The Wisconsin Department of Justice is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision that allowed video poker machines to remain at the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Madison casino.
In an 83-page request filed Tuesday morning, the state argues the machines offer an experience that is based on a card game, meaning they violate the state’s gaming compact with the tribe. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb supported that reasoning in a ruling last year, but a federal appeals court in Chicago disagreed in April and overturned the decision.
The tribe has argued that the machines do not violate its compact because players compete against each other and they are not banked by the house. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said the state would need to make that type of gambling activity a crime in order to keep the Ho-Chunk from operating the machines.
In Tuesday’s filing, the DOJ notes the appeals court decision conflicts with one made by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in another case. The state argues the Supreme Court should review the case because it involves “a question of national importance that is likely to rear its head over and over again in tribal gaming cases.”