Gaming Control Board in New Mexico settles tribal gambling disputes

Gaming Control Board in New Mexico is on the path to settle in increasing number of disputes with suppliers engaged in tribal gambling. Recently, a company that installed gaming devices at Pojoaque Pueblo while it was running casinos in violation of federal law for more than two years has reached a financial settlement with the board. It marked the sixth dispute settlement in recent times.

A company that supplies cash-dispensing and counting machines to casinos also settled with the board as a result of its business with the Pueblo.

Bally Gaming and Glory Global Solutions is another company that has resolved disputes with the Gaming Control Board over the use of their equipment by Pojoaque casinos while the casinos were operating without required agreements with the state.

The settlements with Bally and Glory resolved the final two administrative and enforcement actions by the Gaming Control Board against the Pojoaque suppliers, according to a board spokesman.

The Gaming Control Board had threatened not to renew the companies’ licenses to do business in New Mexico with nontribal casinos, including those at horse racing tracks, because they had supplied equipment to Pojoaque casinos.

Like the other companies, Bally and Glory agreed in the settlements to make payments to the Gaming Control Board.

The amounts of the settlement payments were not disclosed. The Gaming Control Board has maintained that since the payment amounts were derived from financial information provided by the companies, the amounts are exempt from public disclosure under state law.

In exchange for the payments, the Gaming Control Board agreed to process gaming licenses for Bally and Glory.

The settlements were entered into in January and recently obtained by The New Mexican through a public records request. The board in February approved license renewals for Bally and Glory, as well as licenses for several executives of the companies, to do business with nontribal casinos.

Tribes, not the state, license companies to do business with Indian casinos.

Bally – a supplier of slot machines, table games and other gaming devices – denied any legal wrongdoing as part of its settlement. The Glory settlement said it should not be construed as an admission of wrongdoing.

The companies did not respond to requests for comment on the settlements.

Under federal law, an Indian tribe cannot legally operate a casino without a state-tribal compact, or agreement, which sets guidelines for how tribes manage gaming operations and lay out the oversight role of the state.

Pojoaque Pueblo operated its Buffalo Thunder and Cities of Gold casinos from June 2015 to about last October without a compact, largely because of a dispute over the state’s demand that the tribe share with its revenue from slot machines.

Pojoaque Pueblo had accused the state of negotiating in bad faith and asked the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees Indian affairs, to approve new procedures for its casinos. The tribe’s effort eventually failed in federal court, leading to the pueblo agreeing on last fall to a new compact that requires revenue sharing with the state.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Pojoaque Pueblo also had attempted to prevent the Gaming Control Board from taking action against the tribe’s slot machine providers and other vendors, but a judge ruled against the tribe in February 2017. Some slots and table games at Pojoaque Pueblo casinos were darkened as a result of the judge’s ruling.

The Gaming Control Board’s threats to take licensing actions against companies supplying Pojoaque casinos added pressure on the tribe to agree to the new gaming compact with the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez.

A decision by the Gaming Control Board not to renew the license of a company for supplying Pojoaque casinos could have threatened the company’s business in other states. That’s because gambling authorities in the lucrative market of Nevada and elsewhere consider adverse licensing actions in other jurisdictions.

Source: santafenewmexican.com