"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Tribes Concerned About Proposed Gaming Rules

WASHINGTON – Tribes operating gaming facilities, including the Cherokee Nation, are concerned about proposed gaming regulations published in October by the National Indian Gaming Commission.

The concern stems from a proposed revision outlining the visual and mechanical differences between bingo-based Class II games and Class III electronic machines.

Bingo-based games, which are legal at Indian casinos without state regulation and compacts, pit players against each other on a computer server. Class III machines, legal only at casinos covered by compacts between tribes and states, pit the player against the machine alone.

Tribes had 45 days from the publishing of the revision to protest.

NIGC Chairman Phil Hogen called the proposals a needed “bright line” drawn between Class II and Class III gambling devices.

If the revision is finalized it could mean that tribes’ bingo-based technology is out of compliance and could cost them millions of dollars.

“If these rules go through as they are written, the classification standards and the definitions have the ability to make those (Class II) machines into Class III games,” Jamie Hummingbird, CN Gaming Commission director, said. “It would mean we would be faced with the decision to either do away with the machines as a Class II game all together or to start operating them under the terms of the compact, which would mean more money being paid to the state.”

Hummingbird said CN’s casinos have 4,204 electronic gaming machines at seven locations in northeastern Oklahoma, and 42 percent of those machines are Class II machines.

The CN compacted with Oklahoma in 2004 to operate Class III machines and agreed to pay 4 to 6 percent of the revenue generated these machines to the state.

Hummingbird added that if the proposed regulations are implemented, they would prevent tribes from negotiating gaming compacts with states. He said tribes with Class II gaming would not be allowed to negotiate with state governments to get Class III games and those tribes would be disadvantaged when current gaming compacts expire because they would be barred from directly negotiating with their state’s government.

“Tribes would be at a lesser position to negotiate compacts if we don’t have viable Class II games. That’s really what these regulations will do to tribes – it will take away our ability to conduct Class II gaming,” he said. “What we don’t want to have happen is for the federal government to remove an option for us in case we want to negotiate another gaming compact or negotiate a future compact that would better benefit the tribe.”

Though he worked on advisory committees to develop technical and internal control standards for Indian casinos, Hummingbird said he was surprised by the NIGC’s definition change for Class II gaming.

He said the two committees he served on developed standards and submitted them to the NIGC in September. The NIGC informed the committees at that time it would give the new standards time to work, but the following month released four proposed regulations for Indian gaming, including the Class II revisions.

“So now we’re battling with the NIGC whether we are going to support these new regulations or not,” Hummingbird said. He added that tribal leaders have urged Hogen not to move forward with the proposed regulations.

Hogen said if the NIGC decides to move forward with the proposed regulations, it would listen to input from tribes before doing so.

“He has at least acknowledged he has the option to withdraw them, but whether or not he does that remains to be seen,” Hummingbird said.

Other regulations proposed by the NIGC require tribes to certify that their casinos are complying with environmental, health and public safety laws. Tribes also will need to certify that their casinos are operating on “Indian lands,” as defined by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. This rule would only apply to new gaming facilities. The proposed rules would also require the NIGC to be notified at least 120 days in advance of the opening a new gaming facility.