Tribal gambling is always a topic of wide discussions since the Native American tribes are well-known for their gaming offerings and interest towards developing. The Pojoaque Pueblo is the tribe which has had issues with its operation before and now it became known that Bally Gaming and Glory Global Solutions which provided it with gaming offerings during that same period have inked a financial arrangement with the New Mexico Gaming Control Board.
Back in the summer of 2017, it became clear that the gambling ever since June 2015 the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino has been operating without a valid compact. The Pueblo never made the effort to renew it once it expired and this had gone on for some time until the state found out and began a legal battle against the tribal casino operator. Gov. Susana Martinez was the leading figure in the process of arrangement and making sure the tribe agrees to their conditions to sign a new gambling compact for the integrated resort.
Following more than a year of legal prosecution, the leaders of Pueblo of Pojoaque finally decided to abide by the law and legally operate the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino. However, during the two years of operation, the said gaming devices providers were supplying the location with their services to the likings of cash-dispensing and counting machines. This has caused a separate dispute between the company and the gaming authority overseeing operation in the gaming field of New Mexico.
Timeline of the Legal Dispute
With this latest settlement between the three entities, the overall number of companies which have greenlighted an agreement with the Gaming Control Board reaches six. All of them have been providing the casino facility with their offerings and this has caused the problematic situation.
What made the process of arranging the settlements even faster was the fact that the gaming regulator made it clear that it could choose not to renew the gaming licenses for operation in New Mexico of the companies partnering with the gambling venues operated by Pojoaque Pueblo tribe. The arranged payments will be made in the upcoming months which will guarantee that both Bally and Glory remain on the right side of the gaming regulator.
This latest update is only one episode of the ongoing legal arrangements between the state regulator overseeing the gambling industry and the Native American tribe which used to conduct illegal operation. It could be recalled that back in March the federal government decided to seize a bank account of Pojoaque Pueblo which contained some $10.1 million worth of gaming revenue.
According to the US Department of Justice the said amount of money was considered to be generated through illegal gaming operation and therefore was obtained. The response of the tribe was not one of contentment since these funds were supposedly supporting various aspects of the tribal life to the likings of education and basic needs. Nevertheless, the state authorities still obtained the amount of money since the tribe was not paying taxes throughout its two-year illegal operation.
