Well, an accelerated growth of the commercial casino industry which, unfortunately for indigenous communities dependent on gambling revenue, has created additional competition for tribal operations. “Tribal casinos have not only whet the appetite of the states, they’ve also made [gambling] more acceptable to their constituents,” said Michele Mitchell, a citizen and general counsel for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe of New York. Illinois, Florida, New York, Kentucky and Minnesota have all recently discussed legislation to permit new or expanded gambling. And Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and Massachusetts have approved commercial casinos. A crackdown on revenue sharing by the U.S. Department of Interior, reinforced by a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Rincon v Schwarzenegger, has diminished the ability of cash-strapped states to extract funds from tribal operations, prompting officials to consider commercial casinos rather than tribal government operations. Even California, the nation’s largest Indian gambling market with nearly $7 billion in annual revenues, may eventually see commercial casinos.Get the Story:
Dave Palermo: Tribes have cleaned up a “sin” industry (Pechanga.net 3/4)
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