AG: Stitt gaming pact isn't legal
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt overstepped his authority by entering into gaming compacts with two tribes that would permit sports betting and other types of gambling that are prohibited by state law, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said in an official attorney general opinion released Tuesday.
“The Governor can no more permit gambling prohibited by state criminal law via unilateral compact than he could agree to allow a Tribe to sell illicit controlled substances to members of the public in Indian country ,” Hunter said in the nine-page opinion .“The Governor lacks the authority to unilaterally bind the State to comp acts with Indian tribes that authorize activity prohibited by state law.”
The governor' s office issued a statement Tuesday defending the compacts.
“These comp acts are unquestionably legal and deliver unprecedented guarantees of clarity, stability, and transparency for all Sovereign parties, and for the benefit of all 4 mill i on Oklahomans,” Baylee Lakey, the governor's communications director, said in a prepared statement. “Governor Stitt stands with the State's tribal partners, the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe, who negotiated in good faith new, modernized gaming compacts pursuant to federal law.”
In Oklahoma, state officers are required to abide by official attorney general opinions unless or until they are overturned by a court.
In addition to the opinion, Hunter released a copy of a letter he wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Berhardt urging the federal official to reject the compact agreements that Gov. St it tenter ed into last month with the Otoe- Missouria Tribe and Comanche Nation.
In that letter, Hunter contends the agreements do not comply with state law and are therefore not authorized under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
“Because t he Governor lacks authority to `enter into' the agreements he has sent to you, those agreements fail to meet the requirements of IGRA to constitute a valid gaming compact under federal law,” Attorney General Hunter wrote in the letter. “How a state enters into a gaming compact with a tribe, including whether the Governor may do so unilaterally in contravention of state statute, is a core concern of the state' s constitutional structure and is therefore a matter of state law.”
The Secretary of the Interior must approve all
tribal gaming compacts before they can take effect.
Hunter's attorney general opinion was requested by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat and House Speaker Charles McCall, who earlier wrote a letter to the governor challenging the legality of the two compacts.
In Hunter' s legal opinion, he says that the governor exceeded his authority by entering into compacts with the two tribes that include prohibited games such as house- banked card and table games, as well as sports betting and other forms of event wagering.
Comanche Nation Chairman William Nelson Sr. and Otoe-Missouria Tribe Chairman John R. Shot ton issued a joint statement Tuesday defending the legality of the compacts and urging federal approval.
“Our comp acts are legal and were negotiated in good faith ,” the tribal chairmen said. “The political fight between the governor and the attorney general over sports betting is not our concern and does not impact the legality of the compacts.
“We look forward to approval of the compacts, which are good for our
“Oklahoma and the tribes deserve better than the carelessness Governor Stitt has brought to the table, and the attorney general's analysis encourages us that we will be able to reestablish the sort of tribal-state engagement that conforms to the law and serves all of us well.”
Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Chairman Matthew L. Morgan
tribal members, our local communities and the state as a whole.”
The Comanche Nation has about 17,000 enrolled members and is based near Lawton in southwestern Oklahoma, while the Otoe-Missouria Tribe is based in Red Rock in North Central Oklahoma and has 3,288 enrolled members.
The governor' s legal team provided i ts own analysis to the Department of the Interior last month in which attorneys argued the governor has the authority to enter into gaming compacts with tribes that include sports betting without legislative approval.
In that analysis, the governor's attorneys argued that federal law, not state law, sets the standards for gaming compact negotiations and that sports betting was proper for inclusion in the compacts because the state had previously authorized horse racing, another form of event wagering.
Stitt's attorneys also contended that even if federal officials were to disallow sports betting, the rest of the compacts would still be valid because of a clause in the compacts that said event wagering would
only be permitted “to the extent such wagers are authorized by law.”
Hunter disputed those arguments in his official attorney general opinion.
Just because the state has authorized certain games within a broad category of gaming doesn't mean all types of games withing that category have been approved, the attorney general said.
“Merely because Oklahoma has permitted pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing does not mean that the State has broadly authorized all forms of event wagering, such as betting on the outcomes of local elections, professional basketball games, high school football matches, or little-league games,” Hunter wrote.
Hunter also wrote that including the clause in the compacts that said event wagering would only be permitted to the extent such wagers are authorized by law didn't fix all the legal problems created by the compacts.
“This qualifying language does not exist with respect to house-banked table and card games,” Hunter said. “Thus, even setting aside the issue of event wagering, the
new compacts purport to authorize activity prohibited by state law.”
In Hunter's letter to the secretary of the Interior, he expressed concern that the compacts signed by Stitt could undermine relationships between the state and tribes that “Oklahoma deeply values.”
“Unfortunately, I fear the agreements sent recently to you by the Governor will only have the effect of damaging the relationship between the State and these two tribes,” he wrote. “Moreover, for all tribes in Oklahoma, approval of these agreements as gaming compacts will only cause greater confusion and uncertainty about how state-tribal relations should be appropriately conducted.”
In Hunter' s official opinion, he stated he was taking no position in the ongoing federal court dispute between nearly a dozen gaming tribes and Stitt over whether gaming compacts between the tribes and state expired on Jan. 1 or whether they automatically renewed.
The tribes contend the 15-year compacts automatically renewed.
St it tc on tends they
expired. He has stated he would like to renegotiate the compacts to get the tribes to pay more in exclusivity fees than the 4% to 6% they have been paying on Las Vegasstyle Class III gaming machines a nd 1 0% on table games.
The Otoe- Missouria Tribe and Comanche Nation were at one time part of that lawsuit, but asked to be dismissed after they entered separate comp acts. Other gaming tribes remain at odds with Stitt.
Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Chairman Matthew L. Morgan issued a statement Tuesday praising Hunter's opinion.
“We appreciate Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter's clear analysis of the law and his strong letter to t he United States secretary of the Interior,” Morgan said .“As the attorney general states and we have argued for some time, Governor Stitt does not have the authority to bind Oklahoma to his empty promises.
“Oklahoma and the tribes deserve better than the care lessness Governor Stitt has brought to the table, and the attorney general' s analysis encourages us that we will be able to re establish the sort of tribal-state engagement that conforms to the law and serves all of us well.”