Fee simple title to their lands? What? And watch the federal government's sanctioned criminal organized crime cabal go to Native Americans? After all the rigamarole Congress and the Courts have had to do backpedaling to "fix" the Indian Removal Act and Jackson's insurgency? Sure, makes sense on paper Lee, but it'll never happen... it could, but nobody gives a damn about the silent minority that lives on The Rez. Nobody ever goes to The Rez except to the BIA casinos anyway, and those don't look too shabby. I guess that's also part of the legacy of genocide. I guess I'm guilty too. Shame on me. :( Um... diet coke please.
Do people understand that in pre-IGRA Cabazon, the fed ruled that Indians retained (they didn't "win") their right to conduct poker and bingo games and that they don't need to abide by state laws except for hours and wager limits? How, pre-IGRA, can the federal government, express that their wards have this liberty but that non-Indians do not? Answer: they didn't. It's just never been tested. Lots came out of Cabazon, lots of regulations in IGRA, new federal commissions, more BIA power, more Indian "sovereignty", and lots of case law. Case after case in state after state non-Indian citizens have sought the same equal protection of the law in the case of Class III gaming (slot machines at race tracks, for example). These efforts fall flat because of the principle "government-to-government" relationship that exists between the State and the tribes seeking lucrative Class III gaming compacts as authorized by Congress through IGRA. But this government-to-government relationship concept was hatched "post-Cabazon". Sure, there is a government-to-government relationship between the feds and the tribes too, one more closely tied than the gaming that binds states and tribes. But the tribal relationship is sub-sovereign to the United States Congress, and the Cabazon relationship was that of guardian-to-ward more so than that of fed to tribe. Just look at how "dad" let slide the obvious OCCA and RICO infractions pre-IGRA, and how papa Sam just told the State of California not to worry about the application of federal laws. This is the federal government working against its own states and citizenry to favor the rights of indians to promote gambling. Syndicate. Cabal. Fed. Impressment.
But in Arizona and other states similarly situated, the exclusive grant of Class II professional poker without a shred of doubt infringes on my rights as a US Citizen and proud Arizonan to demand equal protection of the law and operate my own professional (with a compensated dealer, and in a commercial operation) poker room outside of Indian Country.
I agree with Kentop though. People should research and investigate and form their own opinions about what is going on and why in the Arizona Poker War. The Indians already fought it and won, and it took 'em 18 years. Off-rez cardrooms are now in their 8th year of open, public "storefront" locations. 50 have come and gone that I'm aware of, and about 20 are operating in the Valley of the Sun today.
The NIGC was created by Congress to keep it's BIA crime syndicate in check with some of the fastest regulations Congress every passed after Cabazon. Prior to IGRA, which created the NIGC under the Interior Department in 1987, the illicit BIA cabal was in the habit of approving unlawful gambling contracts between BIA tribes and non-Indian parties. A syndicate can be defined as a loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities. A cabal can be defined as conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers. The BIA was born as a political quid-pro quo and without Congressional consent. It was later empowered by Jackson in his 1831 insurgency over Cherokee vs. Georgia and the illegal Indian Removal Act. I'm not sure how you can not consider the NIGC as part of the federal criminal cabal/syndicate that has continued impressments of their wards and pupilage (some say slaves) to provide outlawed gambling that we don't want in our own backyards. I think I'll go have a diet coke now and play some online poker.
And Kentop, let's not blur the line too much between "gambling" playing Class II games like bingo or poker versus gambling playing Class III games like slots, blackjack, and the lottery.
The problem I have with poker in Arizona is that the Governor signed away the rights and liberties of every citizen to conduct professional card games in their home or business and just handed it to the 22 tribes (17 of which have signed the conspiratorial Poker Memorandum of Understanding). Would you believe me if I told you that California's 88 cardrooms generated $880 million is state revenue last year? That's $10M in taxable revenue per cardroom!
Do you think that the Compacts and the Poker MoUs generate $200,000 per year for the Arizona Benefits Fund, or $20M of the $90M slush fund that the ADoG administers? Don't you think we would need to know that information in order to judge the benefit, or detriment, to the State and its citizens thanks to the Poker MoU exclusivity for the tribes?
Would you believe me if I told you that not even the Governor, who signed the illicit Poker MoU with the director of the ADoG and a tribal representative, doesn't even get to know how much benefit the State gets by allowing a legal monopoly on the international sport of poker to only be played in BIA Indian Country?
If we are going to worry about infiltration of organized crime, look up the OCCA and RICO and can someone please tell me how the heck CA vs. Cabazon in 1987 managed to rule that tribes retained their right to high stakes poker, with the federal court even acknowledging OCCA and RICO laws that prohibit it by telling the State to mind it's own business about the application and process of federal laws?
And like crazy Judge and convict-at-large Lee, don't even get me started on the other atrocities that the BIA has visited upon our native american domestic dependent nations with faux-sovereignty. You can't have a state within a state. You can't have a country within a state either. It's unconstitutional. The first thing the Indians gave up when they touched the pen was their sovereignty, and they gave it to the president, who later gave it to Congress.
This fit is shucked up. But what can we do?
We need a civil and social association of adults with common interests in a primary mission to create awareness, educate, and enact change in public policies regarding the international sport of poker in Arizona, as well as nationally address the genocidal policies and continued violation of constitutional trust responsibilities and impressments of our Native American brothers and sisters through unconstitutional gaming Compacts, by the continued exploitation of this most impoverished, invisible group of Americans for the past several centuries.
