Nooksack Tribe gets back into Class III gaming with updated compact

Thursday, July 11, 2019

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The Nooksack Tribe is getting back into the Class III gaming industry after a nearly four-year absence.

The Nooksack Northwood Casino will begin offering table games on Friday, The Bellingham Herald reported. Previously, the facility was limited to Class II games like bingo and electronic forms of bingo, the paper said.

But Class III gaming is back on the table after the tribe and the state of Washington negotiated an amendment to their existing compact last year. The updated agreement was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on March 14, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on April 16.

The Nooksack Tribe owns and operates the Nooksack Northwood Casino near Lyden, Washington, not far from the U.S. border with Canada. Photo: Nooksack Northwood Casino

"The amendment authorizes Class III gaming at two facilities to be located on tribal lands, requires the tribe to initiate a problem gambling program, updates the tribe's community contributions, updates the application of state law consistent with the compact, and provides for review and renegotiation of the compact on a regular basis," the notice reads.

The tribe at one point operated two gaming facilities on its reservation. The Nooksack River Casino shut down in December 2015 amid financial troubles.

Nooksack River was the only facility authorized to offer Class III games under the tribe's original compact so Nooksack Northwood was left with Class II games until the recent update.

Nooksack Northwood was forced to close for nearly three months in 2017 after the National Indian Gaming Commission cited the tribe for numerous "violations" of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It reopened after the tribe promised to hold new elections and allow people who had been disenrolled to participate. The tribe went ahead and removed more than 300 from the rolls anyway.

Class III gaming is a category that includes table games, ball and dice games, slot machines and related offerings. According to IGRA, they can only be offered pursuant to a Class III gaming compact between a tribe and state, or through procedures issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Class II gaming includes bingo, pull tabs and electronic forms of these games. Under IGRA, a state has no role in Class II gaming.