POJOAQUE V. STATE OF NEW MEXICO MAY BE NEARING CONCLUSION
For nearly two years since the gaming compact between the Pueblo of Pojoaque and the State of New Mexico expired, Pojoaque has been using the courts to try to avoid paying the state revenue sharing on its gambling profits. The state has been trying to get Pojoaque to agree to an identical compact that all the other gambling tribes in the state have signed.
Following various court hearings, the Obama Department of the Interior sort of adopted the pueblo and said that they could negotiate a compact with the tribe without state involvement. Federal courts have already supported the state in preventing vendors from crossing pueblo borders to supply gambling activities.
Earlier this year, a District Federal Court ruled that the Interior Department acted improperly in working with the pueblo to approve compacts, cutting the state out of the process. On April 21, the 10th Circuit Court in Denver agreed with the District Court’s decision saying that the Interior Department action would have, “stripped New Mexico of certain procedural protections or benefits” from the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
Although the pueblo has the option to appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit court decision is a major setback for the pueblo, and a victory for the State of New Mexico.
Pojoaque is supposed to have been keeping the equivalent amount of revenue sharing in a trust account in the event that they lost the battle and have to pay the state for the last two years of non-compliance. All tribal payments to the state are made on a sort of self-monitoring honor system, with the state having virtually no hard regulatory authority. Maybe the federal government can get them to comply. It will be interesting to watch.
An article on the court decision in the Santa Fe New Mexican can be read by clicking here. Besides cannibalizing local businesses, damaging the local economy, causing misery through the addictive effects that casinos have on citizens, according to a 2005 article in the economist, tribal casinos cause significant economic problems for tribal members.
It’s time for the government (tribal and state) to get out of the predatory gambling business.
