Texas state Rep. Joe Deshotel recently filed HB 2741 which would license nine casinos in the state and tax their gross gaming revenue at 18 percent. Voters would have to approve a constitutional amendment to allow commercial casino gambling in Texas.
Under Deshotel’s proposal, Galveston, Jefferson and Nueces counties would receive one gaming license each, and Harris and Bexar counties would receive three licenses each, applied to existing parimutuel racing operators.
Currently, the state permits tribal gaming at the Lucky Eagle Casino, operated by the federally recognized Kickapoo tribe. However, last year the Alabama-Coushatta tribe reopened the Naskila Entertainment Center, which previously was shut down by the state in 2002, along with a Tigua Indian Tribe gambling hall, after a federal court sided with the state. In 2016 the Alabama-Coushattas reopened Naskila after both the National Indian Gaming Commission and the federal government ruled the tribe must be allowed to conduct Class II gaming on tribal lands. The state sued again, arguing the electronic bingo machines at Naskila are illegal Class III games.
The state’s case against the Tiguas of El Paso dates back to 1999 and technically was closed last May after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ordered the tribe to stop offering the electronic games. But the state attorney general’s office said the tribe still offers electronic bingo and asked Cardone to allow its employees to inspect Tigua entertainment centers. In response, the tribe said bingo is legal in Texas and as a sovereign tribe it has the right to keep state law enforcement officials off of its premises.
But recently the attorney general’s office agreed to file an amended complaint against the Tiguas, and the tribe and the attorney general’s office also agreed that the state will request an inspection of the tribe’s entertainment centers under the federal rules of civil procedure. Those rules allow the attorney general’s office to ask to see records and inspect the entertainment centers, but they also allow the Tiguas to deny those requests. Tribal attorney Dolph Barnhouse also noted, “That doesn’t mean Cardone has to grant” the state’s request. “They can’t just say, ‘I have a bad feeling about your place so let me see everything,’” Barnhouse said.
The state’s legal battle against the Tiguas will likely end if the federal courts rule the Alabama-Coushattas are allowed to offer Class II gaming under federal regulation.
