Judge allows state to intervene in casino lawsuit

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

LINCOLN, Neb. -- The state of Nebraska will be allowed to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Santee Sioux Tribe challenging a decision that it cannot legally operate video poker, blackjack, roulette and other games at its Ohiya Casino.

U.S. Magistrate Thomas Thalken granted the request from Attorney General Jon Bruning's office on Tuesday.

"I don't want to see the expansion of gambling anywhere in Nebraska," Bruning said Wednesday. "And the state has a strong interest in controlling gambling on the Indian reservations."

The U.S. Interior Department said earlier that the tribe could not conduct pari-mutuel betting on dog racing or simulcast, off-track betting on horse racing. Simulcast betting on horses is available in Nebraska only at venues that also offer live racing.

The department said that only those gaming activities now legal in the state, such as lotteries, keno and on-track betting on horses, can be offered at the casino.

The Santee lawsuit, filed in April, says the Interior Department's ruling was arbitrary, capricious and deprives the tribe of needed income.

Federal law allows states to enter into compacts with tribes to run full-blown casinos on reservations, but Nebraska has refused to do so.

The tribe has been trying since 1999 to expand to other, flashier forms of gambling familiar at Las Vegas-style casinos.