George Skibine, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, spoke at the Southern Gaming Summit on Wednesday.

Skibine, who heads the Office of Indian Gaming Management, said the BIA considers local input when making land-into-trust decisions. "We're looking at the local government to tell us if that is detrimental to their community,' he said, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.

He said it will be harder for tribes to open casinos away from reservation as long as Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is around. "If you are a tribe interested in off-reservation gaming, the forecast is gloomy and bleak," he said, The Mobile Press-Register reported. "There is a changing climate here at Interior."

Skibine has been leading the effort to create regulations that govern how land is taken into trust for gaming purposes. The BIA expects to finalize the rules this summer.

The summit is being held in Biloxi, Mississippi. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians wants to open an off-reservation casino in nearby Jackson County.

Get the Story:
Tribal gaming takes center stage (The Jackson Clarion-Ledger 5/10)
Votes Don't Count (The Mississippi Press 5/10)
Controversial plan would place casino within 50 miles of Mobile (The Mobile Press-Register 5/10)
All eyes at Summit on Barbour today (The Biloxi Sun-Herald 5/10)
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Hall's all alive with the sound of gaming (The Biloxi Sun-Herald 5/10)