AG says appeal of Indian gaming ruling unlikely

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wyoming probably wouldn't succeed in appealing casino gambling on the Wind River Indian Reservation and probably won't try, Attorney General Pat Crank said.

The full 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver last week ruled that the Northern Arapaho tribe is entitled to offer all types of gambling at a casino that's being built. That upheld a similar ruling by a three-judge panel of the appeals court last year.

Crank said the U.S. Supreme Court generally only agrees to look at cases of national legal importance or those involving two appeals courts that have ruled differently.

"I don't know that they would view this case with much favor," he said.

Meanwhile the tribe is waiting on Interior Secretary Gale Norton to issue rules that will govern gambling on the reservation.

The appeals court concluded that Wyoming failed to negotiate in good faith on a compact to govern gambling on the reservation. When both the tribe and the state gave their last, best offers to a mediator, the mediator picked the tribe's offer.