Josh Crum
AM IM 210
Julie Clark
12/3/2018
Native American and Casinos
There are quite a few Native American tribes that operate casinos on their reservations. According to Dwanna L. Robertson (2017) about 42 percent of tribes have gaming operations. Gaming operations include things other than just casinos so the percent is even lower for tribes that run casinos. Each casino is regulated differently depending on what games they provide and what state they are in. Also, tribes choose to use their money differently than other tribes, but they do have laws that state what ways their money can be used. When people think of things that are associated with modern Native Americans they will probably at some point think of casinos on Native American reservations, but many people don’t know the history of gaming on reservations, how they are regulated, and how they impact the people on that reservation.
Gaming has been associated with Native Americans for a very long time. According to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians (2009) gaming has always been a part of their culture. There were two kinds of games the Chumash played, one was games that take skill and the other was games that involved chance. The games they played were nothing like the casinos we see today but they did involve betting. An example of a game the Chumash played is Peon, where two teams are involved, and each team has a white and black bone and the other team has to guess which had has the white bone in it. Tradition isn’t the only reason American Indians start up a casino. Many tribes hope to create jobs, and create revenue to use to improve their tribe’s government and to help their people. In 1979 the Seminole tribe started the first casino in Florida. The casino was not a casino many people would think of. This casino consisted of a bingo parlor. A couple years later many other casinos started popping up starting the creation of Indian casinos around the United States. Not long after the parlor was opened the state threatened to shut it down because the bingo games were offering prizes larger than the state allowed. In 1988 the IGRA, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was created as a United States federal law that outlines how Indian gaming can be governed. According to Eve Darian-Smith (2008) by 2005 Indian gaming made up about 25 percent of legal gaming in the United States and had made $22 billion dollars in annual revenue.
Since the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act was introduced in 1988 there has been many regulations and law set stating how tribes can operate their casino and how the money is used. The IRGA states that a casino is allowed on a reservation if gambling is allowed in that state. There are three classes for American Indian gaming. Class 1 is gaming that is traditional and is for ceremonies or powwows. Class 2 is bingo and any games like bingo. Class 3 is what most casinos are that people think of, casinos that have slot machines, baccarat, blackjack, and most other common casino games. “Not every Indian gets money from casino profits. Whereas other gambling institutions may do as their stakeholders please with their net profits, tribal nations must follow strict rules” (Robertson). The IGRA states that tribal casinos profits may only be used to fund tribal government operations or programs, provide for the general welfare of their members, promote tribal economic development, donate to charitable organizations, and help fund operations of local government agencies. It does not say they can just give money to their tribal people. That is what many people think happens at tribal casinos. They think the revenue from the casino is distributed to all of their members and that makes them all wealthy. In order for a tribe to distribute the revenue to their tribal members they must make a revenue allocation plan and get the plan approved by the DOI secretary. The NIGC stands for National Indian Gaming Commission. They are a federal regulatory agency that enforces the IGRA. They oversee tribal gaming commissions, conduct background investigations, and approve casino management contracts. Then there are state agency regulations that has a gaming commission to oversee tribal gaming. The commission is responsible for establishing a state gambling control board, enforce tribal state compact violations, and do background investigations. Then there’s the TGA, the Tribal Gaming Commission Agency. The TGA was made to oversee day to day operations and regulation of tribal casinos. Each tribe elects these commissioners. The TGA commissioner’s jobs are to do background investigations on every employee of the casino and all vendors of the casino, they are like security guards at the casino, they provide a safe environment. They also maintain compliance with all the other regulations and certifies and tests class 3 slot machines. According to Alan Bailey (2018) in 2006 it cost the NIGC $12 million in regulation cost, State regulation $70 million, and tribal regulation $255 million with a total cost of $337 million to regulate tribal gaming. As seen it costs a good chunk of money to regulate the casinos.
The introduction of casinos to American Indians reservations has had large effect on tribal people. Some say the casinos have helped their tribe grow and helped them financially, but others say that the introduction of casinos to their reservation has created greed, and has diminished their tribe from their roots. Casinos have helped tribes expand their government, give college scholarships to members, offer drug and alcohol rehabilitation, help charities, and many other things. According to Tim Hyde (2015) research has shown that tribal casinos are associated with declines in binge drinking, smoking, and obesity, and has increased employment.