FROM THE ARCHIVE
Dispute over casino game rules lingers
Facebook
Twitter
Email
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2002 Outgoing political appointees of the Clinton administration last week scrapped controversial casino game procedures, a move condemned by the nation's top Indian gaming regulator as potentially illegal. National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman Montie R. Deer charged his colleagues with attempting to push their views on future administrations. In a short dissent, he said commissioners Liz Homer and Teresa Poust may have acted beyond their authority by requiring a tribal advisory board help create new rules to replace the ones they eliminated. "I believe that the current Commission simply lacks the power to bind future Commissions to a particular rulemaking process," Deer wrote on July 3. Homer, an appointee of former interior secretary Bruce Babbitt, left the NIGC two days later. Poust, another secretarial pick, is due to depart shortly. Deer on the other hand is a presidential appointee whose term expired this past spring but will continue to serve, at President Bush's discretion, the administration until 2003. The White House has yet to name a replacement. The move by the outgoing commissioners is significant because both are considered friendly to the $10 billion Indian gaming industry. Tribes and casino companies believe Homer and Poust have been liberal when it comes to casino game classification. Deer, however, is seen as a strict enforcer who fought changes to casino game definitions that Homer and Poust pushed through last month over his objections. A lawsuit in Oklahoma involving three tribes and a casino company accuses him of ignoring his colleagues. It's not that Deer opposed the tribal-friendly initiative sought by Homer and Poust. In his note, to be published in today's Federal Register, he said he supported greater involvement by Indian Country. But the dissent marks the growing rift within NIGC on the controversial subject of casino games. The rules eliminated would have established a formal way to categorize casino machines as Class II, which includes bingo and bingo-like games, or Class III, the more lucrative segment that includes slot machines. Tribes in Oklahoma, where Class III games are illegal, were among those who objected to the withdrawn rules. The Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee nations are involved in a lawsuit that seeks to force the NIGC to settle a controversy over the MegaNanza game, manufactured by a Texas company with close ties to the tribes. Shares of the company, Multimedia Games Inc. (NASDAQ: MGAM), have fallen 50 percent since NIGC said MegaNanza was illegal in Oklahoma. Relevant Links:
National Indian Gaming Commission - http://www.nigc.gov Related Stories:
NIGC delays casino game talks (7/3)
Casino game settlement faces delay (7/2)
NIGC ordered to settlement talks (6/28)
Okla. tribes win gaming ruling (6/25)
Judge recommends action on casino games (6/21)
Okla. tribes win temporary respite (6/20)
Gaming company shares hold steady (6/19)
Casino company continues plunge (6/19)
Gaming company stock tanks (6/18)
Gaming shares sink on new rules (6/18)
Tribes defy federal casino order (6/17)
Objections to casino rules overruled (6/14)
Tribes seek limited federal role (6/13)
Tribe's land approvals questioned (6/11)
NIGC overturns gaming decision (6/6)
Authority of NIGC placed in doubt (5/10)
Authorities seize tribal records (5/7)
Tribes complain about gaming rules (4/29)
Disputed gaming policy advanced (3/22)
Gaming commission ignoring Norton order (1/28)
States object to proposed gaming policy (9/20)
Advertisement
Stay Connected
Contact
Search
Trending in News
1 White House Council on Native American Affairs meets quick demise under Donald Trump
2 'A process of reconnecting': Young Lakota actor finds ways to stay tied to tribal culture
3 Jenni Monet: Bureau of Indian Affairs officer on leave after fatal shooting of Brandon Laducer
4 'A disgraceful insult': Joe Biden campaign calls out Navajo leader for Republican speech
5 Kaiser Health News: Sisters from Navajo Nation died after helping coronavirus patients
2 'A process of reconnecting': Young Lakota actor finds ways to stay tied to tribal culture
3 Jenni Monet: Bureau of Indian Affairs officer on leave after fatal shooting of Brandon Laducer
4 'A disgraceful insult': Joe Biden campaign calls out Navajo leader for Republican speech
5 Kaiser Health News: Sisters from Navajo Nation died after helping coronavirus patients
News Archive
About This Page
You are enjoying stories from the Indianz.Com Archive, a collection dating back to 2000. Some outgoing links may no longer work due to age.
All stories are available for publishing via Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)