Card-Room Operator Files Lawsuit Over Washington Sports Betting

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Last updated: January 29, 2022

There is an ongoing federal lawsuit regarding the fact that Washington state officials gave tribal casinos a “discriminatory tribal gaming monopoly” in terms of other gambling-related activities.

This issue was pointed out by Maveric Gaming LLC, which is the owner of 19 legalized card rooms out of 44 in Washington. Maveric’s owner, Eric Persson, tried to spread sports betting out of tribal casinos, however, the attempts were so far unsuccessful.

This type of gambling was allowed in 2020 only in tribal casinos and it was gradually implemented last year. Maverick tried to expand sports betting to its premises by pushing such bills.

Washington had an agreement with 15 tribe casinos. One of these casinos, Snoqualmie Casino, implemented sports betting in September 2021, and later on, Stillaguamish and Kalispel did the same thing as well.

The lawsuit is demanding sports betting to be canceled in those casinos and to put Washington’s sports betting bill on hold.

Maveric’s Reasons For the Lawsuit

Maverick claims in the court case that Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, and the current and former official Washington State Gambling Commission members are being unethical and discriminative, which is why they applied Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) illegally in order avoid competition outside of gambling Native American tribes.

In an interview, Persson said that the law of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is illegally applied in Washington and creates an unlawful controlling system. He also said that he will continue putting his efforts into getting sports betting in his card rooms.

A study has shown that tribe gambling has crossed $2.5 billion worth in 2017, even sports betting was implemented.

According to the lawsuit, such acts are harmful to Maverick as it makes things more difficult for Maverick to compete with the tribes and their far greater gaming offers within the state.

The lawsuit’s allegations have yet to be refuted in court and do not necessarily represent statements of fact.

More About Sports Betting in Washington

Washington is one of the states that have already allowed some sort of sports betting. However, the complaint filed a few days ago claims that Washington is unique among states where sports betting is permitted only in tribal casinos since the other states have also allowed nontribal casinos.

In November, the court decided that a tribal contract signed by the Seminole Tribe and the governor of Florida Ron DeSantis in May was unlawful because it violated the IGRA (Indian Gaming Regulatory Act). The Seminole Tribe’s plea for a stay of the verdict was denied by the Court of Appeals a while ago, meaning that sports betting is not legal in Florida.

Any type of online sports betting is taken to be a felony of Class C in Washington, which has some of the toughest anti-gambling laws in the state. The decision to allow tribal-only sports gambling was viewed as a significant shift, such gambling, including any mobile wagering, is restricted to the casino premises exclusively. Mobile sports betting is limited to tribal casino grounds only due to online security reasons.

WIGA Advocates for the Benefits of Tribal Gambling

The fastest-growing segment of sports betting is mobile wagering. Persson also stated that he would limit it to his company’s facilities, as required by law for Native American casinos.

The Washington Indian Gaming Association (WIGA), which advocates the benefits of tribal gaming, has long contended that it differs significantly from commercial betting.

“It would severely undermine the well regulated and safe system of limited gaming that has been established in Washington State over three decades of carefully negotiated compacts between the State of Washington and Native American tribes” – stated Rebecca George, WIGA Executive Director.

She also explained that those agreements are entirely compliant with the IGRA and Washington’s law and were thoroughly scrutinized at numerous levels of regulatory scrutiny.

George explained that this dangerous and destructive action has no substance and if implemented, it will bring huge damage to both disenfranchised indigenous people and to the general public.

Nevertheless, according to Maverick, none of that matter as they should have the same constitutional rights as the casinos owned by the tribes to provide sports betting and other forms of gambling on their property.