Casinos are bringing unprecedented revenue into tribal coffers that were nearly bare and sorely dependent on federal handouts. Reservations once nearly devoid of economic activity now have jobs and growing businesses. Tribal governments are able to provide their citizens with improved health care and education. But gaming operations also have a price. In some cases, tribal members have found themselves pitted against one another in conflicts about how the money will be used and who will control it.
Allegations persist of misuse, money laundering and clandestine dealings.
From bingo to big time The rise of American Indian gaming began in 1980 with a court ruling in Florida recognizing the inherent sovereign power of the Seminole tribe to run a bingo operation independent of state regulation, said Robert Porter, professor of law and director of the Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of Kansas. In 1988 Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which established a comprehensive system for regulating gambling on American Indian lands and created the National Indian Gaming Commission. Under the act, tribes are allowed to open casinos on their land within any state that allows similar gaming activity, but they are required to negotiate a compact with the state. In Kansas, the state lottery opened the door for tribes to begin lobbying the state to negotiate gaming compacts. The Kickapoo tribe of Kansas was the first to succeed.