Tribes Keep Slots In Casinos Until Trial Agreement Clears Way For Future Test Of Legality

Casinos on the Spokane and Colville Indian reservations may continue to operate slot machines at least temporarily under an agreement a federal judge approved Wednesday in Spokane.

The agreement presented by U.S. and tribal attorneys calls for 1,020 slot machines on the Spokane reservation and 794 on the Colville reservation to be treated like accused juvenile delinquents. They’re to be arrested and sent home.

Tribal leaders agreed to allow U.S. marshals to count, identify and “arrest” the slot machines. The federal government agreed to allow the tribes to act as “substitute custodians” of the machines until a court rules on their legality.

The tribes will keep all the money generated by the machines while they are under arrest and awaiting trial. In return, the tribes abandon the right to claim the federal courts lack jurisdiction.

Ironically, the agreement forbids the tribes from selling or destroying the machines before trial - even though elimination of the machines is exactly what the federal government wants.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Shively conceded the government has gone full circle in its latest assault on the tribal slot machines. But Wednesday’s agreement calls for an expedited schedule to bring the issue to a head.

A trial or hearing on the merits of the case is to get started Jan. 4 before U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickel in Spokane.

“They’ve been operating for four years,” Shively said outside court Wednesday. “What’s another three or four months?”

The U.S. attorney’s office has been trying for four years to seize Spokane tribal slot machines as illegal under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the government can’t seize the machines before going to trial.

U.S. attorneys in Spokane and Seattle moved in June to get around the appellate ruling with motions to seize the machines under the older Johnson Act, which flatly bans slot machines in Indian country.

Tribal attorneys contend the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows exceptions to the Johnson Act that should apply to the Spokane and Colville tribal casinos.

Wednesday’s agreement echoes the 9th Circuit ruling that the tribes are entitled to have their arguments decided in court before the machines may be seized.

The deal calls for the Colville Confederated Tribes to file a lawsuit that will be merged with the government’s Johnson Act suit. The Spokane Tribe’s existing Indian Gaming Regulatory Act case also is to be folded into the mix.

The tribes contend their casinos - including slot machines - are legal because the state of Washington refused to negotiate regulatory agreements that would otherwise be required under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. They argue that the federal government, because of its trust responsibility for Indian reservations, should be suing Washington state - not them - for failure to obey the federal law.

The new procedural agreement hints at what may be the tribes’ fallback position if their slot machines are ruled illegal. It allows the tribes to convert their allegedly illegal slot machines to similar machines that are legal.

Scott Crowell, attorney for the Spokane Tribe, said one example is a machine recently approved by the Washington State Gambling Commission and now in operation at a Spokane restaurant. The machines automatically read paper pulltabs when customers insert coins, but have all the bells and whistles of slot machines.

“It is a slot machine,” Crowell said.

He and Colville tribal attorney Tim Brewer said the tribes still believe conventional slot machines are legal, but the new devices are under consideration.

NEXT A trial or hearing is to start Jan. 4 before U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickel in Spokane.