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o issue is more U.S. Supreme Court ruling limitvolatile in the dising the ability of the U.S. Departcussion of Ameriment of the Interior to place land can Indian in trust for Indian governments. gaming than offMoreover, it has exacerbated reservation casinos, often lumped the growing public perception of with “reservation shopping” as a tribes not as culturally rich, inderogatory reference to the nadigenous governments, but busitionwide spread of Indian gamness entities and purveyors of bling. gambling. Critics of Indian government “The success of Indian gamcasinos would have the public being certainly has changed the lieve there is a dramatic, overall perception of non-Indians unchecked and unregulated exthat Indians are all poor and deplosion of tribal casinos in Amerpendent on the United States,” ica. They refer to this alleged says Alexander Skibine, dean of spurt of Indian gambling off the University of Utah Law tribal trust lands as “off-reservaSchool. By Dave Palermo tion” casinos. The result, he says, is a probCritics also suggest the lematic Congress, intrusive Intergrowth of tribal casinos is generated by shrewd, wealthy developers using tribal nal Revenue Service, critical judicial system and cynical public. governments (and sometimes Indian groups seeking federal recognition) and the federal process to build casino resorts, often near non-Indian communities that Getting The Numbers Right don’t want them. It’s not difficult to grasp why there has been a leveling-off of new Indian casinos. This is called reservation shopping. The market has matured. There is a bit of truth in both observations. But statistics largely refute the Some 247 of 366 federally recognized tribes in the lower 48 states have casimagnitude of the separate, though related, trends. nos up and running. The remaining tribes for various reasons have decided not The National Indian Gaming Commission, the regulatory agency for the nato get into the business, most likely because their rural, if not remote, reservation’s 28-state tribal gambling industry, audited 425 casinos in 2012, reporting tions can’t generate the market. gross revenue of $7.9 billion. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act generally limits casinos to tribes under That is six more tribal casinos than there were in 2009, according to NIGC’s federal recognition when the law was passed in 1988. figures. But IGRA’s prohibition exempts tribes seeking lands for casinos off their Further, there was an increase of 20 casinos over the 405 operations audited reservations if they show the project “benefits” the tribe and is not “detrimental” in 2008. That averages out to five new casinos a year, nationwide. to the local community. Not much of a growth spurt. What is regarded as the “two-part determination” exemption in Section 20 Unfortunately, when it comes to politics, perception is reality. And the poster of IGRA also requires approval from the governor of the state in which the tribe child for false perceptions of Indian gambling might be Democratic Senator Diis located. anne Feinstein of California, who last year reintroduced legislation to halt “reserOnly a handful of tribes have used the two-part determination process to acvation shopping.” quire new land for casinos. In a fit of hyperbole, Feinstein got up on the floor of the Senate and proThe little growth that is occurring in Indian gambling is not being generated nounced, “More than 100 new Las Vegas-style casinos have opened in the state by tribes opening new casinos off their existing reservation. It’s not “off-reservain the last 12 years.” tion” gambling. Rather, the growth is due to additional IGRA exemptions for: The remark left more than a few scratching their heads. California has 59 • land claims by tribes that lost reservation lands for various reasons; tribes operating 60 casinos. • newly recognized tribes seeking initial reservations; and, When Proposition 1A was approved by California voters in 1999, allowing • restored tribes once terminated by the federal government. tribes to operate casinos on trust lands, 61 tribes signed regulatory agreements These “equal footing” exemptions do not fall into the two-part determinawith the state. That figure has grown by 10 in the last 13 years. tion and do not require a governor’s approval. To say Feinstein was a bit off the mark in her math is an understatement. There are currently 21 applications with the U.S. Department of the InteShe got an “F.” rior seeking trust lands for casinos. Many of the applications have been languishBut the point was made: Look out, Indian casinos are coming. ing for years, if not decades. Contrary to protestations by Feinstein and others, there has been little in the Ten of the applications fall into the category of “off-reservation” casinos. way of growth in the Indian gambling industry. Four tribes are seeking trust land contiguous to their reservations and five appliYet the controversy over off-reservation gambling is having devastating concations are newly restored tribes. There is also one initial reservation and one sequences for tribes. land claim. It has blocked congressional efforts to remedy Carcieri v. Salazar, a 2009 The list doesn’t forecast much in the way of growth.
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Off-reservation gambling perceptions creating havoc for Indian tribes
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Global Gaming Business OCTOBER 2013