Gambling and Native American Tribes — The Best Online Casino Guru - TheBestCasinoGuide.com

One of the more unique aspects of casino gambling is the involvement of Native American Tribal Groups in the gambling industry. The rights of Native American Tribes to build and own casinos on their lands* grew out of a state tax case in Minnesota. The original case on which the ruling was based involved Russell and Helen Bryan, a Chippewa husband and wife from Itasca County, Minnesota. In the early 1970’s the Bryan’s received a property tax bill and they decided to fight. After losing the case all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, they finally won the case when the Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Not only did the Justices of the Supreme Court rule that states could not tax Native Americans on their own lands but they also ruled that the states did not have the authority to regulate any activities on Native American Lands. This ruling gave Tribal leaders the encouragement they needed to take the first steps to develop a Native American Casino industry.

One of the earliest tests of the rights of Native Americans to permit legal gambling on their lands took place in Broward County, Florida and involved the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Under the leadership of Howard Tommie, the tribe built a high stakes bingo hall on their lands near Fort Laurderdale, Florida. The bingo hall was to be open six days a week instead of 2 days a week as permitted by state law. In addition, the jackpots were above the $100 maximum allowed under Florida law. When the bingo hall opened, the Sheriff of Broward County made immediate arrests. The tribe sued (Seminole Tribe v. Butterworth) the county, claiming their rights were protected by Federal law over the state’s right to intervene. The court ruled in the Seminoles favor and the first battle for the rights of Native American tribes to legally own and operate gambling establishments ended in a victory for the Seminole Tribe.

The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, near Indio, California was among the poorest of Native American Tribes. They lost most of their land due to the fact that the treaties they signed in the 1850’s were not enforced and most of their land had been taken from them. To quote Stuart Banner "The Cabazon Band and the neighboring Morongo Reservation had some HUD buildings and a few trailers, but that was about it. There was nothing really there. The people simply didn’t have a lot." In 1980, The Cabazon Band decided that their best chance at recovery lay in gambling and opened a bingo hall and a poker room. The Indio police and the Riverside County Sheriff proceeded to close the bingo hall and the poker room. They then arrested many Cabazon Tribe members while seizing all the cash and merchandise they could find on the Tribe’s lands. The Cabazon Band took the case to federal court (California v. Cabazon) and won. The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme court by the losing California Authorities and once again, the Supreme Court upheld Native American Tribal sovereignty.

After these two landmark cases as well as other legal victories for Native American owned gambling on Native American Lands, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. This law established the terms under which Native American Tribes could own casinos and other gambling establishments on their Lands as well as setting up a system of supervision, law enforcement and taxation. Since the bills passage into law, Native American Gambling revenues have grown from in $100 million in 1988 to $16.7 billion in 2006.

Today there are over 400 casinos owned in the United States by about 220 Native American Tribes. More than 25 states now have legal Native American Tribal gambling. During the long struggles of the Native Americans in the United States there has been a sad history of poverty, unemployment, welfare dependency, school dropout and alcoholism. Life for most Native Americans living on their own lands has been a bleak and harsh existence. The sudden influx of a massive increase of revenues to the Tribal Groups that own Gambling establishments has brought some measure of benefit to the Tribes but there still remains much to be done before these problems are eliminated. Certainly gambling has been one of the most effective ways to bring a major increase of capitol to the Tribes but it has by no means been a cure all.

Much of the benefit is dependent on other factors. Among these are the percentage of non tribal, outside workers that are employed to work in the Native American owned casinos. It is incumbent on tribal leaders to make every effort to train members of their own tribe to work in the casinos instead of taking the easy way out and hiring outside workers. Sadly, the overwhelming majority of workers in Native American casinos are, at this time, outsiders who are not part of the tribal group. The same can be said about the non-native corporations that run many of the tribal owned casinos. It is hoped that as time passes, the tribal groups will slowly begin to gain the experience needed to staff and run their own casinos and thus, bring a larger share of the income from the casinos to the tribes.

Opponents of Native American owned casinos have raised the claim of unfairness as their rallying cry. They claim that the Native Tribes are being given an unfair advantage over non tribal casinos. One case that is particularly infuriating to opponents of Tribal owned casinos is that of the world’s largest casino, Foxwoods. The state of Connecticut cut a deal in 1991 with Foxwoods Casino and the Mohegan Sun Casino. In the deal, the state received 1/4 of the gross revenues from slot machines in exchange for legalizing slot machines exclusively for Foxwoods and the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut. In addition, the Native American Tribes involved withdrew their land claims against the state. Opponents feel this was a sweet heart deal that gave the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun an illegal monopoly. In addition, those who are opposed to legal gambling in all forms, feel that deals like this and the right of tribes in general to own their own casinos, prevents the states from having the right to ban gambling.

While arguments go on and laws are written and revised, one thing is certain. The Native Tribes have been granted the right of sovereignty by the U.S. Supreme Court and many tribes have embraced casino gambling with open arms. Despite the problems that still need to be resolved, the vast majority of these tribes feel strongly that legal casino gambling on their native lands is their best hope for a brighter financial future for their people. Hopefully, this will remain the case and over time, with proper supervision and clearly defined goals, the tribes will grow and prosper due to the benefits they receive from Tribal owned gambling.

*Called Reservations which the author feels is a racist term so we will use lands to refer to Native American owned territories within the United States for this article.