"News from federal regulators that American Indian casino revenues rose 3 percent in 2011 pointed out once again that despite the “myth of the rich Indian” fueled by tribal government gambling, profits are far from evenly distributed among the 246 tribes with casinos.

Tribes generated $27.2 billion in gross gambling revenues in 2011, according to audits of 421 tribal casinos by the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).

The revenue figure was up from $26.5 billion in 2010 and topped the previous annual record set in 2008, when tribal casinos won $26.7 billion.

“Overall Indian gaming revenues stabilized over the previous two years and the revenue growth in 2011 marked the first increase for the industry since 2008,” the NIGC said in a statement published on its website.

But the figures also point out that a few dozen casinos near lucrative metropolitan U.S. markets are generating a bulk of the revenues."

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Dave Palermo: Myth of the rich Indian is just that: a myth (Pechanga.net 8/21)