Since fiscal year 1995, revenue from Indian gaming has grown from $8.2 billion to $27.9 billion in fiscal year 2012 (see fig. 1). In fiscal year 2012, about 240 of the 566 federally recognized tribes operated more than 420 Indian gaming establishments across 28 states. These establishments included a broad range of operations, from tribal bingo to multimillion dollar casino gaming facilities. Of these establishments, a few large operations account for a major portion of the revenue. IGRA is the primary federal statute governing Indian gaming.provides, among other things, a statutory basis for the regulation of Indian gaming to shield it from corrupting influences, assure that gaming is conducted fairly and honestly by both the operators and the players, and ensure that tribes are the primary beneficiaries of gaming operations. The act establishes the following three classes of gaming. Class I gaming consists of social gaming solely for nominal prizes or traditional gaming played in connection with tribal ceremonies or celebrations and is regulated solely by tribes and not subject to IGRA. Class II gaming includes bingo, pull-tabs, punch boards, and certain and is regulated by the tribes and the Commission. Class III gaming includes all other forms of gaming, including casino games and slot machines, and although both Interior and the Commission play a role in overseeing certain aspects of Class III gaming, it is regulated by the tribes and the states pursuant to compacts. A tribe may only conduct Class III gaming activities if such activities are conducted in conformance with a compact, among other things. According to the relevant Senate committee report, IGRA was intended to provide a means by which tribal and state governments can realize their unique and individual governmental objectives. The Senate committee report also noted that the terms of each compact may vary extensively and may allocate most or all of the jurisdictional responsibility to the tribe, to the state, or to any variation in between.negotiated agreements that establish the states’ and tribes’ regulatory roles and specify the games that are allowed, among other things. IGRA specifies that compacts may include provisions related to the application of criminal and civil laws and regulations of the tribe and the state that are directly related to and necessary for the licensing and regulation of gaming, the allocation of civil and criminal jurisdiction between the tribe and the state necessary to enforce those laws and regulations, state assessments of gaming activities as necessary to defray costs of regulating gaming, tribal taxation of gaming activities, remedies for breach of contract, standards for gaming activity operations and gaming facility maintenance, and any other subjects directly related to the operation of gaming activities. IGRA authorizes the Secretary to approve compacts and only allows the Secretary to disapprove a compact if it violates IGRA, any other federal law that does not relate to jurisdiction over gaming on Indian lands, or the trust obligation of the United States to Indians. Compacts only go into effect when a Notice of Approval from the Secretary has been published in the Federal Register. Class II and Class III gaming may only be conducted on Indian lands in states that permit such gaming. Indian lands, as defined in IGRA, are (1) all lands within the limits of an Indian reservation; (2) lands held in trust by the United States for the benefit of an Indian tribe or individual over which the tribe exercises governmental power; and (3) lands held by an Indian tribe or individual that are subject to restriction against alienation and over which the tribe exercises governmental power. Interior has a multistep review process that helps to ensure that compacts comply with relevant IGRA provisions and other applicable laws. While compacts approved by Interior share similar provisions, they do vary in some respects, such as the terms of “revenue sharing” arrangements between states and tribes and the extent to which the compact addresses tribal interactions with local governments. Interior cited a variety of reasons for allowing compacts to take effect without Secretarial action (deemed approved) and for disapproving compacts. Interior’s Office of Indian Gaming, under the supervision of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Policy and Economic Development, is responsible for reviewing compacts. According to Office of Indian Gaming officials, on the day that a compact is received, the Office of Indian Gaming date-stamps the compact and files the original version. The Office of Indian Gaming has 10 days to conduct an initial review of the compact. During this time, they will contact the applicant tribe or state if any additional information is needed. After this initial review, the Office of Indian Gaming sends a copy of the compact to Interior’s Office of the Solicitor to conduct a legal review of the compact. The Office of the Solicitor has 10 days to review the compact. After the Office of the Solicitor’s review is complete, the Office of Indian Gaming provides a copy of the compact and a summary of relevant information to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, who has 45 days to approve or disapprove the compact. Under IGRA, if a compact is not