If the Legislature tries to authorize certain gambling devices related to horse racing, Arizona’s attorney general says that tribal communities could withhold money they’d normally owe the state from gambling revenues.
According to the state’s Tribal-State Gaming Compacts, tribal communities have the exclusive right to run historic horse racing games in Arizona. But lawmakers have introduced legislation over the years that tribal leaders and Navajo Sen. Theresa Hatathlie (D-Coalmine Mesa) say encroaches on that exclusivity.
“Tribal gaming in the state of Arizona is constantly whittled down and to make it open to more private investors, private organizers,” Hatathlie said.
