Attorney General Strange beefs up lawsuit against Indian casinos

Attorney General Strange beefs up lawsuit against Indian casinos
Posted: Apr 12, 2013
By Tametria Conner

 

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - Alabama Attorney General Luther strange is beefing up the state's lawsuit against the Poarch Band of Creek Indian's three casinos.

In March, the Indians filed a motion to move the case to federal court. They also asked the court to simply dismiss the case.

Attorney General Strange's latest filing centers on whether the tribe's games are slot machines or bingo machines.

The original suit was filed in February and asked the court to close the Indian casinos in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka.

[DOCUMENT: Attorney General's court filing (.pdf)]

Thursday's filing amends that complaint to clarify the federal aspects of the state's claims. AG Strange wants to shut the casinos down, saying they are operating slot machines which are considered illegal under Alabama law.

The Poarch Creek Indians argue that the attorney general is trying to circumvent federal law and disregard the sovereignty of their land.

http://www.myfoxal.com/story/21949891/attorney-general-strange-beefs-up

Bingo battle heats up as A.G. Luther Strange expands complaint against Poarch Creek

12 Apr 2013 6:33 AM Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange today returned fire against the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, lodging a multi-pronged legal attack on the tribe's gambling interests in the state. The new tack was laid out in an amended complaint against the tribe filed today in U.S. District Court in Montgomery. Strange had originally asked an Elmore County Circuit Court judge to shut down the Poarch Band's three casinos on the grounds that they are a public nuisance. The new complaint was filed after the tribe last month moved the lawsuit to federal court and asked a judge to dismiss it on the grounds that Alabama has no legal right to sue the Poarch Band, a sovereign nation under federal law. "We have amended the complaint to clarify the federal aspects of the State's claim and to let the court know more about how the Tribe's slot machines ope rate. Amending a complaint is something that happens all the time in the early stages of a lawsuit," said Andrew Brasher, Strange's deputy solicitor general, in an email. Brasher's statement goes on to suggest that filing the suit in state court at first was a legal rouse designed to limit the tribe's options in court. "We were not surprised that the tribal defendants moved the lawsuit from state court to federal court. This procedural move required the tribal defendants to acknowledge that federal law gives the State a claim against them and to waive several defenses that they could have raised. So, we are not asking the federal court to send the case back to state court; we are asking the federal court to go ahead and consider our claim now," he said. The latest complaint still claims that the tribe's casinos are a public nuisance under Alabama law, but it expands the legal theater of battle by calling into question the slot-style, electronic bingo machines that the tribe uses. Unlike private gambling operations, like the recently raided VictoryLand, which are covered by state law, Tribal gambling is governed by the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, commonly referred to as IGRA. Broadly speaking, IGRA allows federally recognized tribes like the Poarch Band to engage in bingo gambling if bingo gambling is legal elsewhere in the state. In order to engage in slot machines or table games like blackjack and roulette, tribes have to enter into a legal compact with the state. Bingo is legal in certain Alabama counties, so the Poarch Band has the right to operate bingo halls. However, the tribe has no compact with the state, and Alabama law specifically prohibits slot-machine gambling, which is what Strange argues is really going on in Poarch Band casinos. Bingo or Slots? Strange argues slots IGRA allows tribes to engage in bingo via comp uters or other "technological aids," even if such electronic versions of the game are illegal elsewhere in the state. However, IGRA expressly forbids "electronic or electromechanical facsimiles of any game of chance or slot machines of any kind." According to Strange's complaint, that's exactly what the Poarch Band's machines are designed to do. The complaint includes a number of exhibits showing the kinds of "bingo" machines that the Poarch Band uses, noting their resemblance to slot machines. Several of the models, the complaint points out, have both bingo and non-bingo versions that are virtually identical. An AL.com reporter recently lost $20 to Red Hot Fusion, one of the models cited in the complaint, as he did research on the Wind Creek Casino in Atmore. An avid gamer told him that a Pascagoula casino has the same game, minus the bingo. As the complaint puts it, "The player does not need to pay attention, listen to alphanumeric designations drawn one-by-one, or match them up to a bingo card. Instead, the player presses a single button, watches slot-machine reels spin, and is told whether he or she has won by the gambling device." In addition to Strange's argument that th e games themselves are illegal under federal and state law, he also asserts that the tribe's casinos do not sit on federally protected trust land and are thus subject to the state's gambling laws. The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act gave the federal government the right to take lands of recognized tribes into trust, but the U.S. Supreme Court's 2009 Carcieri decision ruled that the law only applies to tribes that were recognized at the time the act went into law. Since the Poarch Band was recognized in the 1980s, that means their lands are not actually federally protected, according to Strange. Some experts have said that the Carcieri decision does not necessarily apply to all tribes, that it would take further legal or administrative changes to undo the trust status of the dozens of tribes that gained federal recognition after 1934. The tribe will likely file a new response to the state's complaint in the coming weeks.

 

http://www.wwntradio.com/news/news.php/displayType/article/12780/2013/04/bingo-battle-heats-up-as-ag-luther-strange-expands-complaint-against-poarch-creek

 

 Alabama tribal casino slot machine dispute moves to federal court
The Republic
The Montgomery Advertiser reports (http://on.mgmadv.com/17vyQor ) state officials say the Poarch Creek casinos are feature gambling machines that violate state and federal laws. Officials say operating slot machines is illegal in the state and illegal ...



AG wants federal judge to shut down Indian casinos
Montgomery Advertiser
The state, in the amended complaint filed on Thursday by the office of Attorney General Luther Strange, is seeking to shut down the Poarch Creek casinos by having them declared public nuisances that operate slot machines that are illegal in the state ...