Attorneys for the state of Colorado say a lawsuit from the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes over sports betting regulation should be dismissed, in part because the state officials named in the suit are immune from such claims.
Earlier this summer, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe sued Colorado in federal court, saying that the state improperly sought to regulate their entry into sports betting. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe later signed onto the lawsuit. Online sports betting was narrowly approved by Colorado voters in 2019.
The tribes asserted that bets through their sportsbook by people not on Tribal lands should be treated as though they were placed on the Southern Ute Reservation, and therefore not subject to Colorado’s sports gaming taxes.
