The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel fight back against the Californian lawsuit that saw real money action suspended on their online bingo site, Desert Rose, by filing a motion to dismiss the State’s lawsuit against them.
The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel are fighters. I’ll give them that. The Californian tribe have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by the State of California, who are pulling out all the stops in their attempt to prevent them from operating their real money online bingo game: Desert Rose Bingo.
If the name Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel rings a bell, that’s because in July 2014 they hit the headlines when they announced plans to upset the California online gambling applecart by launching their own real-money online poker site called PrivateTable.
The online poker room, planned to operate within the tribe’s own regulatory body, was due to launch in 14 July 2014, but the date came and went without any real money gambling in sight. Then in a bolt out of the blue the tribe launched a real money online bingo site called Desert Rose Bingo and, predictably, all hell broke loose.
The State Attorney General’s office went before a US District Court judge to shut them down, and the US Department of Justice accused the tribe of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). It was the big boys up against the Tribes attorney Little Fawn Boland – now that doesn’t sound like a fair fight. It wasn’t. The State ruled against the tribe offering Class II bingo games to people living in California, and action on Desert Rose Bingo was suspended indefinitely.
But Little Fawn and the gang were not going to be pushed around that easily, and they have retaliated by filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the ‘tribal sovereign immunity of Defendants bars the State’s claims.’ The counter-measure also goes on to say that the State had failed to comply with the procedural requirements of Sections 9.1 and 11.2.1 of the Tribal-State Compact, and must do this before they can take action in federal court.
“Whether the Tribe may continue with its VPN Aided Class II Gaming under federal law will be determined in any event on the merits as part of the federal government’s lawsuit concerning an alleged violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.” Boland wrote.
The case continues.
