States are now trying to renege on a deal they proposed and accepted when Congress passed IGRA in 1988 by unjustly and wrongly asserting that IGRA violates the 10th and 11th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. To the contrary, the Supreme Court's Cabazon decision was a clear recognition of the right of Indian tribes to regulate gaming on their lands free of state laws if the state permitted those activities outside the reservation. Indian gaming creates jobs, increases economic activity and generates tax revenue both on and off the reservation. Tribes have spent millions of dollars for construction. In addition, they spend many more millions per year for goods and services - almost all locally.
Many reservations are in remote, inconvenient locations on land that nobody else wanted.
Before tribal gaming, there had been little successful public or private sector economic development on reservations. The states have not proposed any specific or credible alternatives to Indian gaming as a meaningful source of tribal revenues and jobs. However, tribal governments are using the gaming proceeds to diversify and conduct other economic enterprises.