Issue remains muddled
By doing nothing, the U.S. Department of the Interior did plenty to raise the rhetoric surrounding tribal gaming and little to clarify the issue.
The Interior Department opted not to take specific action, within the allowed 45-day window, to approve or reject compacts reached between the governor's office and two tribes, the Comanche Nation and the OtoeMissouria Tribe. When no action is taken, compacts are “deemed approved” and take effect when they're published in the Federal Register. That must happen sometime in the next 45 days.
The Comanche and OtoeMissouria tribes were once among a number of tribes suing Gov. Kevin Stitt in federal court over compacts. The group contends that gaming compacts agreed to in 2004 automatically renewed on Jan. 1 of this year; Stitt says they expired at that time and must be renegotiated.
In April, the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe agreed to new compacts with the governor, prompting the board of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Commission (OIGC) to suspend the tribes' memberships. Among other things, the compacts allow each tribe to put new casinos at three locations and allow them to conduct sports wagering and e-sports betting.
Attorney General Mike Hunter says the compacts are illegal because state law doesn't allow sports betting and other types of gaming included in the compacts. He didn't mince words in his critique of the Interior Department, calling its inaction “thoughtless and irresponsible.”
The chairman of the Quapaw Tribe, John L. Berrey, said the approval was a “gut punch to tribes in Oklahoma and across the country” and “a new low-water mark for Indian gaming …”
Hunter insists that the governor "lacks the authority to enter into compacts that include activities not legal in Oklahoma.” He added that the tribes cannot operate under terms of the compacts until a state Supreme Court case is completed.
Stitt's attorneys have asked a federal judge to rule on the limits of the governor's authority to approve compacts that authorize sports betting. Oklahoma's House speaker and Senate president pro tem want the state Supreme Court to decide that issue instead.
Stitt hailed the news from the Interior Department, saying it marks the start of “a new era of prosperity, opportunity, and partnership for the state and the tribes.” Yet several tribes remain at odds with the governor over compacts and that rift doesn't appear to be narrowing.
The chairman of the OIGC predicted approval of these two compacts will “introduce the type of potential instability that existing compacts were designed to avoid and exacerbate the relationship between tribal governments and Gov. Stitt.”
Although the commission respects tribes' rights to act in what they feel are the best interests of its citizens, the OIGC chairman said, “these agreements do not advance the tribal governmental gaming industry in Oklahoma.”
Simply put: We seem a long way from resolution on this important issue.