Dave Palermo: Online gaming a new frontier for tribal nations

Neil Cornelius, GM for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin casino, was walking to a gambling seminar in Las Vegas recently when a trade industry reporter asked him about the risks tribes could experience operating Internet gambling in the absence of state and federal legislation.

Cornelius smiled. “There were risks with Cabazon,” he replied.

The entry of American Indian tribes into Internet gambling is often referred to as the “new Cabazon,” a reference to the landmark 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ignited an explosion of casinos on Indian lands.

The comparison is inescapable.

Prior to the Supreme Court ruling in California v Cabazon Band of Mission Indians tribes were pressing the legal envelope, operating casinos in a kind of legal vacuum, utilizing “grey area” machines that didn’t quite fit the legal definition, or quality, of Las Vegas-style slots.

After years of occasionally tense confrontations between tribes and federal, state and local authorities, justices in Cabazon affirmed the right of tribes as sovereigns to operate gambling on Indian lands without interference from states.