gaming

LA Times on Soboba Killings

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the LA Times. An excerpt:

San Jacinto Mayor Jim Ayres and the City Council asked the tribe to withdraw an application to annex more than 500 acres of land for a hotel and casino complex until the violence is quelled.

But Salgado, 65, is having none of it.

No one, he says, has the right to tell Indians how to run their sovereign nations.

“Why didn’t Stone come to me man to man and say that? And who is the mayor of San Jacinto to tell us what to do?” he asked. “Where were these people when we had nothing? Now that we are self-sufficient, it makes them fearful.”

Greektown Restructuring Very Costly

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Crain’s Detroit Business Report:

Restructuring of Greektown Casino L.L.C. finances will cost $13.5 million in professional fees this year and an estimated $20 million by the time the Detroit casino emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2009, a workout consultant told the Michigan Gaming Control Board Thursday.

The board gave approval to Greektown securing a $51.3 million interim loan to pay past due and current bills owed contractors working on the $330 million casino expansion that includes a 400-room hotel.

The loan, which received preliminary approval Wednesday from U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Walter Shapero, is part of a $150 million two-part financing package, the rest of which also needs approval from the court and control board.

Charles Moore, senior managing director of Birmingham-based Conway MacKenzie & Dunleavy, told the board that coupling costs of the bankruptcy filed May 29 with loan interest payments that will run more than $51 million means the casino is projected to lose almost $16 million in 2008, compared with a reported profit of $2 million last year.

Continue reading →

PPI v. Kempthorne — Challenge to Class III Secretarial Procedures

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here’s another one, this time in the Northern District of Florida, and this one involving the Seminole Nation.

Here is the request for a preliminary injunction and here is the complaint.

David Wilkins on Tribal Disenrollment and Banishment

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

David Wilkins has published “Exiling One’s Kin: Banishment and Disenrollment in Indian Country” in Western Legal History. This excellent piece describes banishment and membership laws from traditional law through the early 20th century and into the modern era of tribal banishment and disenrollment.

UNITE HERE v. Pala Band — Federal Court Lacks Jurisdiction over Petition to Enforce Arbitration Award

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the opinion:

On December 11, 2007 Petitioner Unite Here (“Petitioner” or “Unite Here”) filed this petition to confirm an arbitration award against Respondent Pala Band of Mission Indians (“Respondent” or “Pala Band”). (Doc. No. 1.) On April 4, 2008 Respondent moved to dismiss the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. (Doc. No. 4.) The Court decides the matter on the papers submitted and without oral argument. See S.D. Cal. Civ. R. 7.1(d) (1). For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS Respondent’s motion and DISMISSES Petitioner’s petition.

UNITE HERE Petition

Pala Band of Mission Indians motion to dismiss

UNITE HERE Opposition to Motion

Pala Band Reply Brief

DCT Opinion

Devlin v. Cox Complaint

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the complaint in Devlin v. Cox, the case brought by the former Michigan Gaming Control Board employee now working for Detroit casino interests over whether tribal gaming operations should be required to apply for state liquor licenses. [Our previous post.]

The odd thing about this claim is that Devlin suggests in the news that he thinks it is unfair that tribal casinos don’t have to be licensed but the Detroit casinos do. There are some weird things about this claim.

First, why is it unfair? Is there some money value lost by the Detroit casinos over this regulatory “advantage”? No, of course not. Tribal casinos are a hundred miles away, mostly far from the market that Detroit dominates — that is, southeast Michigan. So Devlin’s “unfairness” claim won’t do his new clients any good even if he prevails.

Second, Devlin’s federal Indian law/liquor regulation argument ignores the modern history of tribal-state relations. Yes, there are ambiguities in this area of the law. And so the tribal and state negotiators did the smart thing in 1993 and later — avoid litigation by creating a “law of the deal” that finds a way around the muddied legal waters. It was part of the horse-trading that went on in that negotiation. It’s the epitome of fairness.

Finally, if fairness were any measure, Devlin must be forgetting that the Michigan governor who cut the deal in 1993 promised the seven compacting tribes that they would have market exclusivity in the entire State, only to renege on that promise as soon as it was made by gunning for state-licensed casinos in Detroit.

