Wisconsin tribe complains about video poker competition

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 11:36 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADISON, Wis. -- The Oneida Indians say the recent decriminalization of video poker machines in taverns violates gambling compacts of Wisconsin tribes, but it made its first payment to the state under its compact anyway.

Acting state Administration Secretary George Lightbourn, the official responsible for monitoring whether specific tribes met the year-end deadline for the first payments, said all first installments were submitted.

But he said the Oneida protested the competition to their casinos posed by video poker machines.

Although the tribe sent the state a check for $4.85 million, Oneida Business Committee Chairman Gerald L. Danforth told Gov. Tommy Thompson in a letter that decriminalizing video poker machines in the state budget "violated the exclusivity requirements" of the new state-Oneida gambling deal.

Making the payment "is not to be construed as a waiver" by the tribe of any legal rights to protest future payments or negotiate with state officials over these and other issues, he added.

Danforth said Oneida tribal leaders decided that not making the first payment to the state "would only serve to defeat any hopes of a mutually agreeable resolution to this problem.

"Our recent meetings with Secretary Lightbourn have proved positive, and we remain hopeful that the state will continue to cooperate in these meaningful discussions," Danforth wrote Thompson. "Therefore, we would like to propose a meeting with your office in the near future (mid-February 2000) to further discuss this matter."

New compacts signed by Thompson with the 11 tribes that operate 17 casinos require the tribes to pay a record _$42 million to the state by mid-2001, Lightbourn said.