Federal judge tosses suit targeting sports betting in tribal casinos

TACOMA — A federal lawsuit alleging state officials provided tribal casinos an unlawful monopoly on sports betting has been tossed out, thwarting a Kirkland gaming firms’s bid to offer the increasingly popular form of gambling in its establishments.

Maverick Gaming, which operates card rooms in Snohomish County and across the state, sought to invalidate gaming compact amendments allowing the Stillaguamish, Tulalip and other Washington tribes to offer sports betting in their casinos.

The firm’s lawyers argued in the January 2022 suit those amendments — signed by Gov. Jay Inslee and endorsed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland — violated a federal law intended to bar gaming activity at tribal casinos on Indian lands unless the state permits the same activity by non-tribal entities.

In October, the Shoalwater Bay Tribe filed a motion to dismiss the case after intervening as a defendant. It argued that even though they were not named in the suit, due to their sovereign immunity, they and the state’s other federally recognized tribes are the true targets of the suit. Thus the suit could not go further.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/federal-judge-tosses-suit-targeting-sports-betting-in-tribal-casinos/