A federal court on Tuesday quashed a bid to strike down a Washington state law permitting legalized sports betting in tribal casinos only.
The ruling, which hinged largely upon the tribes’ sovereign immunity, is a blow to those hoping to see sports gambling expanded throughout the state. Kirkland-based Maverick Gaming, which owns and operates 22 card rooms throughout Washington, had filed a January 2022 lawsuit in U.S. District Court accusing state and federal officials of granting a “discriminatory tribal gaming monopoly” over sports betting and other gambling such as roulette and craps.
Maverick CEO Eric Persson issued a brief statement Tuesday night saying he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maverick had asked the district court to invalidate the state’s groundbreaking 2020 sports gambling law — which went into effect on a case-by-case basis in September 2021 — and indefinitely put any such wagering on hold pending new legislative efforts to expand it beyond tribal entities to card rooms and other facilities.
But Chief Judge David Estudillo of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled Tuesday on largely procedural grounds that the lawsuit itself posed “a substantial risk” to the “sovereign interests” of Indian tribes that had signed legal compacts on gambling with the state.
One of those tribes, Shoalwater Bay, had intervened in August, claiming its gambling activities would be unduly harmed if the lawsuit prevailed and that it was thus a “required party” to the case.
