Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Joins Sports Betting Lawsuit Against Colorado
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe joined a previously filed sports betting lawsuit against Colorado. They said the state is blocking the ability of Native American tribes to operate online sportsbooks. Also, they claimed it violated the terms governing Tribal gaming in Colorado.
A revised lawsuit was submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, which includes the Ute Mountain Tribe and reiterates the same set of allegations put out by the Southern Ute Tribe.
That is similar to what the Southern Ute Tribe said in its first filing: they approached companies about offering online sports betting. However, the state had advised them not to do business with the tribe outside its reservation.
Sports Betting Lawsuit Against Colorado
In 2019, voters narrowly authorized online sports betting, allowing citizens to place wagers on events via the Internet. Now that bets may be placed anywhere in the state, the interpretation of a 1995 gaming agreement is at the core of the disagreement between the state and the Tribes. The state’s assertion that the Tribes are limited to processing bets on reserve lands is, according to the Tribe, an incorrect interpretation of the agreement.
According to pay per head experts, court documents include an email the state sent to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and a vendor in Nevada in 2020, which shows the state’s worries. That is not the case, according to the Tribes’ lawsuit. The federal court rulings in Florida backed the Seminole Tribe’s hub-and-spoke theory. It claimed that bets made within the state but processed on Tribal territories were considered bets on Tribal land.
As an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado’s law department, Vanessa Racehorse stated that the Southern Ute’s allegations appeared consistent with the law.
Colorado Sports Gambling Market
According to a political news forum, a ten percent tax applies to sports bets in Colorado. However, no such tax applies to tribal gaming. The tax is levied to finance water infrastructure projects in the state. Colorado sportsbooks earned almost $320 million in July of this year.
According to emails included in the tribe’s complaint, bets placed on Tribal property would not be taxed. However, bets placed through Tribal sportsbooks outside Colorado would be charged a fee.
In the email, Hartman suggested that the Tribe set aside 10% of the net profits from wagers placed on tribe territory as an alternative to a levy. This money would then be used for water initiatives that affect tribal territories. The Southern Ute originally filed their case in July. The state has requested further time to reply to the complaint.
In their case, Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute are requesting that the federal court rule that their efforts are lawful under current laws to stop the state of Colorado from interfering with their activities further and compensate them for their legal expenditures. A CU law school professor named Racehorse has stated that similar problems have arisen nationwide due to internet sports betting and that most states and Tribes would be better off negotiating a solution.
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