"The Indian Gaming Commission should rethink its proposal to reclassify electronic bingo machines such as those used at the Ohiya Casino on the Santee Sioux Reservation in northeast Nebraska.

The proposed move by the commission would make the machines illegal.

Considering the tribe’s long battle to establish the casino against the combined might of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and state government, the commission’s proposal hardly seems fair. The casino offers one of the few viable sources of income on the reservation. Before the small gambling parlor opened, unemployment on the reservation was about 75 percent.

The Santee fought with state and federal authorities for eight years before switching to the bingo machines in 2000. While other tribes were successful in negotiating compacts with state governments to operate casinos, Nebraska officials have refused.

That leaves the Santee with bingo machines as their one legal option. Taking the machines away after all this strife, and denying the tribe this measure of sovereignty, just isn’t fair. It will choke off a desperately needed source of income for the Santee. The commission is going too far. It should drop its reclassification proposal."

Get the Story:
Editorial: New rule on tribal casinos goes too far (The Lincoln Journal Star 12/19)