Tribal operators begin legal fight

Oklahoma’s Comanche Nation is against a new casino operated by the Chickasaw Nation.

US.- Casino development has led to federal legal fight between two Oklahoma’s tribal operators. According to local press, the state Comanche Nation has sued the US Department of the Interior in an attempt to dismiss the Chickasaw Nation’s casino project near the border with Texas. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. Western District Court of Oklahoma last week.

The new tribal casino would be located two miles north of the Texas border in the Jefferson County town of Terral, as reported yesterday by the local news outlet NewsOk. The Comanche Nation argued that wealthier tribes receive preferential treatment from the US Federal Government.

The lawsuit states: “BIA officials moved the goal line so close to the Chickasaws and other privileged tribes in Oklahoma that they have needed only to fall into the end zone and open up shop, secure in the knowledge that the score was virtually certain to hold up without any replay.”

The Comanche Nation also considers that the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ preferential treatment affects its share of the gaming market. “The Comanche feel like they’ve played by the rules and their competition didn’t,” explained Richard Grellner, an attorney for the Comanche Nation.