California tribes push back against tentative ruling dismissing their challenge to cardrooms

California tribal casinos are pushing back against a judge’s tentative decision to dismiss their lawsuit challenging non-tribal cardrooms’ use of banked games such as blackjack and baccarat, warning the ruling would set a dangerous precedent by misapplying federal law.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lauri Damrell tentatively found that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) preempts the case. But tribal attorney Adam Lauridsen said IGRA “has not stretched that far and should not stretch that far” because it governs gaming on tribal lands, not non-tribal operations.

“We don’t think any of this should be preempted because it’s non-tribal gaming off Indian land,” Lauridsen told the court. He called the tentative ruling “an aggressive assertion of federal authority” and argued it would leave tribes no other path to seek justice if competitors violate state law.

The casinos sued under California’s Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act, also known as Senate Bill 549, which Lauridsen said “recognized a tribe’s ability to seek relief through the courts.” The law allows tribes to ask state courts to determine whether banked games in cardrooms violate state law.

Tribes claim that using third-party proposition players as the bank is illegal and undermines their exclusive rights to offer such games. Lauridsen told the court the issue “has existed for years, with no clear legal resolution,” and warned that dismissing the case “would break new legal ground.”

Damrell said she may reconsider before an Oct. 10 hearing, telling attorneys: “This is the state voluntarily giving them a right,” in reference to Senate Bill 549.