow IGRA. A copy of that document was cited in his letter but hasn't been made publicly-available.

The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe has asked Congress to remove Section 737 from the Alabama-Coushatta Restoration Act in order to clear up uncertainty about it gaming rights. H.R.2684, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas Equal and Fair Opportunity Settlement Act, would settle a pending $270 million land claim in exchange.

The Tigua Tribe continues to offer some forms of games at its Speaking Rock Entertainment Center but has faced continued litigation from the state. Section 1300g of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Restoration Act includes the gaming language that has proven troublesome for the tribe.

Get the Story:
Feds affirm Alabama-Coushatta Tribe's right to operate gaming (The Lufkin Daily News 10/28)
Tribe To Run E-Bingo In Texas Thanks To Support Of Federal Government (CardPlayer 10/28)
Tiguas have new hope gaming could return to Speaking Rock (KVIA 10/27)
Resolution on gaming with Tiguas and state resolved (KFOX 10/27)