gaming – Page 140 – Turtle Talk

Odawa Casino Revenue Sharing Numbers

June 15, 2008June 15, 2008Matthew L.M. Fletcher

For the article, see here. An excerpt:

When handing out the latest community proceeds from local Indian gaming, the Emmet County Local Revenue Sharing Board had about $250,000 more to work with than in the previous round.

This spring, the board used a new, more specific framework to allocate money, one which put the largest funding awards in categories such as infrastructure and education.

Local governments appoint the three-member board to allocate gaming dollars twice a year. Under its gaming compact with Michigan, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians must make 2 percent of electronic gaming receipts from its casino available to the community.

The latest payout — about $840,000 — included gaming receipts from July-December 2007, up from $590,000 in the previous round. In June 2007, the tribe opened the Odawa Casino Resort to replace its smaller Victories Casino.

Oregon Court of Appeals Revives Suit on Oregon Gaming Compacts

June 13, 2008Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The case is Dewberry v. Kulongowski, and it involves my favorite court rule, the indispensable party!

From the opinion:

Relators appeal from a judgment dismissing their petition for an alternative writ of mandamus. They argue that the trial court erred in concluding that they failed to establish that they do not have a “plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law,” ORS 34.110, and that the trial court misapplied ORCP 29 and ORS 28.110 in the present proceeding. As explained below, we agree with relators in certain respects, albeit at some points for reasons not advanced by the parties, and conclude that relators did not have a “plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law,” ORS 34.110, in the form of a declaratory judgment action. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

LA Times on Soboba Killings

June 11, 2008Matthew 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

June 10, 2008Matthew 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

June 10, 2008Matthew 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

June 9, 2008Matthew 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

June 6, 2008Matthew 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

June 5, 2008Matthew 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

June 5, 2008June 5, 2008Matthew 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….