A panel at the Library of Congress last week explored the positive and negative aspects of the $16 billion Indian gaming industry.

Christopher Karnes, a member of the Tuscarora Nation of New York and a lawyer for tribes, criticized states for trying to take casino revenues. "States are trying to balance their budgets on the backs of Indian tribes," he said.

Victoria Wright, deputy executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association, said gaming has been a success but that people wrongly assume all Native Americans are rich. "Twenty years of economic development through tribal government gaming is not going to cure hundreds of years of poverty and all the other ills and bad things that have happened to our people," she said.

Get the Story:
Indian gaming supporters voice concern over image, revenue (The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 11/23)
Impact of growing Indian gaming industry debated (Indianz.Com 11/19)