In December, Washington State tribes scored a key victory in federal court, reaffirming our tribal sovereignty. In that ruling, a three-judge panel of the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court decision that dismissed a lawsuit filed by Maverick Gaming, a card room operator seeking to invalidate all the gaming compacts negotiated between tribes and the state of Washington and approved by the federal government.
Maverick Gaming’s ultimate goal is to dismantle the Washington State law passed by a bipartisan supermajority of the legislature. It allows sports betting in the state but limits it to the physical premises of tribal casinos. That law has subsequently been enshrined in Washington tribes’ carefully vetted and negotiated gaming compacts with the State of Washington. Maverick wants the courts to wipe out these compacts and compel the state to allow card rooms to offer any type of gaming that tribes offer on our reservations.
Maverick filed the lawsuit in a lower federal court in Tacoma. Notably, Maverick’s suit did not include any tribes as parties, which meant that a decision on the validity of the tribal-state compacts would have been made without tribal participation in the case. In September 2021, the Shoalwater Bay Tribe in Washington – the same tribe of which Maverick Gaming CEO Eric Persson is a citizen – filed a motion to intervene, seeking to dismiss the lawsuit. Shoalwater Bay argued that despite not being named in the lawsuit due to their sovereign immunity, “Washington Tribes are the true target of the suit.” In March 2022, Judge David Estudillo agreed and dismissed the suit in its entirety.
Maverick then appealed the dismissal to the Ninth Circuit, which has now unanimously upheld the lower court’s dismissal. The three-judge panel noted that Maverick seeks an outcome that runs afoul of Washington’s long-held policy towards gambling, which allows governmental gaming, such as the lottery and tribal gaming while limiting private, non-governmental entities from profiting from professional gambling.
In total, four federal judges have now agreed that Maverick Gaming’s attempts to invalidate our tribal compacts are an attack on tribal sovereignty in Washington. The Ninth Circuit correctly concluded that Maverick’s lawsuit could not proceed “in equity and good conscience” without the tribes because Maverick’s lawsuit implicates “legally protected economic and sovereign interests” of Washington tribes.
In their decision, the court recognized the critical role tribal gaming plays in supporting the sovereignty of Washington tribes because gaming dollars generated under the compacts fund “government services to tribal citizens and reservation residents.”
This ruling meant a lot to the tribes in Washington. Tribes are sovereign nations. Our gaming compacts are carefully negotiated, and government-to-government agreements are fully valid and legally binding. The Washington State legislature’s bipartisan supermajority decision to limit sports betting to the premises of tribal casinos is not only legally sound, it also strikes precisely the right balance, allowing responsible adults to participate in safe and well-regulated gaming activities while minimizing the negative social consequences that can sometimes result from gambling. All of that has now again been affirmed.
While this ruling was an important step, the fight may not be over. We anticipate Maverick will seek to revive its lawsuit. Whatever steps Maverick takes next, Washington tribes remain united in our commitment to oppose any efforts to undermine our tribal sovereignty.