approved or disapproved within 45 days of its submission, then the compact is considered to have been approved (referred to as “deemed approved”), but only to the extent that it is consistent with IGRA. On June 18, 2014, the Office of Indian Gaming provided us with a list of compacts that were approved, deemed approved, disapproved, or withdrawn each year from 1998 to the present. We are in the process of verifying the accuracy of this list. Based on our preliminary analysis of this list of compacts, the Secretary received a total of 490 compacts during this time period to review. Of these, 78 percent (382) were approved; 12 percent (60) were deemed approved; 6 percent (28) were withdrawn; and 4 percent (18) were disapproved. The number of compacts submitted varied from year to year, from a high of 66 in 1999 to a low of 8 in 2006. The compacts approved by Interior share similar provisions but vary in some respects. For example, while IGRA does not authorize states to impose a tax or fee on tribes, apart from the assessment to defray regulatory costs, the Secretary has approved compacts that contain provisions for revenue sharing with states, so long as the states provide the tribe with a comparable benefit in return—a benefit to which the tribe would not otherwise be entitled. The amount of revenue sharing varied widely in the compacts we reviewed. Some compacts do not provide for revenue sharing, such as the 1991 compact between the Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and the state of Minnesota, or the 2011 compact between the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the state of South Dakota. In contrast, some compacts require the tribe to share significant portions of revenue with the state. For example, the 2010 compact between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the state of Florida establishes percentages of net revenue that the tribe must give to the state—as much as 25 percent—based on how much revenue the tribe makes each year. Approved compacts had provisions that varied in other ways, such as the extent to which the compacts require the tribe to enter into agreements with local governments. For example, the 2003 compact between the La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians and the state of California requires the tribe to consult with the county and other relevant local governments to develop agreements to prevent and mitigate effects from any proposed gaming facility. Some compacts make no mention of agreements with local governments. Compacts that are not approved or disapproved within 45 days are deemed approved, but only to the extent that they comply with IGRA. According to Federal Register notices or decision letters that accompany the compacts, Interior might not take action on a compact within the statutory deadline for a variety of reasons. Federal Register notices indicate that some compacts take effect without Secretarial action because they only change the expiration date of a previously approved compact and do not require additional review. According to decision letters accompanying other compacts, the compacts were deemed approved because they contained provisions that the Secretary found to be questionable but not outright objectionable. For example, the 2014 compact between the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the state of Massachusetts contained terms that could provide the possibility in the future for the state to regulate certain Class II games, which IGRA does not authorize, and Interior’s letter cautioned the state and tribe against implementing the compact in a way that violated IGRA. Of the disapproved compacts we reviewed, the reasons for disapproval varied. For example, compacts were disapproved because lands proposed to be used for gaming were not Indian lands as defined by IGRA or the compact established a management contract that did not meet the requirements of IGRA. Compacts establish the responsibilities of both tribes and states for regulating Class III gaming and identify the standards for the gaming operation and maintenance of gaming facilities, as well as the state and tribal laws and regulations that will be used to regulate the gaming, among other things. In addition, tribal gaming ordinances, which apply to Class II and Class III gaming, provide the general framework for tribal regulation of gaming facilities. The ordinances include specific procedures that must be followed by tribes and standards that they must meet, among other things. Based on our preliminary observations of ongoing work, we found that the approaches of the three states we have visited to regulating Indian gaming vary, as seen through differences in their regulatory agencies’ organization, staffing levels, and funding. For the seven tribes we have visited, each has established tribal gaming regulatory agencies that govern the day-to-day operations of their gaming facilities. These agencies perform various regulatory functions to help ensure that their gaming facilities are operated in accordance with tribal laws and regulations and, for Class III operations, the compact. The roles of states and tribes in regulating Indian gaming vary and are established in two key documents: (1) compacts for Class III gaming and (2) tribal ordinances for both Class II and Class III gaming.