History
Gambling is a part of many traditional Indian cultures (as well as the larger US society.) Tribal games include dice and shell activities, archery competitions, races, and so on. When Native Americans moved to Indian Reservations in the mid- to late 1800s, most were left with limited economic opportunity. Today, most of these reservations “are located in remote areas with little indigenous economic activity… have some of the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, welfare dependency, school dropout, alcoholism, and other indicators of poverty and social distress of any communities in the U.S.”
The use of gaming to generate profit did not begin until the late 1970s and early 1980s within Indian communities. Several tribes, especially in California and Florida, opened bingo parlors as a way to earn revenue. Their actions were related to the search for new sources of revenue, given the emphasis the Ronald Reagan administration placed on economic self-sufficiency for the tribes.
While bingo was legal in California and Florida, those states had stringent regulations. Operating on the history of tribal sovereignty, some tribes did not comply with these laws. High-stakes Indian bingo operations soon arose in California, Florida, New York and Wisconsin. The industry grew rapidly. State governments began contending that revenues from their own gaming operations dropped as Native American operations increased the potential stakes.
Several laws influenced the creation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). Many of these influential laws came from U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding tribal sovereignty. While a number of court rulings played a significant role in the development of legislation regarding reservation gambling rights, two landmark cases, Bryan v. Itasca County and California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, provided major legal breakthroughs.
Read more about this topic: Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
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