Blackfeet, IGRC say no Class III games at casino
Pub Date: 12/1/2006
By Paul Vang
and Cole Boehler
According to Gary Green, General Manager of the Blackfeet Tribe's new Glacier Peaks Casino at Browning, the business is off to a good start and is fully in compliance with Indian Gaming Regulatory Commision (IGRC) rules regulating gaming on reservations without compacts with their respective states.
And that was confirmed to the Montana Tavern Times in a Nov. 13 conversation with Shawn Pensoneau with the IGRC in Washington, D.C.
He said IGRC field staff "contacted our counterpart at the Tribe to inquire. We're quite certain Class III games are not being played at Glacier Peaks. We have done due dilligence."
Other visitors to the casino have also confirmed no Class III games such as blackjack are being run. Tribes are prohibited from operating Class III "Las Vegas" casino games such as blackjack, roulette, craps or baccarat unless they have negotiated a compact with the state which specifically authorizes such games.
The Blackfeet, which contacted the state in September regarding negotiations, has had no subsequent negotiations and does not currently have a state compact, according to Gambling Control Division Administrator Gene Huntington.
Green stated flatly, We do not have craps, roulette, or blackjack. He added, We re absolutely in compliance with the rules. We have a compliance officer on staff whose whole job is to make sure that everything we do is in compliance.
I wish we could have all the things people think we can do. We get calls and/or visits about what kind of games we have, much of which is based on rumors they ve picked up on the internet.
The IGRC oversees Glacier Peaks and other tribal casinos. Green says, They visited our facility both before and after we opened to determine if all games were in compliance with rules. They determined they were. We also hold a Montana liquor license and I know that Montana gaming authority people have been here several times."
Green said he perceives that some off-reservation casinos, which he cautiously categorizes as the Tavern Association, view the tribal casinos as unfair competition. He disagrees with that view.
We don t compete with the Tavern Association. It s just like going to Great Falls and you see both convenience stores and supermarkets. They don t compete with each other. They have their separate functions. If we want something from a convenience store, we go to a convenience store. If we need to go to a supermarket, we go to Albertson s.
Green went on to say that he d like to get together for more cooperation with the off-reservation casinos.
I love to get together with Tavern Association members and work up some kind of compact for legislation so that we [tribal casinos] could have poker and keno machines, and so that the tavern operators could have some of our machines," Green says. "It would help small business. I also think it would be great if we could get blackjack approved. Our local [off-reservation] operators could make a lot of money with blackjack."
The big attraction for gamblers at Glacier Peaks Casino is the 500 "slot" machines at the Casino. Green points out that The slots look like Las Vegas-type slots, but the machines are connected to a server in the back room.
The machine is based on a 72-ball bingo drop, Green explains. If a card gets a diagonal bingo, for example, the machine will show three bars a graphic representation of a bingo.
"The poker and keno machines in local non-tribal casinos are all free-standing, but in our casino the machines are connected and players are actually playing against each other.
In addition to bingo-based slot machines, Green adds, We do have poker games the variations of poker allowed under both the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and Montana law. Where there are differences between tribal rules and state rules (on bingo), tribal rules prevail. The fundamental difference is that we re not subject to pot limits. For example, the equivalent of a blackout in bingo could have a $100,000 payout on a $5 card.
General Manager Green says, We re the most regulated industry in the world," he says. "Every employee, including janitors and dishwashers, is fingerprinted and has to pass a background check. We re under constant surveillance. Every dollar that comes in here must be accounted for. We even have regulations on the number of people who must be on hand when taking cash out of a slot machine to take to the counting room."
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, Dec., 2006, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.