9th Circuit TOSSES 3 Tribe Lawsuit VIEJAS, SYCUAN and Yocha Dehe Wintun LOSERS vs Card Rooms

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a suit by three Native American tribes seeking to compel California to protect what they claim is their exclusive right to offer card games like blackjack and baccarat, saying the court couldn't make the state enforce its laws against nontribal card rooms.

Uh, CALIFORNIA is SOVEREIGN TOO... Too Bad, so SAD...


Background: 
A awsuit brought by three prominent casino-operating California tribal nations targeting certain house-banked games available in some of the state’s licensed cardrooms has been dismissed. The tribes have vowed to appeal the US District Court for the Eastern District of California decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed at the start of 2019 calling for the shut down of lawful cardroom games like blackjack and baccarat on the basis that they violate tribal exclusivity.

The three tribes – the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation – accused the state of violating the tribes’ gaming compacts. The lawsuit, supported by numerous others of California’s casino-operated tribes, asserted that the state had violated these compacts by allowing the state’s non-tribal cardrooms to offer certain card games that are effectively banked by the house, even though as originally conceptualized the “banker” position was to rotate from one player to the next.

The tribes issued a statement saying the ruling was “simply a procedural finding by the court that it lacked the power to require the state to enforce the law under the tribes’ compacts. The tribes believe the court’s point was that the compacts “are not the vehicle under which the tribes can force the state to enforce the law.” 

However, the tribes believe the US District Court was “incorrect in concluding the compacts did not provide a basis to compel the state to enforce the law,” and pointed out that the state itself “does not dispute the merits of the case,” even if the state “is doing either little or nothing to stop the cardrooms’ unlawful conduct.”

The lawsuit in question, which was filed against the State of California and Governor Gavin Newsom, was dismissed on the basis that the tribes’ compacts did not give them the exclusive rights to these games in California according to the District Court.

The tribes are considering an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to the case, four California Court of Appeal decisions have found that the cardrooms are permitted to operate non-banked versions of the games and have done so with specific approval of the Attorney General.