NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION

CHAIR’S NOTICE – Chairman E. Sequoyah Simermeyer

Visit www.NIGC.gov to learn more about the NIGC 3 For 35 Project— a 

year-long project emphasizing the importance of conversations among 

the tribal gaming regulatory community about workforce preparedness.

Date: 18 October, 2022

RE: Importance of IGRA

Monday, October 17, marked a noteworthy anniversary for Indian 

gaming. 34 years ago Federal lawmakers enacted the Indian Gaming 

Regulatory Act, the federal regulatory framework governing 

Indian gaming today. The law’s three decades of implementation 

show how critical tribal leaders’ engagement with federal 

lawmakers and courts were to maintaining the powerful tool of 

Indian gaming prior to its enactment.

Many years of policy discussions beyond the topic of gaming 

preceded IGRA at the federal and local levels. These 

discussions considered the overwhelming need for tribal 

economies’ sustainability and reflected the moral and legal 

obligation for the federal government to cultivate tribal 

governments. The IGRA’s objectives should be understood in light 

of these policy discussions.

The law’s objectives include support for tribal regulatory 

capacity, the protection of Indian gaming’s industry integrity, 

and economic resilience in Indian country. In many ways, the 

IGRA was a response to the Supreme Court’s 1987 affirmation of 

tribal governments’ authority to operate and govern gaming on 

Indian land, free from state regulation. The 1988 law responded 

in part to non-tribal objections to this ruling with an 

extensive and unique system of oversight. This oversight remains 

in place as the Indian gaming industry has grown to a nearly $40 

billion per year industry, made up of 248 tribes who license 

over 500 gaming operations on Indian land in 29 states.

Indian gaming’s oversight system is unique in the global gaming 

industry. Under the IGRA:

 Tribal governments must expend revenue for statutorily 

mandated purposes only. 

 Indian gaming includes the gaming industry’s only federal 

gaming regulatory body.

 Indian gaming remains a governmental enterprise whose

primary beneficiaries are the tribe and its citizens.
NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION

CHAIR’S NOTICE – Chairman E. Sequoyah Simermeyer

Visit www.NIGC.gov to learn more about the NIGC 3 For 35 Project— a 

year-long project emphasizing the importance of conversations among 

the tribal gaming regulatory community about workforce preparedness.

While attending the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada 

earlier this month I had the opportunity to hear a distinguished 

panel of Indian country leaders. Among them was the Honorable 

Ben Campbell— the only surviving original co-sponsor of H.R. 

2507, a legislative proposal that led to the Indian Gaming 

Regulatory Act.

A talented federal lawmaker in both houses and a Native American 

role model for servant leadership and tenacious advocacy, I am 

grateful Senator Campbell was part of the critical discussions 

during IGRA’s formation. His hard work helped to establish a 

framework under the circumstances of the day that tribes are 

leveraging now to protect future generations of Native 

communities.

The NIGC owes its mission as a federal regulatory agency to the 

IGRA and the many federal lawmakers and tribal leaders who 

engaged with one another to shape this consequential law.

###