Law Article: The Obama administration and off-reservation gaming

Wednesday, September 8, 2010  

"EARLIER THIS SUMMER, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a June 18, 2010 memorandum from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk detailing the Department’s approach to Indian gaming.1 Though the Secretary’s memorandum addressed decision making on pending applications for Indian gaming on newly acquired trust lands, it revealed much about the Obama administration’s approach to tribal gaming generally. Indeed, the accompanying press release touted the memorandum as the Interior Department’s “Path Forward on Indian Gaming Policy.”

In this essay, we provide some background on the Obama administration’s Indian gaming policy, summarize the Salazar memorandum, and offer our take on what the memorandum signals for the future of Indian gaming—and particularly, for “off-reservation” gaming.

A formal announcement of the Obama administration’s policy on Indian gaming has been long awaited. The outgoing Bush administration had, by most accounts, a spotty record at best on tribal gaming issues. Then-Assistant Secretary Carl Artman’s January 2008 memorandum establishing the “commutable distance” standard for off-reservation landinto- trust applications,2 continued efforts to establish “bright line” regulations for Class II machines,3 and a chronically understaffed National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) marked what many saw as the Bush administration’s failure to meaningfully support both Indian gaming and tribal economic development."

Get the Story:
Kathryn R.L. Rand, and Steven Andrew Light: The Obama Administration’s “Path Forward on Indian Gaming Policy” and What it Signals for “Off-Reservation” Gaming (Gaming Law Review and Economics July/August 2010

Relevant Documents:
Secretary Salazar Memo on Gaming Land Applications | Press Release: Interior Details Path Forward on Indian Gaming Policy