{"id":820,"date":"2025-07-30T22:16:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:10:18","slug":"casino-oklahoma-sues-town-over-threat-to-cut-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/casino-oklahoma-sues-town-over-threat-to-cut-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Casino Oklahoma Sues Town Over Threat to Cut Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Tribe sues town over utility shutdown targeting sovereign land<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Delaware Nation claims illegal tax coercion on trust land<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lawsuit seeks injunction, cites violation of federal protections<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>A federally recognized tribal nation in Oklahoma is asking a federal judge to stop a small town from cutting off water and sewer services to its casino, which it claims is a \u201cthinly veiled attempt\u201d to force illegal taxation on sovereign land.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_358813\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-358813\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-358813 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Delaware Nation, Casino Oklahoma, tribal sovereignty, utility shutoff, Indian Gaming Regulatory Act\" width=\"858\" height=\"496\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Casino-Okla-858x496-1.jpg\"><figcaption>The small Oklahoma town of Hinton is threatening to pull water services from the Delaware Nation\u2019s Casino Oklahoma, above. The tribe claims the threat is an attempt to impose taxation. (Image: Casino Oklahoma)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Delaware Nation owns Casino Oklahoma, which sits on a 20-acre parcel held in trust by the federal government for the tribe just north of the small town of Hinton.<\/p>\n<p>In a complaint filed July 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the Nation accuses the town and its public works authority of threatening to pull the plug on utility services to the casino.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Town of Hinton will discontinue all municipal services, including water and sewer services, to the Casino Oklahoma property at 12:00 a.m. on August 1, 2025,\u201d the town\u2019s Board of Trustees stated in a letter dated June 10, 2025, which was included as evidence in the suit.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Sovereignty Issue<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In the U.S., tribal governments view state and local tax exemptions as a non-negotiable and a core part of what makes them sovereign nations.<\/p>\n<p>Under federal law, lands held in trust for Indian tribes are explicitly exempt from such taxes. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act also prohibits states and localities from imposing fees or charges on tribes operating Class III gaming facilities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>Defendants\u2019 threat to terminate utility services constitutes an illegal attempt to obtain tax revenue, which federal law prohibits them from imposing on the Trust Parcel,\u201d the Nation argues in the complaint.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe threatened shutoff is not about unpaid bills,\u201d the complaint asserts. \u201cThe Nation has paid all utility service fees and continues to do so in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Closure Threat<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Nation says it could be forced to close the casino if the town delivers on its threat, which it claims would cause substantial harm to tribal citizens and the town itself.<\/p>\n<p>Hinton\u2019s own utility policies prohibit service extensions outside town limits, but the tribe notes that Hinton has acknowledged multiple times in legal documents, agreements, and maps that the casino is within the town\u2019s boundaries.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The lawsuit asks the court for an emergency temporary restraining order, a permanent injunction, and a declaratory judgment to prevent the town from using utility shutoffs as leverage to compel payments the tribe argues are unlawful under federal law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As of press time, officials with the Town of Hinton and the Hinton Public Works Authority had not issued public statements regarding the pending litigation.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/casino-oklahoma-sues-town-over-threat-to-cut-water\/\">Casino Oklahoma Sues Town Over Threat to Cut Water<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tribe sues town over utility shutdown targeting sovereign land Delaware Nation claims illegal tax coercion on trust land Lawsuit seeks injunction, cites violation of federal protections A federally recognized tribal nation in Oklahoma is asking a federal judge to stop a small town from cutting off water and sewer services to its casino, which it claims is a \u201cthinly veiled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}