President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Secretary of the Department of the Interior is former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Burgum has sterling reputation among ND tribes
If approved, Burgum will succeed Deb Haaland in the role. Haaland made history as the first Native American named to the post, which is a critical role in terms of managing tribal and federal relations in the U.S.
While Burgum is not a native himself, during his tenure as governor, he maintained good relationships with the six tribes located within North Dakota, even when they were on opposite sides of an issue, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline project.
“North Dakota tribes have such a great relationship with Gov. Burgum,” Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire told local press in a statement Friday. “We all have such an admiration and respect for the friendship, partnership and collaboration (we have) with Gov. Burgum. He always reached out if we had an issue.”
During his tenure, Burgum did update the gambling compacts with the five tribes in North Dakota in December 2022. The highlight of those new agreements lowered the gambling age at these properties from 21 to 19.
Burgum denied hub and spoke igaming proposal in 2022
In the negotiations leading up to the signing of the new compacts, Burgum did refuse to allow for online gaming tied to the tribal casinos. The tribes put forth the hub and spoke argument for online gambling in the state that the compact between the Florida and Seminole Nation utilize: namely, that the location of the server determines where the gambling is taking place, not the location of the person or their phone.
“While we understand and appreciate the desire by some of the tribes to extend online gaming beyond their reservation boundaries, a clear legal path does not exist for the governor to grant such a broad expansion of gaming,” Burgum said in a statement at the time.
When Burgum issued that statement, the current DOI Secretary, Haaland, was in the midst of a case challenging the legality of the tribal compact in Florida based on the same concept. Plaintiffs West Flagler and Associates said that the compact violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and suggested Interior was at fault for ever approving it in the first place.
DOI has never taken formal stance on legality of hub and spoke
The DOI maintained that, while it approved the compact, the department was agnostic regarding the merits of the hub and spoke argument. In court filings related to the West Flagler case, the department said the proper venue to question the framework is at the state level without the involvement of DOI.
The issue in Florida is largely resolved, but other states, such as Minnesota, California or Oklahoma, potentially could draft similar compacts to enable sports betting or other online gambling in the state.
It is also unclear, if confirmed, whether or not Burgum’s stance on hub and spoke relates specifically to North Dakota law or extends beyond the parameters of his state.