The Indian tribes keep filing federal lawsuits to prevent Gov. Kevin Stitt from renegotiating the gambling compact that they have freely operated under for more than 15 years.

In a response to the lawsuits, Stitt has asked a federal court to halt Class III gambling at Oklahoma tribal casinos because it is currently illegal.

When ex-Gov. Brad Henry crafted the original compact, it had a 15-year expiration date. It essentially granted the tribes exclusive rights to operate full-blown casinos with virtually no oversight from state inspectors.

When Stitt took office, he found that other states are getting a lot bigger cut than Oklahoma and he decided to open new negotiations in 2019. The contract expired on January 1, 2020.

The tribe ignored the expiration of the compact and are still doing business as usual. Their lawyers contend that the compact rolls over with any need for renegotiation.

The tribes didn’t want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg and they didn’t want to pay any more for exclusive gambling rights. They mounted an expensive media blitz to sway the public into thinking that they were right and that anyone who opposed them was opposing the best interest of Oklahomans. Spending so much money on media buys also guaranteed no negative press from the news media.

Oklahoma got about $150 million from the tribes last year but that is a pittance when compared to the perhaps billions of dollars state residents lost while gambling at about 141 tribal casinos.

Casinos are a blight on Oklahoma. Stitt is right to challenge the deal that Henry put together when he surrendered the best interest of all Oklahomans.