The Bureau of Indian Affairs won't make the Northern Arapaho Tribe pay the state of Wyoming any gaming fees.

George Skibine, the head of the Office of Indian Gaming Management, said the state has no right to seek payments from the tribe. But he said the tribe has the option of negotiating agreements with local governments.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) had written to Interior Secretary Gale Norton about a $900,000 payment, to be made over two years, that the tribe had previously offered the state. But the payment was tied to the state playing a role in the regulation of gaming on the Wind River Reservation.

The state won't have a role in regulating the Northern Arapaho Tribe's casino because it was found to be in bad faith by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The tribe subsequently obtained Class III gaming procedures from the Interior Department.

The state will have a role with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, provided the two parties negotiate a final agreement.

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Feds: Tribe doesn't have to pay (The Jackson Hole Tribune 12/14)