| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Feds: Tribe Gambling Profit-Sharing Payments Must Stop
- Thursday, 22 Jun 2006
Indian tribe is being told by law enforcement agencies that it must stop paying their tribe members $2,000 monthly gambling profit sharing payments because it is misusing the gambling funds. The Puyallup tribe is currently fighting a federal demand that it instantly stop sending its members $2,000 monthly profit-sharing payments taken from the tribe's gambling income. The National Indian Gaming Commission, in a recent announcement, said that the tribe is misusing gambling profits by handing out more money than is permitted under tribal rules. The commission ordered the tribe to stop those payments immediately, which last year constituted 65% of the tribe's $134 million in net gambling revenues.
The Puyallup tribe has a totally different version of the gambling payout saga. The tribe leaders agree to having received the notice by the federal agents about halting payments, but besides for that, they did not agree to anything else. They claim that there is nothing wrong with the $2,000 payments being allotted to each of the tribe's 3,450 members as a way to share the benefits of its gambling operations, including the Emerald Queen Casino.
However, Federal American Indian gambling regulators said their dissatisfaction with the act originates from violations of the tribe's own "Revenue Allocation Plan." Such policies are demanded of all tribes that make such payments from gambling profits, and are approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Puyallup tribe's plan, approved in 2003, says about 35 percent of its net gambling revenue can be paid to members. The feds are claiming that the current payment is for much more than this amount.
| |
| |
|
