The Suquamish and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribes of Washington are suing their insurance providers, saying they didn’t cover their casino losses incurred during the Covid-19 shutdowns.
The separate civil lawsuits claim that the tribes and their economic development arms purchased $50 million in coverage from Tribal First Alliant Underwriting Solutions, which they contend should have covered the “catastrophic” losses they incurred due to the pandemic.
The policies, say the tribes, provided covered “caused by any cause unless the cause is expressly excluded in the policy” and did not exclude communicable diseases or viruses.
Greg George, president of Port Madison Enterprises, the Suquamish Tribe’s economic development corporation, said they sued the insurance provider because “what we have seen from our insurers so far indicates to us that they do not intend to step up and honor our agreement in this difficult time.”
Suquamish Chairman Leonard Forsman added, “To protect those investments the tribe took the sensible step of buying business interruption insurance, and we expect our insurers to provide the coverage we paid for.”
The insurance company has so far not commented on the filings.
The tribes in mid-March closed their casinos in Kitsap. They reopened recently with limited operations. They say they have lost millions of dollars in lost business revenues.
