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Most people wrongly assume that sports betting in Washington is not legal. This is actually false. The state is one of 39 in the United States that allows legal sports betting.
But there’s a catch: only tribal casinos have the right to offer sport betting. This makes Washington’s market very restricted. Sure, some major betting apps like BetMGM and FanDuel have a presence in the state, but that’s only because they’ve partnered with local tribal casinos. The state doesn’t actually allow mobile betting unless on the premises of those casinos.
As you can imagine, that’s put a real ceiling on Washington’s betting market. Since the tribes don’t have to report any numbers, we don’t know how big or small the industry is. But generally speaking, forcing bettors to wager at a casino is a surefire way to slow down the sector.
Anyway, there was a recent Washington lawsuit that tried to end the tribe’s monopoly over sports betting. But recent events have all but ended that lawsuit’s attempt at changing the state’s stance on betting. Keep on reading and we’ll tell you all about it!
Maverick Lawsuit Gets Dismissed
The lawsuit was filed by Maverick Gaming. For those unaware, they are a company that owns card rooms and casinos, mostly on the western side of the U.S. like Nevada and Colorado. They actually own several establishments in Washington too, which is what drew these lawsuits. Maverick wanted to throw out the state-sanctioned tribal monopoly on sports betting, and then offer it themselves inside their locations.
As it always is the case with these things, it all comes down to money. You see, Maverick went on a buying spree in Washington after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in 2018. Records show they bought 19 locations in 2019 alone — banking that sports betting revenues would be huge once legalized. Washington would legalize it in 2020, but only via the tribes. No commercial operators like Maverick have access to the market.
In classic American fashion, Maverick “sued the bastards” — bastards being both the state and federal government — over the issue. According to them, the monopoly was just that, a monopoly, which is against the constitution. Specifically, they claimed this not only violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause but also went against the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
According to IGRA, tribes can offer certain types of gaming only if they’re already allowed elsewhere in the state. But Maverick contended that wasn’t the case in Washington. They argued that the law was being misused to give tribes exclusive rights to certain forms of gaming, like sports betting, while blocking non-tribal gaming venues from offering the same options.
Lawsuit Became A Sovereign Rights Issue?
The case quickly spiraled into a sovereign rights issue. This is essentially any legal dispute over the authority and autonomy of states, Native American tribes, or individuals in relation to federal or state government powers. The lawsuit entered that slippery-slope territory once Maverick moved it to federal court, prompting the Shoalwater Bay Tribe — who weren’t originally part of the lawsuit — to step in and push for its dismissal.
In February 2023, Judge David Estudillo threw out the case, ruling that Maverick was trying to undermine tribal gaming compacts, which are legally recognized agreements.
“Maverick seeks nothing less than a wholesale revocation of the tribes’ ability to operate casino gaming facilities,” Estudillo said.
He also determined that the Shoalwater Bay Tribe was a necessary party in the lawsuit, but since they have sovereign immunity, they couldn’t be forced to participate — effectively shutting down Maverick’s case. Or so we thought because Maverick wasn’t going down that easily, not when hundreds of millions of dollars were potentially at stake.
Maverick Appeals, Only To Lose Again
Maverick wasted no time in appealing the decision by Estudillo. According to them, the tribe waived its sovereign immunity by voluntarily intervening in this suit. This argument was promptly shut down by the appellate panel:
“It is well-established that a tribe’s voluntary participation in litigation for a limited purpose does not constitute a blanket waiver of immunity from suit in general,” the panel wrote. The litigation “cannot proceed in equity and good conscience without the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe” because the case is about the tribe’s sovereign and economic interests in gaming exclusivity, the judges added.
And with that, the panel of Ninth Circuit court judges upheld the court’s dismissal. That means Maverick is finished, right? No, if you take the word of Maverick CEO Eric Persson. He’s said he’ll take the issue to the Supreme Court if he has to. Ironically enough, the CEO himself is a member of the Shoalwater Bay tribe. We might’ve just found the plot to a spinoff of Killers of the Flower Moon movie but around gambling, not oil.
Anyway, Persson and Maverick are seemingly the only party still fighting over the issue of sports wagerinh. Everyone else? They’ve submitted to the fact that you’ll forever have to drive to a casino to bet on sports stateside — no mobile betting anywhere in sight.
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