Sheila Morago is the executive director of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association.

"As one of many Native Americans in this state working to promote tribal self-sufficiency, I was appalled by the recent articles printed in the Arizona Daily Star about the impacts of Indian gaming in Southern Arizona.

Nationally, Arizona is consistently held up as a model for Indian gaming in terms of our compacts, our regulatory structure and how gaming is fostering economic development among tribes in this state.

While I understand that Indian gaming is a complex topic, in the past reporters and editors have grasped the fundamental facts about our industry. This was not the case for the Star's reporters and editors.

I can only conclude that either the Star did not understand the subject or deliberately misrepresented the facts. Either way, this newspaper has done a disservice to the public, tribal governments and tribal people.

Some problems take more than money to fix — a fact that also escaped the Star. Tribes know that gaming is delivering what it promised, but they also understand that building strong economies and healthy societies takes expertise, experience and, most of all, time."

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Sheila Morago: Indian-gaming official disputes Star's report on tribal difficulties (The Arizona Daily Star 10/22)