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Over the past two decades, gambling has grown exponentially in the United States owing in no small measure to Indian gaming, or the operation of gambling casinos  on Native American  reservations.  By 20 08, a peak  year,  revenues from such  casinos  had  reached nearly  $27  billion,  according to  the  National Indian Gaming Commission. States and local communities throughout the nation continue to debate the merits of tribal casinos. Among  the  issues  raised  are  the  right  of a marginalized population to self-governance and  the  pursuit  of economic revival; the  need of income-starved states for tax revenues and  job  opportunities;  and  the  interest  of the  public  in cur tailing  any  potential  harm from increased access to gaming, such as unregulated gambling, individual "addiction" (pathological gambling), and  criminal activity.

In the  1970s and  1980s, a number of Indian tribes  used their  unique position as sovereign bodies within the  United  States to  push  for the  development of games such  as high-stakes bingo on  tribal  lands.  As the number of proposals increased and as states and surrounding communities began to take a greater interest in these operations, the United States Congress was pressured to act. The resulting Indian Gaming Regulator y Act (IGRA) of 1988 established the  terms  for how Indian tribes  could  run bingo parlors and  casinos,  requiring public  forums to discuss  major issues (such as the building of new casinos) along  with binding contracts setting out how gaming operations are to be  conducted.  Currently, the leading Indian gaming states are California and Oklahoma with, respectively, $7.3 billion and $2.9 billion in revenues generated in 2009.

One particularly interesting factor in the consideration of gambling as a social and moral issue is the rise of Native American gambling as a major industry on Indian land. Indian gambling is defined as gaming (including, but not limited to, casinos) conducted by a federally recognized tribal government and taking place on a federally established reservation or trust property. Although gaming brings in critically needed funds for often impoverished peoples, the total amount accounts for less than a quarter of the gambling industry revenues nationwide each year. A study written in 2005 found that 30 states are home to more than 350 tribal gaming establishments, operated by over 200 tribes that have decided to pursue gaming as a strategy for economic development (Light and Rand 2005).

About one-third of the approximately 560 tribes in the United States recognized by the federal government conduct casino-style gaming on their reservations. In some cases, tribes are located in states that do not allow any form of gambling (notably Utah), but, in other cases, the tribes have resisted gambling as a source of income--the most famous case being the Navajo, undoubtedly noteworthy because of their large population among Indian nations in the United States.

Nearly half of all tribal gaming enterprises earn less than $10 million in annual revenue, and one-quarter earn less than $3 million each year. On the other end of the spectrum, about 40 tribal casinos (or about 1 in 10) take in two-thirds of all Indian gaming revenues.

Before the rise of Indian gaming, the options available to many Indian tribes were quite limited. Often located on land considered useless to other Americans, Indians have traditionally suffered some of the highest unemployment in the United States, and have historically attracted the least economic investment.

While not distributed evenly among all Native Americans in the United States, it is impossible to deny that Indian gaming has initiated dramatic changes for the better for Native American tribal groups throughout the country. According to the 2007 Economic Census, while 13 percent of the total U.S. population fell below poverty level, nearly one- third of Native Americans lived in poverty, with unemployment rates reaching as high as 50 to 80 percent in some cases. But as a direct result of gaming, total Native American unemployment is down, educational opportunities have increased, and economic development in other areas of local investment is occurring. Furthermore, there appears to be relative consensus across available research that Indian gaming generates direct, indirect, and induced economic benefits for state and local communities.

From a Native perspective, tribes are independent nations by treaty rights, and there- fore there is already a high level of compromise with state governments, which have significantly benefited from profit-sharing arrangements. In Native terms, reservation lands are to be seen in the same way as the federal government recognizes a foreign country, and there ought to be no more resentment, interference, or taxation imposed on them--any more than the United States would expect to impose taxes or rules, for example, on Canada or Mexico, if either country should build a casino near the U.S. border. From many federal and state governmental perspectives, however, there is a limit to tribal sovereignty, and, thus, modern arrangements worked out between tribal and state governments on revenue sharing already represent a significant compromise between the two historically different perspectives on the meaning of tribal sovereignty.

A number of issues have been raised, particularly by Native gaming, that have further complicated this special aspect of the overall issue of gambling. First, the success of many Indian gaming establishments has lent new urgency to those Indian groups seeking federal recognition. However, even though many of these groups have struggled for federal recognition for decades, there is a new pressure on the federal government to impose limits on such recognition because of the widely held belief that gambling opportunities are what is really behind groups seeking federal recognition. There are well over 250 Native groups seeking tribal recognition in the United States.

Second, tribal groups have sought to expand their land claims and work in partnership with outside gambling industry investors to increase their development. Why the Native developers are blamed for this, as opposed to the non-Native investors and industries that are investing in their projects, however, is often hard to determine--other than viewing it from the perspective of long-term prejudices and racism.

Third, Native economic development has resulted in new political clout. Once again, however, heavy investment in the political process by interested parties that include defense contractors, agricultural interests, and oil and automotive companies do not often raise the same concerns--and one can argue that Native Americans are simply exercising their economic power as others have done for a long time.

References:

Barker, Thomas, and Marjie Britz, Jokers Wild: Legalized Gambling in the Twenty-First Century. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.

Castellani, Brian, Pathological Gambling:  The Making of a Medical Problem. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.

Clotfelter, Charles T., and Philip J. Cook, Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Collins, Peter, Gambling and the Public Interest. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.

Dickerson, Mark, and John O'Conner, Gambling as an Addictive Behaviour: Impaired Control, Harm Minimisation, Treatment and Prevention. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Hansen, Alicia, Lotteries and State Fiscal Policy. Background Paper 46. Washington, DC: Tax Foundation, 2004.

Light, Steven Andrew, and Kathryn R. L. Rand, Indian Gaming and Tribal Sovereignty. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.

McGowan, Richard A., The Gambling  Debate. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.

Morse, Edward A., and Ernest P. Goss, Governing Fortune: Casino Gambling in America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007.

Mullis, Angela, and David Kamper, eds., Indian Gaming: Who Wins? Los Angeles: UCLA Indian Studies Center, 2000.

National Gambling Impact Study Commission, http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/

North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, http://www.naspl.org/

Pasquaretta, Paul, Gambling and Survival in Native North America. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003.

Pierce, Patrick Ann, Gambling Politics: State Government and the Business of Betting. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004.

Reith, Gerda, The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

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