SPOKANE The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday was asked to intervene in a dispute between the Spokane Tribe and the state over slot machines at an Indian casino.
The Spokanes planned to have all 108 slot machines operating when their Two Rivers Resort casino opened today, Tribal Council vice chairman John Kieffer said while making last-minute preparations on Friday.
The 5,000-square-foot casino is the centerpiece of a 200-acre tribal development near the confluence of the Columbia and Spokane rivers on the Spokane Indian Reservation's southwest corner.
The state contends the casino's slot machines are illegal, but it lacks jurisdiction to take action on tribal land.
The state wants the Justice Department to shut down the resort because the tribe has not negotiated a compact over the Las Vegas types of gambling to be offered at the casino.
State officials are worried the Spokanes' casino operation will spoil gambling agreements already reached with 10 tribes and under negotiation with nine others.
The Spokanes contend a federal court ruling last summer allows
them to open the casino without a compact with the state.
U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., in a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Janet Reno, asked for Justice Department intervention.
''I unequivocally believe that opening and operating a (Las Vegas-style) gaming establishment without a compact is a clear violation of federal law,'' Gorton wrote. ''It should not be tolerated.''
Gorton said law enforcement officials from communities near the proposed casino told him they do not have the manpower to police the casino.
Jim Connelly, U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, said Friday he received a copy of Gorton's letter to Reno, but had received no instructions from her office and could not comment because of an ongoing investigation.
He said he talked by telephone Thursday to state Attorney General Christine Gregoire, but declined to characterize the nature of their discussion. Gregoire said Friday through spokesman Dean Owen that after her conversation with Connelly, ''she is satisfied ... that some action on this issue will be forthcoming.''
Connelly said his office would complete its investigation by the end of next week, but declined to say what action the federal government could take.
''The machines are clearly in violation of state law and, obviously, federal law,'' state Gambling Commission Di
rector Frank Miller said Thursday.
''We have asked assistance from the U.S. attorney. We were told they are looking into it, seriously studying it,'' Miller said. ''It has to be resolved. This cannot be allowed to continue without some solution one way or the
other.''
Connelly's predecessor, former U.S. Attorney John Lamp, successfully sued the tribe to remove electronic ''Pick-6 Lotto'' games from reservation gaming locations.
Keiffer said he hoped Connelly's office would take no action.
He said he came away from meetings with Connelly confident that the U.S. attorney would give the tribe a fair shake in the dispute.
The Spokanes last year filed a lawsuit claiming the state was not negotiating in good faith on a gambling compact.
U.S. District Judge Fremming Nielsen last June ruled unconstitutional a portion of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that said states must negotiate pacts with tribes.
The Spokanes interpret that ruling to mean that compacts are no longer required before a tribe offers Class III, or casino-style, gambling.
