ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A New Mexico attorney says Native American gambling casinos have become big business, such an expansive enterprise that he believes they should be exempted from a cornerstone of Indian legal authority – tribal sovereignty.
Sam Bregman has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case where a client, retired Albuquerque city worker Gary Hoffman, sued Sandia Resort and Casino over what the tribe characterized as a malfunctioning slot machine that displayed a $1.6 million jackpot.
Bregman represented Hoffman in a lawsuit, but a state District Court judge dismissed it and the New Mexico Court of Appeals upheld that decision. Both rulings supported Sandia Pueblo's position that the tribe can't be sued because of the tribe's sovereign immunity.
Sandia attorney David Mielke said there's nothing to debate.
Sovereignty is an endowed right for tribes, he said, going way back to an 1831 Supreme Court ruling involving the Cherokee Nation and Georgia, where justices determined Indian tribes hold the authority to govern themselves and negotiate agreements with other governments.
“You can't take a tribe into a different jurisdiction. Each is recognized as a government,” Mielke said.
Applying similar reasoning, he added, “You can't sue the state of New Mexico in Texas.”
After New Mexico's Supreme Court declined to take the case, Bregman filed a request this summer asking the U.S. Supreme Court to look at it. Because the nation's highest court chooses cases it will consider, there's no guarantee the dispute will get that far.
Bregman's argument is that tribal gambling has grown into a wealthy business across the United States, far removed from issues that he says are central to sovereignty, such as Indian water and land rights or tribal self-governance.
According to the National Indian Gaming Association, tribal casinos reported $26.2 billion in revenues in 2009. Meanwhile, Bregman said slot machine malfunctions have been reported at Indian casinos in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Florida and elsewhere.
“Tribes spend millions of dollars every year to lure non-Native Americans onto their grounds to gamble in a commercial casino environment,” Bregman said. “Then when someone feels they've been cheated, they say, 'Sorry, you can't sue us.”'
Hoffman's dispute started in 2006, when he thought he had won $1.6 million on a nickel slot machine at Sandia Pueblo's casino just north of Albuquerque, only to be told by casino managers the machine had malfunctioned.
Bregman said Hoffman was given $385 and two dinner passes.
Mielke said the slot machine in question offered a maximum payout of $2,500 and gamblers were told so on a disclaimer mounted on the machine's front panel. He called such malfunctions “very rare” but said slot machines are computers, and like any machine, they can break and work improperly.
Asked about Bregman's sovereignty argument, Mielke said some immunity is waived under New Mexico's tribal gaming compact but those instances are limited to personal liability, such as slip-and-fall lawsuits, and issues involving damage to property.
Mielke said Sandia hasn't had another malfunction since Hoffman's case, despite the casino's 2,100 slot machines performing about 8 million spins daily. He said when a machine begins “acting up in your favor, people tend to continue playing.”
Bregman was skeptical, saying it's improbable an Indian casino would ever inform gamblers they hadn't really lost money.
“Apparently, these malfunctions only work one way,” Bregman said. “There is an undercurrent, we believe, of Native American casinos refusing to pay the large jackpots because they feel they can get away with it. They don't have to answer to anybody for it.”
There are over 209,000 slot machines normally operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week in Nevada and unfortunately, on rare occasions, there are malfunctions. Malfunctions occur for a variety of reasons including, improper tampering, coin jams, empty hoppers, switch failures, computer chip failure, power outages and accidental contact (bumping). Woman sues casino after $43M slot machine malfunction Tuesday, June 20, 2017 JAMAICA, Queens (WPVI) - A woman in New York is suing a Queens casino for $43 million dollars after they say a slot.
MARCH 3 UPDATE: The Nevada Gaming Control Board has confirmed that they are aware of the incident and are 'actively monitoring the situation.' However, since it is an ongoing investigation, they have no further comment.
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ORIGINAL STORY
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) -- Two Las Vegas casinos appear to be recovering from a mysterious, days-long computer outage which left casino floors and slot machine chairs empty.
The problems first appeared on social media and on popular twitter accounts such as Las Vegas Locally and Vital Vegas last week.
Posts and videos showed many slot machines indicating a malfunction and digital signs indicated the machines were 'out of service.'
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Rubyfortune online casino espanol. 13 Investigates confirms the machines at Binon's Casino and Four Queens appeared to be malfunctioning as of Saturday afternoon.
By Monday, 13 Investigates was able to confirm the slot machines at the properties appeared to be functioning again, although scattered outages were apparent at the Four Queens.
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'When it comes to cyber security, it's not if, it's a when and how bad,' said Garvin Bushell, president of The Learning Center Las Vegas.
'No matter what you do, the hackers just have to be right one time and as an IT professional, I have to be right every single day and all those attacks are happening on a daily basis,' said Bushell.
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13 Investigates has asked ownership of the Four Queens and Binion's Casino repeatedly about the apparent computer problem, but a request for comment was not returned.
Gta online diamond casino heist payout. Bushell says in his experience the length out the outage indicates this was not a simple problem.
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'Ransomware is out there and for them to be down from Wednesday to [Monday] it kind of raises from flags,' said Bushell.
13 Investigates inquired with the Nevada Gaming Control Board about any active or on-going investigations about the source of the malfunction but a request for comment was not returned after business hours Monday.
In January, the City of Las Vegas announced it fell victim to a 'cyber compromise' and revealed they experience breach attempts 279,000 times per month on average.
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Authorities with the City of Las Vegas said they do not believe any data was lost in the January compromise.
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Cyber security experts tell 13 Investigates these types of incidents appear to be increasing across the globe.