State may lose big in game goof

It's unclear whether the state can recoup any of that.

District Judge Noma Gurich ruled last week that two popular models of gambling machines were wrongly classified as Class II devices, from which the state derives no income under the state/tribal compacts.

The games, called MegaNanza and Reel Time Bingo, fit the federal definition of Class III gambling, Gurich ruled.

Her order came in a lawsuit between two Class II machine vendors. Diamond Games, which has relatively few machines in Oklahoma, sued Multimedia Games, a larger maker of Class II games.

Gurich said her order isn't binding on tribal governments. "Nor is the court trying to regulate Indian gaming,” she wrote.

Nevertheless, the ruling is at the heart of a longstanding fight between American Indian tribes, their casino vendors and federal gambling regulators. A similar fight has unfolded in Oklahoma because revenue from the gaming compacts has never matched projections touted when voters approved expanded gambling in 2004.