US legislators debate online tribal gaming expansion bill
California’s Lou Correa calls for legislators to bring tribal gaming into the Netflix era where digital entertainment is thriving
The US House of Representatives will soon debate a bill designed to break down barriers that currently impede tribal gaming operators from offering online and mobile sports betting.
Bill HR 4308, authored by Representative Lou Correa, seeks to ‘remove federal barriers regarding the offering of mobile wagers on Indian lands when the applicable state and Indian Tribe have reached an agreement’.
The legislation aims to address perceived inequities between tribal gaming operators, which are currently barred from offering online gambling, and their non-tribal counterparts under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
Under IGRA, while a state may enter a compact with any tribe to operate gambling, it must occur on Indian land, defined as “all lands within the limits of any Indian reservation” or lands held in trust by the US for the benefit of said tribe.
HR 4308 would remove that restriction, introducing a clarification that the location of the bet placed would be the location of the online server used, unless explicitly stated otherwise by state and tribal authorities.
In an accompanying statement read to congress, Correa said: “Making this clarification will keep intact the current system of tribal gaming and eliminate any frivolous litigation.
“Tribal government gaming has been around for more than 30 years, and this bill merely clarifies how that system of gaming should evolve into the internet.
“This bill does not authorize any type of internet gaming; that is within the authority of each state to do. All this bill does is clarifies the location of where the wager takes place for purposes of tribal government gaming.
“It clarifies that internet gaming will be conducted by tribal governments under the same framework that they currently conduct gaming in their physical casinos,” Correa added.
The Representative from California asserted his belief that had the internet been available in 1987, legislators would have included the ability to provide online gambling within the scope of IGRA.
The introduction of this, Correa claimed, would allow land-based casino tribes to benefit further from expansion into online gambling.
“As the Supreme Court confirmed in 1987, tribal governments retained the inherent sovereign right to conduct gaming on their lands,” Correa explained.
“Congress needs to provide the clarification in my bill to ensure that tribal gaming is not relegated to the same fate as Blockbuster, but can move forward and thrive like Netflix in the era of the internet,” he added.
The bill will now be debated by legislators in the House of Representatives and could, if passed, significantly expand the available betting opportunities for tribal operators already offering online gambling.
Entry of the bill into the congressional record comes soon after the launch of a lawsuit by two Florida casino operators against the amended tribal gaming compact between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe.