Oklahoma tribes fighting to keep electronic game

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 | 11:49 a.m.

TULSA, Okla. -- Three Oklahoma Indian tribes are seeking an injunction to keep the National Indian Gaming Commission from taking enforcement action against them while judges determine if a casino game is legal.

In a motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tulsa, the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations stated that the commission's decision to categorize MegaNanza games and variations as Class III instead of Class II is contrary to prior appellate decisions on which they have relied to fund tribal governmental functions and projects.

"Indeed, many of those programs are entirely dependent upon the revenues from these kinds of games," according to the motion.

On Friday the gaming commission warned all Oklahoma Indian tribes that their casinos could be closed if they continued to offer the game MegaNanza. The electronic gambling machine is played in most of the state's Indian casinos.

The tribes contend the game is an electronic version of bingo, but the gaming commission has concluded it is not a bingo game and is illegal in Oklahoma.

The tribes believe that if they were required to stop offering these games immediately, their ability to provide a sustainable economic base for tribal programs "would disappear overnight."