States Have Hang-Up With Indian Lotto Attorneys General From Several States Pressuring Long-Distance Carriers Not To Provide 800 Service To Coeur D’Alene Tribe
Several states trying to protect millions of dollars in gambling revenue want to pull the plug on the national lottery being proposed by Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe.
They’re pressuring phone companies not to carry calls to the lottery’s 800 number.
The National Indian Lottery, announced last month by the North Idaho tribe, would be played with a telephone call and a credit card. The states say the lottery is illegal under state and federal law.
AT&T has notified the attorneys general of Connecticut and Minnesota that it will not provide a toll-free phone network for the lottery. Florida and Rhode Island also asked long-distance companies not to serve the lottery. All four states have state-run lotteries.
AT&T and MCI have been negotiating with the tribe to provide the 800 service.
“We agree that there are some questions about the legality of this,” AT&T spokesman Mike Lordi said Tuesday. “I presume we would work with any attorney general who asked us not to provide service.”
MCI had no immediate comment.
In a letter to the tribe last week, Sprint said it was “not interested in providing service” for the lottery.
Leaders of the 1,300-member tribe said the game would be offered in the 36 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have lotteries. Tickets would be sold by phone or mail for a minimum purchase of $5. Orders would be confirmed by mailgrams. The lottery is set to start this fall.
“We’re not going to blink,” said David Matheson, general manager of the tribe’s gambling operations.
Spokesmen for AT&T and Sprint said they could not block callers from reaching the lottery if another carrier is providing the 800 network.
Matheson accused the states of “economic racism.” States do not stop residents from using the telephone to gamble on lotteries in foreign countries or through offtrack betting operations in the United States, he said.
But state officials contend the lottery would break state laws against betting with credit cards and telephones and violate a federal law against interstate transmission of gambling information.