Panel Tries To Find Where Internet Gaming Occurs Commission Would Have A Role Only If Gambling Originates On Indian Lands

The National Indian Gaming Commission is looking into where Internet gambling such as that proposed by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe actually happens - on the reservation, or wherever the gambler sits down at a computer.

The answer to that question determines what role the federal commission should play in regulating tribal gambling on the Internet, Commissioner Tom Foley told state and tribal officials Tuesday. The commission would have a role only if the gambling is happening on Indian lands.

“That’s where the computer server is located,” Foley said. “A lot of people would say, yeah, that’s where the gaming is going on.”

The national commission is researching the issue and plans public hearings on Internet gaming in the fall, Foley said.

The commission received a letter in July signed by 35 state attorneys general, including Idaho’s, opposing the Coeur d’Alenes’ proposed national Internet lottery as illegal.

At a meeting of Gov. Phil Batt’s gaming study committee in Boise on Tuesday, Coeur d’Alene tribal gaming CEO David Matheson asked Foley for the commission’s response to the letter.

Foley said the commission has acknowledged receiving the letter, but hasn’t yet responded.

“We’re doing a lot of research right now,” he said in an interview. “We’re starting to hear of other tribes that are thinking about developing Internet gaming. We expect to see it in all parts of the country.”

The problem, Foley said, is that federal laws are out of date. One major law that defines gambling devices was developed in the 1950s, when slot machines were mechanical rather than computerized.

“Part of the problem has been Congress has not kept up with technology,” he said. “The rules of the game have not kept up with it.”

Definitions in federal laws should be updated, but that’s not likely to happen now, Foley said.

“It’s something that should be revisited, but if it were revisited by Congress, it would become embroiled in such a political morass I don’t think anything would come out of it right now.”

The Coeur d’Alenes maintain that their Internet operation is just a modernized version of Idaho’s state lottery, which has instant-win scratch-off games and drawings of numbers.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has proposed legislation to ban Internet gambling. His bill, which is supported by the National Association of Attorneys General, would penalize bettors as well as those running gambling services over the Internet. Kyl held hearings on the bill last week.

Foley noted that gambling has brought significant economic development and jobs to some American Indian tribes, and said states such as Nevada and New Jersey cited those same goals when they legalized gambling.

But he said gambling generally is successful only when it’s well-regulated. The commission wants to ensure that Indian gambling is well-regulated, Foley said, through tribal gaming authorities, federal regulators such as his commission, and negotiated compacts with state governments.

Foley, a longtime county prosecutor from Minnesota, pointed to Washington as a state where tribal gambling is effectively regulated thanks to joint efforts between the state and tribes.

The governor’s committee on gaming, which includes state legislators, tribal officials, clergymen and anti-gambling activists, has been holding hearings around the state to try to develop proposals on how Idaho should approach gambling in the future.

The group will meet all day today in Boise to offer proposals, but no votes are planned. The committee’s chairman, Lt. Gov. Butch Otter, said the committee should begin narrowing down the proposals by September.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LEGISLATION Proposed Senate bill would penalize bettors and those running gambling services over the Internet.