gaming – Page 103 – Turtle Talk

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

Tracie Stevens, Chair, National Indian Gaming Commission, Department of the Interior
Malcolm D. Jackson, Assistant Administrator for Environmental Information, Environmental Protection Agency

President Obama said, “The American people will be well-served by the skill and experience these two exceptional individuals will bring to their roles. I am confident that they will be tremendous assets to my administration, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

Tracie Stevens, Nominee for Chair, National Indian Gaming Commission, Department of the Interior

Tracie Stevens has been the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of Interior since July 2009. In this role, Ms. Stevens provides policy guidance to the Assistant Secretary regarding tribal issues such as gaming, law enforcement, energy, tribal consultation, economic development, land-into-trust, tribal government disputes, budget priorities, and treaty and natural resource rights. She has also been active in rebuilding the nation-to-nation relationship between Tribes and the Department of Interior. Ms. Stevens is a member of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington State. From 2006 to 2009, Ms. Stevens was a Senior Policy Analyst with the Tulalip Tribe’s government affairs office. Prior to that, she served as a Legislative Policy Analyst (2003-2006) and as Executive Director of Strategic Planning for the Tulalip Casino (2001-2002). In her capacity as Senior Policy Analyst with the Tulalip Tribes, Ms. Stevens also served as the Chair of the Gaming Subcommittee for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (2003-2009), the Secretary of the Board of the Directors for the Washington Indian Gaming Association (2002-2009) and as the Northwest Delegate for the National Indian Gaming Association (2003-2009). Ms. Stevens holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Washington-Seattle.

Lac du Flambeau Band Press Release on Wells Fargo Decision

April 26, 2010April 26, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here: Vacate Decision Press Release

Wells Fargo Motion to Vacate Prior Order Denied; As Is Motion to Amend Complaint

April 24, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here is that opinion: DCT Order Denying Motion to Vacate

Boyd Gaming Objections to Station Casinos Bankruptcy Reorganization Plan

April 23, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Referenced here, via Pechanga:

Boyd Gaming Objection

Boyd Gaming Objection 2

Boyd Gaming Objection 3

News Coverage on Michigan Gaming Proposals

April 22, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From K’zoo Gazette, via Pechanga:

KALAMAZOO — A pair of proposals to expand gambling in Michigan would be bad for the state because they would strip away local residents’ ability to have a say in whether a casino is opened in their community, opponents say.

“We are working to preserve the right of each community to have a vote on gaming expansion,” James Nye, spokesman for Protect MI Vote, told the Kalamazoo Gazette’s Editorial Board on Tuesday.

Nye also serves as spokesman for the Gun Lake Tribe of Pottawatomi Indians, which is constructing the Gun Lake Casino in Wayland Township.

Daniel Adkins, spokesman for the pro-expansion group Racing to Save Michigan, said Nye’s arguments are undermined by the fact that Nye’s group receives money from casinos.

“The man’s goal is to make sure there is no competition. That’s the goal,” said Adkins, who is also vice president and chief operating officer of Hazel Park Harness Raceway.

A 2004 amendment to the state constitution requires that both state and local voter approval be given for any expansion of electronic gaming in Michigan. The requirement does not extend to casinos on tribal lands.

Adkins said he believes local residents would continue to have a say. Adkins’ group wants to allow casinos at five Michigan horse racing tracks, and at three other locations.

The other pro-expansion group, Michigan is Yours, proposes seven casinos in communities that have expressed interest, such as Muskegon, Lansing and Benton Harbor, said group member Trevor Sarter.

“We didn’t want it to be a situation where we are trying to push this down anyone’s throat,” Sarter said.

The groups need to collect more than 380,000 valid signatures by early July to get their measures on the November ballot.

More News Coverage of Rincon Band Decision

April 21, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

California can’t force Indian tribes to share gambling profits to repair the state’s budget problems, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday.

In a stunning blow to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tactics when dealing with tribes wanting casinos, a divided, three-judge panel of the appeals court said the governor can’t ask for money for the state’s general fund without offering something of value in return because that amounts to an illegal tax.

The court upheld a 2008 ruling by a federal judge in San Diego that the governor was playing dirty in his negotiations with North County’s Rincon Indian band.

“This is a great, big message to the state,” Rincon Chairman Bo Mazzetti said. “Your days of trying to bully tribes around … those days are over.”

In the decision, Pasadena-based Judge Milan Smith Jr. compared the state’s efforts to those of the federal government when it took land from the Sioux after Lt. Col. George Custer reported finding gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

“Today, many tribes have struck figurative gold with casino gaming, and again, some state governments, just like their predecessors, are maneuvering to take, or at least share in, some of that figurative gold,” Smith wrote for a two-judge majority.

In his dissent, Judge Jay Bybee said tribes with casinos here and around the country have agreed for years to share revenue with state governments, just as Schwarzenegger was seeking.

“The holding … does not just upset the apple cart — it derails the whole train,” Bybee wrote. “If the majority is correct, then there is nothing for California to do but to authorize whatever (slot machines) the band wants. The band wins. Everything.”

The state will seek to have Tuesday’s decision reviewed by a larger panel of 9th Circuit judges, said Jeff Macedo, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger.

Legal experts disagreed on whether the case would be reviewed by a larger panel, or by the U.S. Supreme Court, should it be asked.

Macedo said the governor sees this as federal meddling.

“We still believe we were negotiating in good faith,” Macedo said. “This amounts to the federal courts again telling the state what it can and can’t do, and it’s not allowing the state the ability to negotiate these compacts.”

The ruling has big implications for Schwarzenegger, who campaigned on a promise to make tribes “pay their fair share” for casino expansions.

“It’s about millions and millions of dollars to the state of California,” said Matthew L.M. Fletcher, a law professor at Michigan State University who follows Indian legal issues nationally.

The ruling could affect other casino negotiations, he said.

The issue comes down to the kind of bargain that tribes and states can strike. The federal 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, known as IGRA, laid out how tribes can set up Las Vegas-style casinos. It said such gambling requires state approval, but that states can’t tax the profits.

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A Note on Judge Bybee’s Dissent in Rincon Band

April 20, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Judge Bybee dissent in Rincon Band is not a very good example of legal scholarship (not that it has to be, since he’s a judge, not a law professor), but one potential problem is that he resorts to the “parade of horribles” argument at the very end:

The majority’s legal errors carry grave–and widespread–practical repercussions. The majority’s decision will call into question Tribal-State gaming compacts not just in cash-strapped California, * * * but throughout the country. The Second Circuit has never addressed a legal challenge to the Connecticut compacts governing the behemoth Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun Casinos, but the majority decision here will inevitably spur such challenges in Connecticut and in New York. The Sixth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits have yet to consider the validity of general revenue sharing under IGRA, but it can be reasonably be expected that district court clerks in Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Florida will be docketing challenges sometime soon. These lawsuits * * * will eat up State, tribal, and federal resources and will unsettle dozens of mutually beneficial revenue-sharing provisions that have fed both tribal coffers and revenue-hungry state treasuries.

So many points, but here are a few. (1) At least in regards to the 1993 compacts in Michigan, it won’t happen. Those compacts came about as a result of a negotiated settlement and consent decree. (2) This is a pretty crass effort to get an issue on the Supreme Court’s radar, where there are no other splits in authority because states simply have not waived their 11th Amendment immunity. (3) How many times in one paragraph can one assert that states are desperate for tribal gaming revenues (implying, I think, that the judge thinks states are entitled to them)?

If, and it’s a huge if, another circuit decides a revenue sharing case, and that decision rejects the Rincon Band majority’s reasoning, then it will be a matter for the Supreme Court. Not before.