Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe defends sovereignty in gaming case

Monday, January 27, 2020  

The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe is defending its sovereignty in a long-running gaming case in Massachusetts.

In a brief filed with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals last week, the tribe asserted the right to open a Class II gaming facility on its reservation. The same court agreed with the tribe in an April 2017 decision.

But opponents on the island of Martha's Vineyard, where the reservation is located, haven't accepted the ruling. They went back to court and convinced a federal judge to force the tribe to seek local approval for the forthcoming Aquinnah Cliffs Casino.

As a Class II facility, meaning one that offers bingo and electronic forms of bingo, Aquinnah Cliffs would not normally be subject to local or even state jurisdiction. According to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, such operations are subject to tribal and federal regulation -- states aren't involved.

Unless corrected by the 1st Circuit, the lower court's "decision will open the door for other states to assert jurisdiction over other tribes and the United States with regard to Class II gaming on Indian lands, unraveling IGRA’s thirty-year history of stable jurisdictional jurisprudence, and destabilizing the most significant source of revenue, by far, funding tribal governments," the brief asserts.

After winning the 2017 decision, the tribe lined up the Global Gaming Solutions, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation, as a partner on the casino. The Chickasaws were a pioneer in Class II gaming in Oklahoma.

But efforts to construct the 10,000 square-foot facility were met with strong opposition from the town of Aquinnah. That opposition led to the negative ruling regarding local and state jurisdiction.

The judge in the case is F. Dennis Saylor IV. He previously found that the tribe could not exercise its gaming rights under IGRA -- an erroneous finding that was eventually reversed by the 1st Circuit.

“You were right and I was wrong,” Saylor said in court during a follow-up hearing in May 2019, The Martha's Vineyard Times reported at the time.

Briefing continues in the case. A hearing has not been scheduled, The Cape Cod Times reports.

Vineyard tribe appeals federal court ruling on bingo hall (The Cape Cod Times January 27, 2020)

Massachusetts v. Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) (April 11, 2017)

Department of the Interior Letter to the National Indian Gaming Commission (August 23, 2013)
National Indian Gaming Commission Letter to Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe (October 25, 2013)
National Indian Gaming Commission Approval of Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe Class II Gaming Ordinance (August 14, 2018)

Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe continues to fight for gaming rights (July 17, 2019)
Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe told to seek local permits to build casino (June 20, 2019)
'You were right and I was wrong': Judge concedes to Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe (May 31, 2019)
Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe back in court to defend gaming rights (May 6, 2019)
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