The Coeur d’Alene Tribe plans to open a poker room at its Worley, Idaho casino this spring, even though state officials have told the tribe that the move would violate its 1992 gaming compact with the state as well as federal regulations.
Tribal attorney William Roden notified the Idaho Lottery Commission last May that the casino was going to add poker. Idaho Lottery Commission Director Jeffrey Anderson responded that he and representatives from Governor Butch Otter’s office had determined that poker at the casino would violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
Tribal Legislative Director Helo Hancock said offering poker would allow the tribe to compete with casinos in Washington that allow it. He said the casino’s poker games would not be “house-banked” and that neither the dealer nor the casino “would have an interest, financial or otherwise, in the outcome of any poker game.”
In addition, Hancock said, poker at the casino would be considered Class II gambling under federal regulations and therefore not subject to state oversight or the state gaming compact. “We have not received anything from the U.S. Attorney’s Office or the NIGC to tell us we’re incorrect in our opinion,” Hancock said. Anderson said he forwarded his correspondence with the tribe to the National Indian Gaming Commission ands the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The tribe unsuccessfully tried to buy the Greyhound Park in Post Falls in the late 1990 and have it placed in federal trust. Recently the state allowed the Greyhound Park owners to offer historic horseracing gaming machines. Hancock said that indicates the state is open to expanded gambling. “The state’s pretty clear in their desire to the see the expansion of casino gaming in passing that historical horse racing gaming at the Greyhound Park. The exact location where the tribe was told we couldn’t have casino gaming is now going to have casino gaming,” he said.
Amber French, deputy director of the Idaho Lottery Enforcement Division, said the tribe is “correct in stating that games are happening all over the state, but that still does not make it legal. There are illegal drug transactions that occur every day, but because they were not busted does this mean it is legal? No. They would definitely lose this if they took this argument to the Idaho Supreme Court.”
Coeur d’Alene Casino CEO Dave Matheson stated, “I’m mostly sure we’ll make it happen. There’s no way in hell they can say it’s prohibited if it’s played almost universally while they look the other way.”
