FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE PARKER RULES POJOAQUE CAN’T GET BIA TO FORCE COMPACT ON THE STATE
Pojoaque Pueblo has been negotiating with the Martinez administration for years, trying to get a gambling compact to take over when their current compact expires in June of 2015. The tribe has been refusing to include revenue sharing to the state, wants to allow 18-year-olds to gamble on slots and table games, to allow alcohol on the gambling floor, and to allow cashing payroll and public assistance checks at the casino.
The state has been holding out for basically the same provisions that nine other tribes agreed to in 2007, which would include an increase in revenue sharing from 8% to about 10% over a period of years. The state also is refusing to allow underage gambling, alcohol on the floor, and cashing payroll and public assistance checks at the casino.
Pojoaque sued the state, claiming that the state did not negotiate in good faith, but the federal court said that the state had sovereign immunity from such attacks. Several months ago the tribe went to the Interior Department, asking them to approve compacts and force the state to agree. The state tried to get an injunction to thwart the federal government from forcing a compact on them, but Judge Parker refused to approve the injunction.
Now, however, Judge James Parker, District U.S. Federal Court, has decreed that rules that the Interior Department had enacted that would allow the tribes to bypass the normal state/tribe process of negotiations are in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA), since no federal court had ruled that the state had negotiated in bad faith.
Judge Parker did throw Pojoaque a crumb, however, stating that the Department of the Interior had the authority to act as trustee for the tribe and could sue the state in federal court for negotiating in bad faith, which could then throw the process into the Department of the Interior.
Pojoaque considers this ruling to be a “setback,” and that they will likely appeal the decision to federal circuit court. The Martinez administration is pleased by the decision, and looks forward to “continuing negotiations with the Pueblo of Pojoaque as well as other tribes whose compacts are close to expiring.”
Pojoaque threatens to continue operating its casino even if they have not gotten a compact approved by the June 2015 deadline. The Justice Department was threatening to close them down in the mid-90’s when they refused to pay revenue sharing at that time. We wonder if Justice will take a similar stance if Pojoaque thumbs their nose at federal law this time.
It will be interesting to see if any of the remaining five tribes: Pojoaque, Mescalero, the Navajos, Acoma and the Jicarillas manage to sort through this mine-field of litigation and bickering to hammer out compacts in time to meet the deadline. The 2015 legislative session promises to be interesting.
The tribal casinos have almost zero regulation, are a festival of embezzlement opportunities, trample the traditions of a once-proud people, and promote greed and institutionalized unfairness in collusion with the state government.
An article in the Albuquerque Journal gives more detail on this ruling.
It’s time for the government to get out of the predatory gambling business.
