The U.S. Supreme Court’s ban of Texas’ regulatory power over bingo gaming by a Native American tribe effectively shifts 25 years of litigation in favor of the tribe and gives them an opening to expand gaming on their lands, a former U.S. Senate chief counsel said.

The Supreme Court ruled that Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit erred in their interpretation of a federal law that recognized the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo of El Paso. The Texas Restoration Act of 1987 restored the federal tribal status of this tribe and of the Alabama-Coushatta, after Texas in 1983 renounced its trust role for the tribes.