The history of Indian casinos in Texas illustrates the tight control state law has over the gaming industry. The US government passed a law called the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in the 1980s, which allowed Indian tribes to operate any kind of gambling device or game that was legal in the state in which they wanted to do business. The state of Texas has three Indian tribes: the Kickapoo, the Tigua, and the Alabama-Coushatta. All three have opened casinos, but only Lucky Eagle, which the Kickapoo operate, survives. The Tigua were the first to attempt running a casino. The Speaking Rock Casino opened in 1993. At first, it was based on bingo- it was and still is legal to bet on bingo games, so that formed the basis for the casino’s games.
The Tigua Indian tribe attempted to expand to table games like poker and blackjack. They argued that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act granted them the ability to apply for a class 3 license. However, the state of Texas refused to consider it. The Tigua had already begun adding table games to the Speaking Rock Casino. The state government sued to shut the casino down, claiming that when the state officially recognized the Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta tribes, it forbade them from operating casinos. The courts decided that the state’s argument was stronger than the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the Speaking Rock Casino closed by court order. The Alabama-Coushatta Indian tribe attempted to open a similar casino while the Tigua were in court. After the Tigua lost and had to close Speaking Rock, the Alabama-Coushatta casino followed shortly after.
The Kickapoo Indians gained state recognition under a different law than the Alabama-Coushatta and Tigua, and the law governing their rights did not forbid gambling. Still, the Kickapoo had to fight a legal battle to get slot machine equivalents allowed in their casino. It is clear that opening a casino is no guarantee that a tribe will escape legal troubles. All it takes is an attorney general and governor who want to shut casinos down, and the rest is history. Indian casinos are not banned in Texas- they are just a legal gray area, which is far worse. Two out of the three Indian tribes spent a lot of time and money on trying to run casinos, only to have them shut down in a court case. You can learn more about the single brick and mortar casino in the state from our page covering brick and mortar casinos located in Texas.
The third tribe filed a preemptive court case to protect themselves from being shut down. This uncertainty and inconsistency has a chilling effect on future casinos, whether their perspective owners are Indian tribes or otherwise. There is no good way to know in advance if a casino will run into legal trouble- and that is bad for business. Not only have the state of Texas’s actions shut down two Indian casinos, they have also made it less likely for any more casinos to open up in the future. That leaves the Lucky Eagle as the only casino in the entire state- now and for the foreseeable future.