What’s the gameplan?

Tribes, governor continue to trade barbs over gaming compacts

What possibly began as a way to improve the state of Oklahoma, has turned into a proverbial thorn in the side of many key players. Governor Kevin Stitt took over as governor of Oklahoma in January 2019, and has shaken things up since his inauguration.

Since in office, teachers’ pay has increased across the board. Even though the increase is a far cry from putting Oklahoma in the top 10 for teachers’ pay like Stitt promised, the state has seen an immense increase from 49^th place to 34^th .

In July 2019, Stitt made a decision that has many people scratching their heads, especially the gaming tribes. Stitt penned a letter to the 35 gaming tribal leaders, stating he wanted to renegotiate the compact before the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2020.

Here it is, after that deadline, and still all parties are at an impasse.

The main hot topic in the entire conversation is the wording in the compact, specifically 15-B. The compact listed the expiration date as January 1, 2020. One would think that makes a clear-cut case, not by a long shot.

Apparently, the language in the rest of the clause is the reason for the confusion. The tribes argued that the remainder of the paragraph causes the “compact to automatically renew for another 15 years.”

Stitt wants to renegotiate to allow the state to gain more revenue from the tribes.

Tribal leaders have argued that the compact automatically renews because the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission issued licenses to horse tracks allowing electronic gaming.

The negotiations have become a stalemate with neither side willing to budge, and has many people throwing their hands up and leaving.

On December 17, Oklahoma’s lead legal official Attorney General Mike Hunter stepped down as the liaison between Stitt and the tribal leaders. This act left Stitt to fight the battle alone.

Then, to further complicate Stitt’s agenda, Lisa Billy resigned as Stitt’s Secretary of Native Affairs on December 23. In her resignation letter, Billy called out Stitt’s attempt at negotiating as an “unnecessary conflict that poses real risk of lasting damage to the state-tribal relationship and to our economy.”

The former Secretary of Native Affairs also scolded the governor on his current reactions to the negotiation impasse.

“You have dismissed advice and facts that show the peril of your chosen approach and have remained intent on breaking faith with the tribes, both by refusing to engage with the compact’s language and, more recently, by suggesting you would displace our tribal partners with private, out-of-state commercial gaming operators. Your actions have shown that my continuing in service on your cabinet is unnecessary to you and impossible for me. I must accordingly resign, effective immediately.”

Stitt offered a proverbial olive branch, by suggesting that the tribes sign an extension agreement until things can be hammered out.

Stitt threatened the tribes if they do not sign the extension, or come to some sort of agreement, that their operations will be illegal after the stroke of the new year.

However, the tribal leaders hold to the wording of the clause. The compact automatically renews, therefore, class three gaming – electronic amusement games, electronic bonanza style bingo games, electronic instant bingo, and non-house banked card games – is not illegal.

As of December 31, the Kialegee Tribal Town and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians signed the extension offered by Stitt. The leaders of the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes did not enter into the extension.

However, they did file a lawsuit to have the verbiage in the aforementioned clause clarified. The lawsuit “calls for the court to declare the legal effect of the compact’s Part 15.B.”

In the letter to Stitt, the tribal leaders reiterated “the dispute – like the lawsuit – is about renewal, not rates.”

Matthew Morgan, Esq., Chairman of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, said he hopes the impasse can eventually lead to step in the right direction, and commends the tribes for seeking clarification of the clause in question.

“The Tribes remain firmly united on the automatic renewal of the compacts,” Morgan stated in an email. “We have communicated our position to Governor Stitt on numerous occasions in hopes of finding a practical path forward benefitting both the State and Tribes.”

“That said, as leaders of sovereign nations, the Tribal leaders must honor the compacts and will continue to do so on January 1, 2020, as they’ve done the past 15 years,” Morgan continued. “Tribal leaders have the right as well as the responsibility to protect their citizens. Tribal leaders applaud the action taken today by the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to seek certainty on the matter of automatic renew through the Federal court.”