Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/230/365/587617/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 05:44:38
Document Index: 687627080

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2703', '§ 2710', '§ 2703', '§ 2703', '§ 2703', '§ 2710', '§ 2703', '§ 2710', '§ 2702', '§ 2702']

Diamond Game Enterprises, Incorporated and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma Gaming Commission, on Behalf of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Appellants v. Janet Reno, Attorney General, et al.,appellees, 230 F.3d 365 (D.C. Cir. 2000) :: Justia
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Diamond Game Enterprises, Incorporated and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma Gaming Commission, on Behalf of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Appellants v. Janet Reno, Attorney General, et al.,appellees, 230 F.3d 365 (D.C. Cir. 2000)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 230 F.3d 365 (D.C. Cir. 2000)
The Act divides Indian gaming into three classes, each requiring a different level of authorization. Class I gaming consists of social games played solely for prizes of minimal value as well as traditional forms of Indian gaming. See 25 U.S.C. § 2703(6). Indian tribes may operate Class I games as they wish. See 25 U.S.C. § 2710(a) (1).
Class II gaming includes bingo, and if conducted in the same hall as bingo, it also includes lotto, punch boards, and tip jars, as well as pull-tabs, the game at issue here. See 25 U.S.C. § 2703(7) (A). In language central to the dispute in this case, the Act allows the use of "electronic, computer, or other technologic aids" in connection with Class II games, 25 U.S.C. § 2703 (7) (A) (i), but prohibits the use of " [e]lectronic or electromechanical facsimiles of any game of chance." 25 U.S.C. § 2703 (7) (B) (ii). Tribes may conduct Class II gaming if the state in which they are located permits such forms of gambling and if the governing body of the tribe adopts a gaming ordinance that is then approved by the Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, the agency created by Congress to implement IGRA. See 25 U.S.C. §§ 2710(b), 2704.
Class III gaming includes all gambling not covered by either Class I or Class II, including "facsimiles" of Class II devices. See 25 U.S.C. § 2703(8). In order to conduct Class III operations, tribes must obtain state approval through negotiation of a tribal-state compact. See 25 U.S.C. § 2710(d) (1).
At issue in this case is the proper classification of a gambling device known as the Lucky Tab II, an electromechanical dispenser of paper pull-tabs. The machine dispenses pull-tabs from a roll containing approximately 7500 tabs.About 100 rolls comprise a deal, within which winning pulltabs are randomly distributed. The machine cuts the pull-tab from the roll and drops it into a tray. A bar code scanner inside the machine automatically reads the tab and then displays its contents on a video screen. A placard on the machine informs players that " [v]ideo images may vary from actual images on pull tabs. Each tab must be opened to verify." To collect prizes, players must present the actual winning tab to a clerk. In many bingo halls, players purchase pull-tabs either from a Lucky Tab II or from clerks; in such cases, machines and clerks cut pull-tabs from rolls that are part of the same deal.
Unlike the legal issues presented in this case, the policy questions are both interesting and challenging. In determining the proper classification of the Lucky Tab II, how do we further Congress' objective of allowing Indian tribes to use gaming as a means of "promoting tribal economic development, self-sufficiency, and strong tribal governments," 25 U.S.C. § 2702(1), while at the same time "shield [ing] [Indian tribes] from organized crime and other corrupting influences," 25 U.S.C. § 2702(2)? Will the Lucky Tab II enable tribes to "take advantage of modern methods of conducting class II games"? S. Rep. No. 100-446, at 9 (1988). Or does the machine increase the risk of corruption or excessive gambling losses, concerns that government counsel told us at oral argument require its classification as a Class III device? To resolve such issues, Congress created the National Indian Gaming Commission, headed by a Chair appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate presumably for his or her expertise on Indian gaming. Yet whether because of bureaucratic gridlock or, as the tribes allege, because of congressional interference, we have no idea what the Commission thinks about the policy questions presented by the Lucky Tab II. Not only does this leave us with no agency position to which we might defer, see Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 844 (1984) (" [A] court may not substitute its own construction of a statutory provision for a reasonable interpretation made by the administrator of an agency"), but the Commission's IGRA regulations provide no assistance in interpreting the statute. Boiled down to their essence, the regulations tell us little more than that a Class II aid is something that is not a Class III facsimile. We mention this not to escape our duty to decide this case--to the contrary, because we have jurisdiction, we must determine how the Lucky Tab II should be classified--but to highlight the fact that we have no choice but to proceed without the benefit of a Commission position, a situation we expect Congress neither anticipated nor would appreciate. That said, we turn to the parties' arguments about the classification of the Lucky Tab II. See Everett v. United States, 158 F.3d 1364, 1367 (D.C. Cir. 1998) ("We review a grant of summary judgment de novo.").
Both sides claim support from Cabazon Band of Mission Indians v. NIGC, 14 F.3d 633 (D.C. Cir. 1994). There, we held that a video pull-tabs game was a "computerized version" of pull-tabs and therefore a Class III facsimile. The machine "randomly selects a card for the gambler, pulls the tab at the gambler's direction, and displays the result on the screen. The computer version, like the paper version, has a fixed number of winning cards in each deal." Cabazon, 14 F.3d at 635. Finding that video pull-tabs "exactly replicate [s]" the game of pull-tabs in computer form, Cabazon concluded that it amounted to a facsimile of the game. See id.; see also Sycuan Band of Mission Indians v. Roache, 54 F.3d 535, 541-42 (9th Cir. 1994) (holding that a self-contained unit containing a computer linked to a video monitor and a printer constitutes an electronic facsimile of pull-tabs).
The government makes two additional arguments in support of its position that the Lucky Tab II is a Class III facsimile. First, like the district court, it relies on language from a Senate Indian Affairs Committee report describing a Class II aid as a device that enables tribes to "take advantage of modern methods of conducting class II games" by, for example, "join [ing] with other tribes to coordinate their class II operations and thereby enhance the potential of increasing revenues." S. Rep. No. 100-446, at 9 (1988). Class II aids are thus limited to devices that "merely broaden the potential participation levels and [are] readily distinguishable from ... electronic facsimiles in which a single participant plays a game with or against a machine rather than with or against other players." Id. Unlike computers, cables, or telephone lines that connect bingo games on different reservations-examples the Senate Report gives of aids that expand participation--the Lucky Tab II, the government argues, neither increases participation levels nor enhances competition among players. Second, the government claims that the Lucky Tab II makes it easier for players to play pull-tabs, thus increasing the potential for players to "lose the rent money."