North Dakota Governor Rejects Tribes’ Request for Online Gambling Monopoly

Native American tribes in North Dakota are not getting exclusive rights to online gambling as governor Doug Burgum has rejected their request for a monopoly filed in October.

North Dakota Governor Rejected the Tribes’ Proposal as Online Gambling is Still Illegal in North Dakota

Associated Press reported that governor Burgum has rejected the tribe’s plea as sports betting and online gambling are not yet legalized in the state of North Dakota.

The request coming from the five tribes in the state was for an extension of their online and sports betting product offering beyond the restrictions of their reservation territories to cover the whole state.

Currently, online gambling is allowed from mobile devices but the person placing the wagers must be physically located on tribal land.

According to the proposal from the tribes, only the servers facilitating online gambling would be located in the tribes’ reservation territories, while people from anywhere in the state of North Dakota would be allowed to gamble online.

In a statement, Governor Burgum explained the reasons why this is not an option: “While we understand and appreciate the desire by some of the tribes to extend online gaming beyond their reservation boundaries, a clear legal path does not exist for the governor to grant such a broad expansion of gaming.”

In addition to Burgum’s comments, governor spokesperson Mike Nowatzki underlined that gambling is illegal in the state of North Dakota with the only exception being tribal lands. However, as per the compact agreement with the tribes, in case the state legalizes gambling and online gambling, in particular, the tribes will be eligible to offer gambling services beyond their territories. 

Burgum Approved Other Requests by the North Dakota Indian Tribes

Burgum may not have approved the tribes’ monopoly request but he allowed for two other of their demands.

The governor decreased the legal age for gambling at the tribes’ five casinos. So now all North Dakota residents age 19 and over can gamble at the Native American casinos. Before people had to be 21 or over to use their gambling services.

The second change of rules made by the governor’s office upon the request of the tribes was to allow betting with credit and debit cards.

The tribes’ request for gambling monopoly came in with the strong argument that their revenues have suffered considerably since 2017 when governor Burgum legalized pull tab machines in the state. Allowing the tribes to get exclusive rights would be seen as compensation for this loss of revenue.