The Santee Sioux Tribe has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a decision that it cannot legally operate video poker, blackjack, roulette and other games at its Ohiya Casino in northeast Nebraska.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha, says the U.S. Department of the Interior's ruling was arbitrary, capricious and deprives the tribe of needed income.
"The Santee Sioux Nation relies heavily on revenues from its facility to support its governmental programs in order to meet the economic and socio-economic needs of its members," the lawsuit says. "Numerous Santee Sioux Nation tribal members also rely heavily on the facility for employment -- their livelihood."
The department said last June that the tribe could not conduct pari-mutuel betting on dog racing or simulcast, off-track betting on horse racing. Simulcast betting on horses is available in Nebraska only at venues that also offer live racing.
The department said in February that only those gaming activities now legal in the state, such as lotteries, keno and on-track betting on horses, can be offered at the casino.
In November, Nebraska voters rejected a proposal to legalize other casino-style games in Nebraska, including slot machines and table games. That limited the tribe to offering bingo games and pull tab machines.
The tribe's attorney, Conly Schulte of Omaha, was out of the office Wednesday and did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
Department of Interior spokesman Dan DuBray said department officials had not seen the lawsuit and he declined to immediately comment.
The tribe has been trying since 1999 to expand to other, flashier forms of gambling familiar at Las Vegas-style casinos.
There are about 80 gambling machines in the Santee's casino, which employs about two dozen people.
While it can conduct lotteries and keno games, the tribe is not allowed to operate player-activated video gambling devices of lottery and raffle games, the Interior Department said.
The tribe argued that dice games, electronic games of chance, dog race wagering, card games and wheel games like roulette are allowed in Nebraska in various forms.
Schulte has said that the state fails to prosecute civic organizations that host casino nights, where games like roulette and poker are played to raise money, and therefore it is allowing that form of gambling in the state.
The Interior Department rejected that argument, saying there is a difference between promotions or giveaways and traditional casino games such as roulette and poker.
The tribe at first used slot machines in its casino when it opened in 1996, but those were replaced with pull-tab machines in 2001. The machines dispense pull tabs that can be partially torn to reveal symbols that when lined up in a winning combination, are redeemed for cash prizes.
The tribe was fined for initially using the slot machines, but when it switched to the pull-tab machines, a federal judge suspended the fines.
The casino scored a victory last March when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from the federal government that sought to remove the pull-tab machines from the gambling hall.