"The house of cards built by Congress that developed into the $19.4-billion-a-year tribal casino industry has been wobbling in the nation’s political wind for years and is now closer than ever to toppling.

Legal loopholes and regulatory shortcomings have long been evident in the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that empowered the nation’s mostly impoverished tribes to offer legalized gambling on their reservation lands.

The act was a hasty response by Congress to a 1987 Supreme Court ruling that flung open the door to tribal gambling.

The act, however, is an unfortunate hash of compromises that divvied up regulatory authority among tribes, the states and several agencies of the federal government."

Get the Story:
Rick Alm: Tribal gambling law may be in for a makeover (The Kansas City Star 10/4)
p1