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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2002

"Gee, here's a real shocker.

It turns out a government program to help American-Indian tribes become more self-sufficient by allowing them to run casino gambling operations on their reservations is a failure, a fraud, a joke, a scandal. Imagine that!

In theory, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 was supposed to raise Indians up from poverty, wean them off government handouts and teach them how to run their own businesses. In fact, what we created, says Time's special report, "Wheel of Misfortune," is a craps table of chaos, unfairness, greed and abuse.

Very few Indians - there are 1.8 million of them, 85 percent still living on or near reservations - have benefited from the $12.7 billion-a-year Indian casino industry on tribal lands, says Time. Most of that gambling revenue goes to a small number of now very rich tribes and to the non-Indian big-bucks investors who bankrolled or manage their casinos."

Get the Story:
Bill Stiegerwald: Corruption of Indian casinos no surprise (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 12/12)

Related Stories:
Transcript and Poll: Indian Gaming (12/11)
TIME runs Indian gaming feature (12/9)