"All over the US, Indian tribes are running casinos, funding their tribal governments and turning what was once a country of puritan non-gamblers into a nation of punters.

Native American tribes have the same roles and responsibilities as state governments. They run local police forces, courts, schools and hospitals, and build local roads. As "sovereign nations", other governments have very limited powers over them and it means that gambling is partly self-regulated.

Until gambling, most tribes, because of their isolation, had a narrow base for raising revenue. But in 1987 the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians won a Supreme Court case against the state of California, which had claimed the tribe's bingo hall was illegal under state law. The Supreme Court upheld the right to run gambling enterprises and a year later the federal government passed a law regulating gambling on Indian land.

Once restricted to Nevada and Atlantic City, casinos started to spread to other states. There are now 225 Indian tribes in 28 states running everything from bingo games to luxury casino resorts. Last year Indian gambling brought in $US25.7 billion. That's not how much people gambled in Indian casinos, but how much was left after the casinos paid out winnings to gamblers. (By comparison, Las Vegas brought in $US6.5 billion.)

Out of that money, they paid their costs and taxes to state governments. No one has a firm idea about net profit - there is no requirement for public disclosure - but it's safe to say that Indian tribes earn billions from casinos."

Get the Story:
How blackjack saved the tribe (The Sydney Morning Herald 7/14)