Editorial: Gaming has turned tribes into Wal-Mart

Thursday, June 30, 2005  

"Call it the Wal-Mart effect.

Tribal casinos and the entertainment meccas mushrooming around them are redefining what it means to be an Indian tribe in urban America.

The tribes' astonishingly successful industry is beating virtually all revenue expectations, raking in nearly $19 billion nationally last year alone.

For tribal members, those effects are no doubt mostly positive, although the insularity of many tribes has masked much of the improvement in the day-to-day lives of Native American beneficiaries.

But another drawback of that insularity, the unwillingness of some tribes to consider how their gambling empires are affecting the world outside Indian country, soon may threaten the very future of the industry.

They are becoming akin to the travails of retail giant Wal-Mart, whose proliferating megastores are generating a cottage industry of resistance in some communities. Success does not come without its own set of traps and pitfalls."

Get the Story:
Growing pains (The Arizona Republic 6/30)