Card Player – A tribe located within Idaho is tangled up in a legal battle with that state over the former’s opening of a poker room at an already-existing gambling facility.
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe opened its poker room on May 2 at its Coeur d’Alene Casino.
Idaho said that poker is illegal within its borders and that federal laws pertaining to tribal casinos wouldn’t provide a carve out in this situation.
The Tribe disagreed, filing a lengthy motion for the state’s lawsuit to be dismissed, The Spokesman-Review reported Tuesday.
“As the statute provides, even if the game of poker is prohibited, that prohibition does not apply if the game can be shown to be a ‘contest of skill,’” the Tribe wrote.
The Tribe also noted that forms of Texas hold’em poker already exist in Idaho, such as a version of poker run through the state lottery, in addition to charity poker events.
The state and the Tribe will face off in federal court on June 3 over the state’s attempt for a restraining order to shut down the poker room, The Spokesman-Review reported.
