Here (subscription required but you can sign on for free trial):
Indian law attorney Jeffrey Nelson looks at the new Tribal Internet Gaming Alliance and its impact on the tribal gaming landscape
Exactly 25 years after Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians took the first step toward ushering in a new era of Indian gaming to be offered on the internet.
On October 17, 2013, the governing body of the Tribe voted unanimously to ratify an inter-tribal egaming treaty that it helped to develop with several other Midwest tribes. Now the Lac du Flambeau is extending an open invitation to all other tribes anywhere in the United States to join it by signing the treaty and creating the Tribal Internet Gaming Alliance, or TIGA.
TIGA will be much more than an advocacy group. As a treaty organization, it will become a government instrumentality of its member tribes, capable of jointly operating and regulating an internet gaming enterprise under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act for the benefit of its member tribes.
Until state or federal egaming laws change, wagers will be taken only from people who are physically present within the member tribes’ collective jurisdictions. It will be a way for the tribes to gain incremental revenue from their casino patrons and other tourists, as well as attract a whole new demographic to visit Indian lands. Perhaps even more importantly, TIGA will offer its member tribes a way to establish themselves in the real-money internet gaming space before most of the egaming competition in the United States is even allowed to launch.
TIGA can legally operate without any state authorization. Courts have determined that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) preempts state gambling laws within the tribes’ Indian lands, leaving tribal-state compacts under IGRA to be the only mechanism by which a state can regulate gambling on the Indian lands within its borders.
That said tribal-state compacts cover only class III gaming, leaving the tribes and the National Indian Gaming Commission with exclusive jurisdiction over class II gaming. For this reason, TIGA plans to limit its initial operations to class II gaming within its member tribes’ collective Indian lands, thereby eliminating the need for state authorization. Under IGRA, the class II games that TIGA may offer include slot-like bingo, traditional bingo, pull tabs, and poker—a perfect line-up for an eager internet market.
Under the terms of the TIGA Treaty, each member tribe will appoint three representatives to sit as the TIGA Treaty Council. The Treaty Council will elect a Business Committee to handle all business decisions and a Gaming Commission to regulate and audit the internet operations. Each TIGA body may hire full time staff.
The net revenues from the operations will be divided among the member tribes according to a distribution plan to be developed by the Treaty Council. Those funds may be used by the member tribes for the same governmental purposes as currently allowed for Indian gaming revenue under IGRA.
The TIGA Treaty also allows TIGA to enter into inter-jurisdictional agreements with states or foreign nations that have legalized internet gaming for purposes of poker liquidity, progressive jackpots, reciprocal licensing determinations, or exchanges of license applicant information.
Over the past 25 years, Indian gaming has brought casino entertainment to the heartland of America and established that gambling operations can be a positive force for economic development and governmental revenue. TIGA will now do the same for internet gaming.
Jeffrey Nelson is an attorney at Kanji & Katzen PLLC in Washington, D.C. and legal counsel to TIGA. He formerly served as the Assistant Solicitor for General Indian Legal Activities at the Department of the Interior and a Senior Attorney at the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Turtle Talk 