Oklahoma’s controversial tribal sports betting compacts have been approved by the federal government, while a federal court has offered new hope to a Massachusetts tribal casino proposal.

On Monday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that the US Department of the Interior (DOI) had approved the gaming compacts he inked in April with the Comanche Nation and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe. The deals allow the tribes to build additional casinos off tribal land and offer sports betting for the first time.  

Those deals have been sharply criticized by everyone from Oklahoma’s Attorney General – who noted that the legislature has yet to authorize legal wagering – to the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association (OIGA), which booted the two tribes from its ranks last month for undermining OIGA’s efforts to renew the gaming compacts of 10 other tribal operators.

Oklahoma AG Mike Hunter criticized the DOI’s “thoughtless and irresponsible inaction” and accused DOI Secretary David Bernhardt of abdicating “his responsibility to all of Oklahoma’s Native American sovereigns, not just two.”