Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt last week ratcheted up the showdown with state tribes over renegotiations of their compacts. Stitt said that the tribes will be illegally operating Class III games on January 1 and will therefore be in violation of several laws.
“That brings a whole host of issues with vendors,” he said.
The tribes insist that the compacts will continue to be in force even though there is a January 1, 2020 date attached to them. Stitt rejects that notion and says negotiations need to be opened to bring more money to the state, which currently receives between 4 percent and 10 percent of the tribe’s slot revenues.
“The truth is on our side,” Stitt said. “I feel so confident that Oklahomans can see right through a certain industry, the casino industry, saying, ‘These go on forever.’ That can’t be true.”
The tribes believe that certain “triggers” in the compacts have been met—including a provision that allows racetracks to offer slot machines—and that means the compacts renew automatically.
“The fact is our compacts renew and that our gaming will be as lawful in January 2020 as it is in December 2019,” said Stephen Greetham, senior counsel for the Chickasaw Nation. “Governor Stitt’s position is not supported by law, logic or the compact’s plain language.
“Those are terms the state offered to us 15 years ago, and it is beyond untenable for it to arbitrarily and at the 11th hour suddenly say it didn’t mean what it said. Oklahoma is better than that, and the state-tribal relationship deserves better than that.”
While Stitt claims that he won’t negotiate in public, he has confirmed that he wants discussions to begin with a 25 percent cut of slot revenue going to the state, which would be one of the highest payments in the nation. The tribes believe that level is untenable because of increased competition, potential job losses and serious impacts on Indian nations if forced to pay that rate.
