Two Oklahoma tribal gaming operators have come to terms with the state’s governor, but there are questions as to whether the new compacts will withstand legal scrutiny.
On Tuesday, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced agreements on new gaming compacts with two Oklahoma tribes: the Comanche Nation and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe. Each compact is for a 15-year term and each must still be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the US Department of the Interior (DOI).
The Comanche compact authorizes the tribe to open new gaming venues in Cleveland, Grady and Love counties, provided the DOI agrees to take the off-reservation land into trust (a process that can easily go either way, as recent events have demonstrated). The Otoe-Missouria tribe got the okay to open new casinos in Logan, Noble and Payne counties, subject to the same conditions.
The tribes have agreed to pay tax rates of 4.5% on gaming revenue from their existing casinos (6% if/when revenue tops $300m), similar to rates in the previous compacts that expired on January 1. However, the Otoe-Missouria tribe will pay between 8%-12% on gaming revenue from its new casinos, while the Comanche will pay between 8%-13% on their new venues.
SPORTS BETTING
Those rates don’t apply to land-based sports betting, which both tribes are authorized to conduct under the new compacts. The tribes have agreed to pay the state 1.1% of wagering handle, while wagering will be limited to bettors in or within 1,000 feet of the casino.
The compacts allow that the state may “at some future time” license up to five non-tribal betting locations. That would require the state to actually approve legal wagering, something it has yet to do. At present, New Mexico is currently the only US jurisdiction in which a tribe is offering betting without the state having legalized the activity.
The Associated Press quoted Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter saying Stitt appears to have exceeded his authority in authorizing sports betting, which he claimed was “not a prescribed ‘covered game’ under the [Oklahoma Tribal Gaming] Act.”
OTHER TRIBES UNIMPRESSED
The Comanche and the Otoe-Missouria were among the 12 tribes who sued Stitt over his belief that their existing gaming compacts didn’t automatically renew on the same terms for an additional 15-year period at the start of this year. A federal judge has given the parties until May 31 to mediate some kind of compromise.
Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association chairman Matt Morgan issued a statement Tuesday saying the Comanche and Otoe-Missouria compacts had been crafted based on Stitt’s “claim of unilateral state authority” to legalize betting and authorize new off-reservation casinos in areas near other tribes’ gaming venues. “That’s simply not the law.”
