The Minnesota Supreme Court will decide if its legal for the state’s card rooms to have video poker machines.
The dispute arose after Running Aces, one of the state’s horse tracks and card clubs, offered electronic blackjack, poker, and baccarat. According to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, the property isn’t allowed to operate those machines.
Under the current legal landscape, Minnesota card rooms are allowed to offer poker and banked card games. The tribes have exclusivity over all other legal forms of gambling. These machines could infringe on tribal exclusivity for slot machines.
“The implementation of these games in the metropolitan area takes different customers from the casinos,” said Josh Peterson, who represents the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
Tribe Says Machines Too Close To Slots
The tribe filed the current lawsuit in 2023. The filing came after the Racing Commission approved the use of video poker machines. The machines also had the ability to run other traditional table games already on the Running Aces gaming floor.
According to a report from the Courthouse News Service, at Running Aces, Peterson argued that the offerings are still electronic games more akin to slots and video poker than traditional poker and blackjack.
Now, the Supreme Court decides what constitutes a table game as opposed to an “electronic game of chance.” By operating these electronic games, the Sioux believe Running Aces took potential customers away from the tribe’s casino.
“It seems silly to apply a dictionary definition to a word that clearly has some specialized meaning, and yet, there’s nothing in our record that introduces really a solidified industry standard for what table for playing cards means,” Associate Justice Sarah Hennessy said.
Running Aces argued that the electronic games aren’t like slot machines and are more akin to the card games offered at both venues.
“The community and Running Aces are competitors on equal footing to offer card playing gambling,” attorney Evan Nelson noted in a brief on behalf of Running Aces. “While theoretically, if more people go to Running Aces for card playing, fewer will go to the community, there is no evidence that this is the case.”
A Familiar Move From Card Rooms
Cardrooms and tribal casinos have been feuding more frequently since the recent failed attempts at legalizing online sports betting.
The bill that had the best chance of passing would’ve given sports betting exclusivity to the tribes. Card rooms thought that was unfair. They thought they deserved a piece of the action as well.
Unfortunately for the two horse tracks and card rooms, legislators seemed more inclined to grant licenses only to the tribes. Consequently, the Minnesota Racing Commission voted to legalize historical horse racing machines.
HHR machines have the same look and feel as a slot machine. There’s virtually no difference in the customer’s experience. But instead of a random number generator, results are dictated by the results of past horse races.
In response, the legislature quickly passed a bill that banned cardrooms from operating HHR machines. It was signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz.
Then, Walz appointed two tribal members to the Racing Commission, which only further riled up the tracks.
