Pojoaque Pueblo Settles Gambling Lawsuit With State
By Mary Perea/
Associated Press
Pojoaque Pueblo has agreed to pay $24 million in back casino payments to settle a lawsuit filed by the state, becoming the last tribe in New Mexico to settle the gambling dispute.
Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who announced the settlement at a news conference here Monday, sued New Mexico tribes that operate casinos five years ago. She alleged they were violating a 1997 gambling compact that required them to pay 16 percent of their net slot-machine revenue to the state in exchange for limits on gambling competition.
All the tribes except Pojoaque eventually settled. Revised gaming compacts, approved in 2001, require the tribes to pay no more than 8 percent of their slot revenue. Those revenue sharing agreements meant more than $38 million for the state last year alone.
"With this settlement, we bring the legal case of the state versus our Indian gaming tribes to a successful close,'' Madrid said.
The agreement still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Bruce Black, who is out of town until Wednesday. Madrid said she did not expect a problem with Black signing off on the settlement.
No representatives of the pueblo attended the news conference.
Madrid had alleged Pojoaque Pueblo, which owns Cities of Gold Casino between Santa Fe and Española, owed New Mexico more than $20 million in unpaid slot-machine revenue.
Pueblo Gov. George Rivera signed the settlement Friday, and Madrid signed it Monday.
Madrid praised Rivera for his leadership. "He has been very good to work with, and cooperative,'' she said.
Pojoaque will sign the 2001 compacts and make the back payments in installments, Madrid said. The pueblo will pay $1 million a year for three years, then $2 million per year thereafter.
"This is an unusual settlement'' because of the payment plan, Madrid said.
She could not say exactly how much Pojoaque owed, but "we believe this is fairly close.''
Special counsel Chris Coppin said the amount owed was somewhere around $30 million, but it was impossible to give an exact figure because no audit had been done of the casino.
If the pueblo does not make the payments, it can be held in contempt of court, Coppin said.
It will take about 12.5 years for Pojoaque to pay off the amount. Such payment plans were offered to other tribes, but most of them paid in a lump sum, attorney general's representatives said.
Early last year, Pojoaque offered to write the state a $6 million check and begin paying a cut of casino profits to settle the case, but Madrid refused the offer.
In February, she asked the federal court to rule in the state's favor without a trial and order Pojoaque to pay up or be shut down.
Former pueblo Gov. Jacob Viarrial, who died in June 2004, began the dispute by questioning the legality of the Indian gaming compacts. In 1995, he even threatened to install toll booths along U.S. 84-285 through the pueblo to make up for lost revenue if the state closed the casino.
Rivera, Viarrial's nephew, became governor after Viarrial's death.
Pojoaque also owns The Downs at Santa Fe horse track, which it purchased in 1996. The pueblo submitted an application in March to the New Mexico Racing Commission to reopen the track.
The commission said it would not act on the track application until the lawsuit was cleared up.
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