In a surprising vote on Thursday, members of the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) decided overwhelmingly against taking a unified position on Internet gambling.

The 26-4 roll call vote was a setback for NIGA leaders who had hoped to release a unified statement on Internet gambling during their annual trade show this week at the San Diego Convention Center.

The vote also was a disappointment for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians of Riverside, California and other tribes who have aggressively pushed intrastate Internet poker and made online wagering the most prominent issue this week at NIGA’s trade show.

“This resolution doesn’t really serve any purpose, and it seems to us there are other issues of importance that need to be considered,” said John Tahsuda, who is vice president of government relations and tribal affairs for Navigators Global in Washington, D.C.

Representatives of tribes who voted against the resolution said they need more time to study the issue. They also questioned why a national tribal organization like NIGA would want to issue a statement on Internet gambling when relatively few tribes are pursuing that activity.

“Clearly, California tribes are very worked up about this but historically, when the tribes are split, NIGA does not take a position,” Tahsuda said.

The roll call postponed a vote on the resolution until NIGA meets again in October, and that means NIGA is unlikely to play a significant role in the debate in Congress on Internet gambling until then.

Of the tribes who are interested in Internet gambling, this week’s discussion revealed a rift between tribes like the Morongos who support intrastate Internet poker and those like the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians who prefer federal regulation and taxation of Internet gambling.

In offering the resolution for a vote, NIGA’s executive director Mark Van Norman described it as a “compromise solution” which would help tribes “come to middle ground.”

The shelved resolution had expressed opposition to a House bill and a Senate bill “as currently drafted” that would roll back restrictions in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.

The House bill by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., would overturn UIGEA and require the Department of Treasury to regulate Internet gambling. The Senate bill by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., would exempt poker and other games of skill from UIGEA.

Robert Martin, who is the tribal chairman of the Morongos, said he wanted the resolution to pass so it would slow up and perhaps even stop Frank’s bill, which has 66 co-sponsors.

“The Frank bill hurts tribes in a macro sense because it would force us to restrict Internet gambling to our reservations,” Martin said.

The resolution also called for Congress to conduct a study of Internet gambling and “its economic impact on existing brick and mortar gaming facilities and American jobs.”

Tahsuda expressed concern that the suggestion of a study could led to the creation of another National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which released its report in June 1999.

“As it turned out, we didn't get hurt by that commission, but it's not something we'd like to see again,” Tahsuda said.

When Martin testified last December before the House Financial Services Committee, which Frank chairs, he said the Frank bill would put Indian casinos at a competitive disadvantage with offshore Internet gambling operators and result in job losses for tribes.

“I still feel that way,” Martin said. “We’ve offered 10 to 12 amendments to Frank’s bill and haven’t heard anything back.”

Martin said Frank sent a letter last week to NIGA Chairman Ernie Stevens, Jr. offering to work with NIGA on Internet gambling. “But it didn’t say a whole lot,” Martin said.

Frank has met a couple of times with the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut, but he has not met with the Morongos, Martin said. “I understand his committee is having a hearing on Internet gambling on April 16, but we haven’t been invited,” he said.

The Morongos still have not found a member of the California legislature who will sponsor the tribe’s proposal to operate an intrastate Internet poker website.

But Martin said at least two lawmakers, whom he declined to name, are considering sponsoring the Morongo proposal.

“California makes up 60 percent of the country’s Internet gamblers, and we’re making headway,” he said.
  
Phil Hogen, a former chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, said many tribes are confused by Internet gambling.

“It’s very uncertain what Congress is going to do with Internet gambling, and I think that’s one of the reasons many tribes are hesitant to get out in front of this issue,” Hogen said.

But Hogen added that sooner or later, tribes are going to have to decide what they want to do about Internet gambling.

“It’s not a matter of if with Internet gambling; it’s a matter of when. It may be nine months or it may be nine years, but Internet gambling is coming,” Hogen said.