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| Not just for gamblers: Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut is pushing to become a Vegas-style destination for tourists nationally. Bob Child/AP/file |
As gaming grows, many tribes get left behind
A casino plan in Massachusetts is pushing two Connecticut tribes to expand their gambling operations.
from the November 1, 2007 edition
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"What we're seeing now is convergence between the commercial gaming industry and the tribal government casino industry," says David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
In the US, about 200 tribes operate approximately 390 casinos, but the difference in income can be immense. In Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, at least 28 tribes operate 85 casinos, accounting for 8 percent of the more than $25 billion in total Indian gaming revenue last year. By contrast, Connecticut's two Indian casinos earned nearly that much in slot-machine revenues alone. Overall, just 16 percent of Indian casinos generated over 71 percent of the total tribal gambling revenue in 2006.
Gambling revenue "is not equally divided up over all of Indian country; it's market driven," says Mr. Hogen of the National Indian Gaming Commission. "If you're next to San Diego, or Boston, or Minneapolis, you're going to do a whole lot better than if you're out in the desert or the Badlands."
Most Indian casinos provide only enough revenue for basic services for their tribal members. In southern Arizona, gambling has allowed the Tohono O'odham tribe to buy fire trucks and garbage trucks but not accrue any considerable wealth.
"The flash and the neon of the few that have really succeeded can be very misleading," says Stephen Hart, a lawyer in Phoenix who represents many tribal gaming commissions .
Some native Americans criticize wealthy tribes for not boosting their outreach programs to economically disadvantaged tribes.
"Why aren't they doing something to help some of the poorer tribes?" asks Tim Giago, former editor and publisher of Indian Country Today and a syndicated columnist. "We have some tribes that are so wealthy they don't know what to do with their money, and we have some that are the poorest people in America."
Foxwoods and other successful tribal gambling resorts are starting to provide loans to some tiny operations. For example: The Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota, with a successful casino near Minneapolis, loaned money to the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota to expand their Prairie Wind Casino to prepare for more competition. The result: The tribe this year converted its gaming area from a circus tent to a brick-and-mortar facility with adjoining hotel.
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