In this document, the NIGC stepped out of it's role as a regulator and into the role of promoter of Indian gaming when it went heads-up against the Attorney General of the State of Arizona's earlier formal opinion on tribal cardrooms, the latter of which came at the request of the director of the "Arizona" department of gaming that was trying to shut down the BIA cardrooms.
I too found media coverage of the Year of the Cooperative to be lacking. I founded The Tilted Jack Social Poker Club Cooperative as a way to create awareness amd educate Arizona citizens about our efforts to enact change in public policies regarding cardrooms and poker games and while the Capitol Times did a piece about us, no other media source in two years has responded, including your own.
Even more appalling was the lack of media coverage of Judge Lee's trial (poster above) One story, based on a biased ADoG press release, about the great job the prosecutor did, but not a peep about the lack of sentencing and gratis appeal, a little something costing us taxpayers another $250k if not more. Where is the story about the appeal? The lack of sentencing? A former 3 term judge, tried and convicted in an 8 day trial in Arizona, not even a slap on the wrist... This type of media suppression is appalling!
Even more appalling is the continued enslavement of our tribal wards by the Department of the Interior and our nation's oldest, and arguably most corrupt agency, the Indian Affairs beauracracy. Privatized reservations and allow Native Americans to finally assimilate and control their own manifest destiny... OUR federal government continues to enslave our fellow citizen's, and its been over 300 years now. SURELY by now, Indians are capable of managing their own affairs. SURELY today Indians understand the importance and significance of land ownership. Tribes certainly can maintain and continue their own identity, traditions, laws and customs while holding fee simple title to their lands, and abolishing the BIA.
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But in Arizona and other states similarly situated, the exclusive grant of Class II professional poker without a shred of doubt infringes on my rights as a US Citizen and proud Arizonan to demand equal protection of the law and operate my own professional (with a compensated dealer, and in a commercial operation) poker room outside of Indian Country.
I agree with Kentop though. People should research and investigate and form their own opinions about what is going on and why in the Arizona Poker War. The Indians already fought it and won, and it took 'em 18 years. Off-rez cardrooms are now in their 8th year of open, public "storefront" locations. 50 have come and gone that I'm aware of, and about 20 are operating in the Valley of the Sun today.
Do you think that the Compacts and the Poker MoUs generate $200,000 per year for the Arizona Benefits Fund, or $20M of the $90M slush fund that the ADoG administers? Don't you think we would need to know that information in order to judge the benefit, or detriment, to the State and its citizens thanks to the Poker MoU exclusivity for the tribes?
Would you believe me if I told you that not even the Governor, who signed the illicit Poker MoU with the director of the ADoG and a tribal representative, doesn't even get to know how much benefit the State gets by allowing a legal monopoly on the international sport of poker to only be played in BIA Indian Country?
If we are going to worry about infiltration of organized crime, look up the OCCA and RICO and can someone please tell me how the heck CA vs. Cabazon in 1987 managed to rule that tribes retained their right to high stakes poker, with the federal court even acknowledging OCCA and RICO laws that prohibit it by telling the State to mind it's own business about the application and process of federal laws?
And like crazy Judge and convict-at-large Lee, don't even get me started on the other atrocities that the BIA has visited upon our native american domestic dependent nations with faux-sovereignty. You can't have a state within a state. You can't have a country within a state either. It's unconstitutional. The first thing the Indians gave up when they touched the pen was their sovereignty, and they gave it to the president, who later gave it to Congress.
This fit is shucked up. But what can we do?
We need a civil and social association of adults with common interests in a primary mission to create awareness, educate, and enact change in public policies regarding the international sport of poker in Arizona, as well as nationally address the genocidal policies and continued violation of constitutional trust responsibilities and impressments of our Native American brothers and sisters through unconstitutional gaming Compacts, by the continued exploitation of this most impoverished, invisible group of Americans for the past several centuries.
In this document, the NIGC stepped out of it's role as a regulator and into the role of promoter of Indian gaming when it went heads-up against the Attorney General of the State of Arizona's earlier formal opinion on tribal cardrooms, the latter of which came at the request of the director of the "Arizona" department of gaming that was trying to shut down the BIA cardrooms.
Even more appalling was the lack of media coverage of Judge Lee's trial (poster above) One story, based on a biased ADoG press release, about the great job the prosecutor did, but not a peep about the lack of sentencing and gratis appeal, a little something costing us taxpayers another $250k if not more. Where is the story about the appeal? The lack of sentencing? A former 3 term judge, tried and convicted in an 8 day trial in Arizona, not even a slap on the wrist... This type of media suppression is appalling!
Even more appalling is the continued enslavement of our tribal wards by the Department of the Interior and our nation's oldest, and arguably most corrupt agency, the Indian Affairs beauracracy. Privatized reservations and allow Native Americans to finally assimilate and control their own manifest destiny... OUR federal government continues to enslave our fellow citizen's, and its been over 300 years now. SURELY by now, Indians are capable of managing their own affairs. SURELY today Indians understand the importance and significance of land ownership. Tribes certainly can maintain and continue their own identity, traditions, laws and customs while holding fee simple title to their lands, and abolishing the BIA.