Devlin’s idea of fairness is a joke.

Suit on Tribal Casinos and State Liquor Licenses

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the Chicago Tribune:

A Michigan Gaming Control Board employee says Indian casinos should be forced to get liquor licenses.

Patrick Devlin said he filed a lawsuit this week to try and force Attorney General Mike Cox to require tribal casinos to comply with liquor control laws. Devlin said that not requiring tribes to spend the time and money needed to get licenses gives them a competitive advantage over Detroit casinos required to have licenses.

He said he also is concerned about liability issues.

A Cox spokesman said the lawsuit will be reviewed once it’s received.

Devlin said he is suing as an individual, not on behalf of the gaming board.

Tribes are considered sovereign nations and aren’t covered by some state laws. Devlin said liquor sales should be an exception.

And from the Detroit News:

Rusty Hills, a spokesman for Cox, said: “Compacts (on Indian casinos) are negotiated between tribes and the governor’s office. If Mr. Devlin has a beef he needs to bring it to the attention of the governor. As a lawyer and former member of the attorney general’s office he ought to know better.”

Excellent point….

Greektown Holdings Bankruptcy Materials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the Sault Tribe’s news release on these materials.

greektown-bankruptcy-petition

greektown-motions

mgcb-limited-objection

mgcb-preliminary-objections

mgcb-exhibit-1-greektown-violation

mgcb-exhibit-2-order-approving-debt-transaction

mgcb-exhibit-3-mgcb-resolution-2006-01

bankruptcy-court-interim-order

Shepherd v. Slade — Mystic Lake Casino Employee Dispute

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, the Minnesota Court of Appeals in an unpublished decision declined to dismiss a claim for tortious interference with contract and other claims, denying a Rule 19 (state law) motion. From the opinion:

Appellant challenges the district court’s denial of her motion to dismiss respondent’s complaint on the ground that it is barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Appellant asserts that the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (the tribe) is an indispensable party to the suit and that, because the tribe cannot be joined, the suit must be dismissed. We conclude that the tribe is neither a necessary nor an indispensable party and therefore affirm the district court’s decision.

Slip op. at 2.

The underlying dispute arose when the nonmember tribal casino employee was barred from the casino by the tribal court (and therefore terminated). The state trial court made disturbing statements about the tribal court, but the COA, while troubled, did not find those statements sufficient to reverse:

We agree that the district court’s comments are troubling. “‘Tribal courts have repeatedly been recognized as appropriate forums for the exclusive adjudication of disputes affecting important personal and property interests of both Indians and non-Indians.'” St. Pierre v. Norton, 498 F. Supp. 2d 214, 221 (D.D.C. 2007) (quoting Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49, 65-66, 98 S. Ct. 1670, 1680-81 (1978)); see also Lewis v. Norton, 424 F.3d 959, 962 (9th Cir. 2005) (“The issue is not whether the plaintiffs’ claims would be successful in these tribal forums, but only whether tribal forums exist that could potentially resolve the plaintiffs’ claims.”). The district court’s suggestion that the tribal courts could not provide an adequate alternative forum for Shepherd’s claims lacks foundation. The fact that Shepherd is the subject of a no-trespass order by the tribe does not necessarily mean that she cannot receive a fair trial of her claims against Stade in tribal court.

Slip op. at 10.

LSJ on Nelson Westrin

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the Lansing State Journal:

GRAND LEDGE – The man who wrote the regulations governing legalized gambling at three Detroit casinos and signed the licenses authorizing their operation has died.

Nelson Westrin, 61, of Grand Ledge, died Wednesday of an infection he suffered during a battle with prostate cancer. He was survived by his wife, Carole; three children; sister Mary Jo; and several nephews, nieces and grandchildren.

Westrin was a lifelong public servant, rising from a criminal trial attorney in the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office to a long career in the state Attorney General’s Office, where he eventually advised the governor’s office on tribal gaming issues. In 1993, then-Gov. John Engler named him the state racing commissioner, then, in 1996, appointed him to head the newly created Michigan Gaming Control Board.

Continue reading →