Class II tribal bingo operators may rest easier nationwide over developments in the National Indian Gaming Commission’s effort to distinguish advanced bingo devices from Class III slot machines. Some controversy has been quelled at least temporarily, but more may be in the wind.
Responding to Oklahoma tribes’ concerns, Alaska’s Metlakatla Indian Community has dropped its planned appeal of NIGC Chairman Phil Hogen’s refusal to allow the tribe’s fast-playing one-touch bingo machines as Class II. That means any decision the full commission might have made about the appeal won’t reach federal courts as some observers expected-and Hogen hoped.
“It appears a judicial test of this important dividing line will be put off at this time. If there was concern that the view stated in my disapproval of this measure would be sustained in a federal court review, I think such concern was well placed,” Hogen said in an NIGC news release.
The next day, the Tulsa World reported that in an interview with the paper, “Hogen also said the parts of proposed gambling regulations that had been set aside after triggering strong opposition from tribes and members of Congress now would be formally withdrawn.”
That line, buried near the end of a story about the Alaska decision, referred to new rules for Class II machines that Hogen has worked on for five years. The same day he made the Alaska decision, he announced the rules would be “set aside” for a new cost-benefit analysis.
An earlier study showed that Class II gamers as a group would lose billions of dollars if they had to junk bingo machines redefined as Class III or consequently had to negotiate state gaming compacts-and share revenue-to run the games legally. That substantiated tribes’ prior howls over losing entertainment value, relatively rapid play and customer appeal for their electronic bingo. Similar concerns arose over the one-touch machines.
Oklahoma gaming tribes, which run many one-touches among their 25,000 bingo machines-half the estimated total used in the United States-were particularly alarmed about prospects of a court decision resulting from Metlakatla’s appeal. “While respecting their sovereignty, we approached Metlakatla about the wider impact this could have,” said Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Chairman David Qualls. “I’m very grateful to the Metlakatla for reconsidering and withdrawing their
petition.”
Since the Alaska one-touch decision was not made by the full commission, it applies only to Metlakatla, said Joseph Webster, the tribe’s Washington, D.C., attorney. The Oklahoma group’s Washington attorney told Indian Country Today that withdrawal of the appeal means the full NIGC can take no action on the one-touch decision, “mooting out” its possible effects.
Still, reports have Hogen insisting that “as other or similar matters confront us, we will be guided by the Metlakatla decision unless or until the commission changes that or a court or Congress changes it.”
NIGC One-Touch Appeal, Class II Rules Dropped
