Gambling in The United States - American Indian Gaming

American Indian Gaming

The history of reservation-based commercial gambling began in 1979, when the Seminoles began running bingo games. Prior to this, the Indians had no previous experience with large-scale commercial gambling. American Indians were familiar with the concept of small-scale gambling, such as placing bets on sporting contests. For example, the Iroquois, Ojibways, and Menominees would place bets on games of snow snake. Within six years after commercial gambling among Indians developed, seventy-five to eighty of the three hundred federally recognized tribes became involved. By 2006, about three hundred American Indian groups hosted some sort of gaming.

Some American Indian tribes operate casinos on tribal land to provide employment and revenue for their government and their tribe members. Tribal gaming is regulated on the tribal, state, and federal level. Indian tribes are required to use gambling revenue to provide for governmental operations, economic development, and the welfare of their members. Federal regulation of Indian gaming was established under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. Under the provisions of that law, games are divided into three distinct categories:

• Class I games are "traditional" games that involve little or no wagering.
• Class II games include bingo, pull-tabs, and certain non-banked card games (poker, cribbage, contract bridge, whist, etc.).
• Class III games include all casino games (craps, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, slot machines, and other games where the player bets against the house) and games that do not properly fall into classes I or II.

Of the 562 federally recognized tribes in 1988, 201 participated in class two or class III gaming by 2001. Tribal gambling had revenues of $14.5 billion in 2002 from 354 casinos. Approximately forty percent of the 562 federally recognized tribes operate gaming establishments.

Like other Americans, many American Indians have dissension over the issue of casino gambling. Some tribes are too isolated geographically to make a casino successful, while some do not want non-Indians on their land. Though casino gambling is controversial, it has proven economically successful for most tribes, and the impact of American Indian gambling has proven to be far-reaching.

Gaming creates many jobs, not only for Indians, but also for non-Indians, and in this way can positively affect relations with the non-Indian community. On some reservations, the number of non-Indian workers is larger than the number of Indian workers because of the scale of the casino resorts. Also, some tribes contribute a share of casino revenues to the state in which they are located, or to charitable and non-profit causes. For example, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians of California gave 4 million dollars to the UCLA Law School to establish a center for American Indian Studies. The same tribe also gave $1 million dollars to the state for disaster relief when the area was ravaged by wildfires in 2003.

Although casinos have proven successful for both the tribes and the surrounding regions, state residents may oppose construction of Indian casinos, especially if they have competing projects. For example, in November 2003, the state of Maine voted against a $650 million casino project proposed by the Penobscots and Passamaquoddies. The project's objective was to create jobs for the tribes' young people. The same day the state voted against the Indian casino project, Maine voters approved a plan to add slot machines to the state's harness racing tracks.

The National Indian Gaming Commission oversees Indian gaming for the federal government. The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) was established under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. Under the NIGC, Class I gaming is under the sole jurisdiction of the tribe. Class II gaming is governed by the tribe, but it is also subject to NIGC regulation. Class III gaming is under the jurisdiction of the states. For instance, in order for a tribe to build and operate a casino, the tribe must work and negotiate with the state in which it is located. These Tribal-State compacts determine how much revenue the states will obtain from the Indian casinos.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requires that gaming revenues be used only for governmental or charitable purposes. The tribal governments determine specifically how gaming revenues are spent. Revenues have been used to build houses, schools, and roads; to fund health care and education; and to support community and economic development initiatives. Indian gaming is the first and essentially the only economic development tool available on Indian reservations. The National Gaming Impact Study Commission has stated that "no...economic development other than gaming has been found". Tribal governments, though, use gaming revenues to develop other economic enterprises such as museums, malls, and cultural centers.

There are currently 30 states that have American Indian gaming: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.