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Penobscot Protest Conduct Of State Police In Licensing Class II Games

Posted on June 2nd, 2010

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The Penobscot Indian Nation is intending to upgrade its high-stakes bingo operation on Indian Island by changing its outdated bingo machines in order to measure up to more modern and sophisticated tastes.

The Penobscot plan to use the new Class II pull-tab bingo machines under a bill known as LD 1731, composed and introduced by the Penobscot legislative representative, Wayne Mitchell. The bill has been ratified into law by the governor and applies to all Indian nations in Maine that have been recognized by the federal government.

The Penobscot have been working on a kind of pull-tab machine that they intend to use in their bingo operation and which may also be used by other Wabanaki nations. But when the time came for the state police to approve their machines, Lt. David Bowler of the gaming division of the Maine State Police said their machines could not be licensed because they are slot machines.

Slot machines do not belong to the Class II category of gaming machines which are allowed on Indian gaming operations and which can be used together with high stakes bingo games.

The Gaming Control Board, a separate division of the Public Safety Department, is responsible for the for-profit gaming like the Hollywood Slots, while the State Police oversee the non-profit gaming and the Class II gaming operations of the Indian tribes because in the state of Maine the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act does not apply to the state’s federally recognized Indian nations.

Eclipse, an independent company well-known for its knowledge and skill in testing compliance of gaming machines made a 15-page report on May 21 after conducting analysis and examination of the new pull-tab machines of the Penobscot. The report concludes that the Class II pull-tab bingo machines the Penobscot are developing for use in its gaming operation are in conformity with the new state law, LD 1731, which states that, “The element of chance (in pull-tab machines) must be provided by the ticket itself, not by the dispenser.”

In the Penobscot machines, according to the report, the pull-tabs are piled in a pool before being dispensed, and the outcome of every pull-tab is pre-determined. The report further says that “the software acts as an electronic ‘dispenser’ that dispenses tickets, where the element of chance is provided by the ticket itself and not the dispenser.” Eclipse’s report is a stark contrast to the opinion of the state police on the Penobscot machines. But the tribe’s leaders say the report may not have a bearing on the state police decision to license their machines.

On May 20 a newspaper article reported that 50 Class II gaming machines of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township were licensed by the state police who said that the bar code tickets produced by the machines provide the element of chance, therefore the machines are in accordance with the new state law.

But Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis said the Passamaquoddy machine the state police recently approved is an old model that is around ten years old and is certainly not as competitive as the more modern Penobscot machines.

Francis said he has a feeling that the state police and lobbyists for Hollywood Slots are collaborating so that the state police would recommend gaming machines with lower standard for use of Indian nations in their bingo operations because Hollywood Slots would be threatened by competition from more sophisticated machines.

Francis expressed frustration in the fact that his nation worked with the state police for more than a year to keep them informed of the Penobscot pull-tab machines. He said they were disappointed because after all the time and resources spent to supply Lt. Bowler with all the necessary reports explaining in detail how their pull-tab machine would work, Lt. Bowler declared their machines were slot machines and illegal. Bowler informed the Penobscot of his decision in a later meeting after the governor had signed the bill into law.

But Bowler said that Hollywood Slots has nothing to do with this decision and with state police decisions in the future. He said the manner by which state police conducted its job has always been on a professional level.