A federal judge in New York has ruled in favor of the Cayuga Indian Nation’s right to operate machine gaming at a venue in the town of Union Springs despite opposition from the local government.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd rejected the town’s bid to dismiss a 2014 Cayuga Nation lawsuit that had argued the tribe had sovereign immunity with respect to its operation of Lakeside Entertainment, which houses some 85 Class II devices, a federal designation for machines that look and play like conventional slot machines but are not house-banked, their payouts determined instead on the basis of a pari-mutuel system.
Lakeside, which is currently closed because of the coronavirus epidemic, has been operating for several years under an injunction while the lawsuit awaited a decision.
The local government had sought to deny the venue a certificate of occupancy on the basis of a local anti-gaming ordinance and a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said Indian tribes could not buy up parcels of land on the commercial market and automatically make them sovereign land. The Cayuga Nation closed Lakeside Entertainment in response but later obtained authorization from the National Indian Gaming Commission to reopen it in 2013.
Hurd said Lakeside is legal under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which “prohibits defendants from taking any steps to restrict, interfere with, punish, prosecute, or otherwise penalize actions taken by the nation, its officers, its employees, or its other representatives in furtherance of Class II gaming activities at the property.”
“This is a great victory for our nation, who were made promises more than 200 years ago and have justifiably relied on those promises,” said Cayuga leader Clint Halftown. “The judge ruled in favor of the Cayuga Nation on each and every one of our legal arguments. This is yet another affirmance of our sovereignty.”
Halftown said Lakeside will reopen “as soon as we determine it is safe to do so and without ongoing interference from the village.”
Municipal attorney Chad Hayden said Union Springs will appeal Hurd’s decision.
