The California attorney general, Kamala Harris, and the U.S. Department of Justice have sued the tribe operating Desert Rose Bingo, the Iipay Nation, seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction in federal court to prevent the tribe from offering online gaming.
The complaint filed December 3 by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California claims that the website violates the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
The complaint states, “Commencing on or about November 3, 2014, Defendants knowingly accepted, and continue to knowingly accept, in connection with the participation of other persons in unlawful Internet gambling conducted through Desert Rose Bingo.”
The state’s lawsuit is in U.S. District Court presided over by Judge Anthony Battaglia, who will decide whether to issue the restraining order. No court date has yet been set for the U.S. attorney’s lawsuit.
The tribe had previously announced that it intended to offer online poker on a website, to be called PrivateTable.com, although that has yet to materialize.
The California attorney general’s office filed a complaint in November alleging that the tribe’s website violated its tribal state gaming compact.
The tribe, located in Santa Ysabel, in San Diego County, argues that the bets are being placed on tribal land, and that the bingo site is Class II gaming that the tribe is allowed to offer as a sovereign Indian nation. The tribe calls this form of wagering “proxy betting.”
The tribe is accusing California of attempting to violate its sovereign rights. In its rebuttal to the state, filed on November 25, the tribe’s attorneys asserted, “In a throwback to its unsuccessful mid-1990s efforts to stymie and stifle the progress of Indian Gaming Regulatory Act Class II gaming, California once again seeks to undermine tribal sovereignty, innovation and economic initiative by seeking injunctive and declaratory relief from the court declaring that the Tribe may not conduct its legal [Indian Gaming Regulatory Act II] bingo gaming,”
The site prevents anyone under 18 from participating, however it does allow residents outside of the reservation to purchase bingo cards in the hope of winning cash prizes.
There has been some speculation that the Santa Ysabel tribe started the website as a way of gauging opposition to its proposed poker website, and possibly to give it a bargaining chip in obtaining a new gaming compact.
Concerns have also been raised that if the tribe is not stopped at the starting gate that virtually any other tribe in the state will be able to operate such a bingo site. Also, the tribe is not using a third-party verification service or a licensed geolocation company to ensure that its customers are only located within California, as required by federal law.
If the tribe were to eventually open its poker site, it would be, say legal experts, an unregulated offshore online poker room, although based in the U.S.
The tribe previously operated a brick and mortar casino that it had to close early in 2014 when the tribe ended up owing millions of dollars in unpaid fees to the County of San Diego.
In papers filed with the court, the tribe’s attorney, Little Fawn Boland declared, “The tribe, one of the most impoverished in California, with little alternative means of economic development, will immediately lose gaming revenues—which it will never get back.”
