House approves controversial gambling agreement with Shoshone-Bannock

Mark Warbis

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 4:58 a.m.

BOISE, Idaho - With Indian leaders looking on, the House approved a state gambling agreement with the Shoshone-Bannock tribes that would place the legality of so-called electronic pull-tab machines before a federal judge.

One of the three northern Idaho tribes that so far have failed in attempts to delay implementation of the plan responded even before Thursday's 48-21 vote for the bill, which ratifies the state's compact with the southeastern Idaho tribes.

The Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce and Kootenai contend the machines that are the heart of casinos helping to pull their reservations out of poverty would be unfairly put at risk by a court case to which they would not be a party.

"I'm not very pleased with the vote, but we're not surprised," Coeur d'Alene Tribal Chairman Ernie Stensgar said.

He and other Coeur d'Alene officials, after watching the House State Affairs Committee endorse the Shoshone-Bannock compact 12-9 last week, returned home and ordered a halt to construction of a destination resort with a 110-room hotel, conference center, golf course and indoor arena.

An expanded casino was part of the $32.5 million plan, but Stensgar said it would make no sense to proceed since the lucrative gambling operations will be put in legal limbo despite continuing negotiations toward some kind of status quo compromise with Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

"There's a court action, and if the judgment's against the Sho-Bans we feel like our machines would be in jeopardy," he said. "Of course we're going to carry that fight out into the Senate and again ask them to place a moratorium on the bill."

Samuel Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said his tribe's focus also would turn to encouraging Senate State Affairs Committee members "to help us reach a negotiated settlement rather than turning this important issue over to a federal judge."

In the House, lawmakers said a federal judge's ruling is needed to end a decade of dispute about the uncertain legality of electronic machines that simulate casino gambling. And they said the 2 1/2 years or so that a final judicial decision would take allows plenty of time for a possible out-of-court settlement.

The Shoshone-Bannock, Idaho's largest tribe and the only one with casino operations not covered by a federally required gambling compact with the state, agreed to submit the question to court as a way of lifting the legal shadow.

The compact has been in the works for three years, and U.S. Attorney Betty Richardson has been asked by state officials to hold off enforcing the federal law against Indian gambling without a compact as long as the talks continued.

But northern Idaho legislators said the tribes they represent, which have compacts, should not be penalized with a possibly damaging decision from what the agreement describes as a "neutral judicial forum."

"I don't see the necessity, and I really question the 'neutral judicial forum.' I've seen some things in my area that really cause me to question the neutrality," Republican Rep. Don Pischner of Coeur d'Alene said. "Those folks are only asking for a little more time. What would have been so wrong with giving them more time?"

While acknowledging the economic boon that gambling has been to the tribes, however, House Speaker Bruce Newcomb called on his colleagues to let a judge settle a nagging question: Do electronic games that look and act much like slot machines go beyond what the Idaho Constitution's state lottery provision allows?

"I have grave concerns about where we're headed," the Burley Republican said. "You're not too far away from seeing riverboat gambling in Idaho unless you have some way of defining what third-class gambling is."

Newcomb conceded that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's definition of Class III games is vague, but said that was an intentional effort to let states and tribes decide such issues together.

In Idaho's case, no agreement has been reached for so many years that acceding to the northern Idaho tribes' request and "extending this compact by one year is meaningless," he said. "It's ripe. It's ready. It's been negotiated."

Still, opponents said the state should do nothing that might pre-empt a negotiated agreement amending the Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce and Kootenai compacts or convince those tribes that continuing to talk would do no good.

"Not many people go to court friends and come out friends," GOP Rep. Twila Hornbeck of Grangeville said. "I'm sorry it has come to this."