The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians released some of the details in a lawsuit that it and another tribe recently filed against several Southern California cardrooms, which the tribes say are operating games illegally.
The complaint, filed in San Diego County Superior Court by the Chumash and the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, alleges that 12 Southern California cardrooms and several unnamed third-party-proposition players are offering house-banked and percentage card games, which fall into a category called “third class gaming.”
Third class gaming allows the house to compete with its players, according to Chumash Chairman Kenneth Kahn, who said that means any money that players lose goes to the house. It’s a style of gaming that he said is only allowed on tribal lands, and cardrooms offering it outside those lands, he said, are operating illegally.
“The key to our argument is that the cardrooms in California are playing beyond the rules,” Kahn told the Sun, “and our frustrations are that we had to go through a number of steps back in ’99 with the statewide proposition, and even further with Proposition 1A, which allowed us to sign an agreement with the governor to have third class gaming.”
Proposition 1A, the Gambling on Tribal Lands Amendment of 2000, was a voter approved change to the state Constitution that allowed the governor to negotiate third class gaming with tribes. Because of Proposition 1A and its resulting negotiations, third class gaming is only allowed on tribal lands, and can only be offered by tribes with state approved gaming contracts.
Before tribes were allowed to offer house-banked games, Kahn said cardrooms were heavily regulated to ensure that style of gaming wasn’t being illegally offered. Now several cardrooms that aren’t legally allowed to offer third class gaming are, and Kahn said it’s had deep financial impacts on several tribes.
“We just don’t quite understand why the state is now not adhering to the same standards as they were when we couldn’t do it,” Kahn said. “We want to make sure the laws are followed and that the state reinforces those.”
Allegations in the complaint also include charges of public nuisance and unfair competition.
The tribes are seeking injunctive relief to prohibit the listed cardrooms from offering banked and percentage card games, according to the press release, and legal relief for the financial losses of business and governmental revenue, tribal employment opportunities, and goodwill.
This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2018.