Last year, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb agreed with the state and ordered the casino to stop their poker offering, which launched back in 2010. However, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which is based in Chicago, recently overturned that decision.
In a 20-page opinion, the court ruled that because non-banked poker is not criminalized by the state, it cannot prevent the tribe from offering electronic poker as dictated by the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
"IGRA creates a regulatory scheme that respects tribal sovereignty while carving out a regulatory role for the states on only the most lucrative forms of casino gambling and hence the forms of gambling most susceptible to organized crime," wrote Chief Judge Diane Wood. "States may choose to bypass this regulatory scheme if they are willing to ban gaming across the board. But the states lack statutory authority to deny an Indian tribe the ability to offer gaming that is roughly equivalent to what the state allows for its residents."
In 1999, Wisconsin decriminalized the possession of five or fewer video gambling machines in alcohol establishments. The court seemed not to differentiate between such machines, which include run-of-the-mill video poker, and electronic poker tables.
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