Opinion: Looking at 25 years of Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

This month marks the 25th anniversary of President Reagan signing IGRA into law, presenting an opportunity to look back at IGRA’s implementation and effects it has had on Indian country.

Positive impacts include unprecedented job creation, increased household incomes and revenues to tribal governments and surrounding communities, a stable and mature Indian gaming sector, broad and deep investment by non-Indian gaming interests in Indian gaming, and newfound political influence in state capitals and Washington, D.C.

On the negative side, the sheer amount of money involved has attracted some bad and unscrupulous actors (like Team Abramoff), and created gaming-related conflicts between tribes manifested in lawsuits, state referenda, congressional lobbying and well-funded public relations campaigns.

Once IGRA was signed into law, Indian tribes set about the business of establishing tribal gaming ordinances and other legal and regulatory infrastructure to create favorable business climates for investors and developers. In relatively short order, these efforts paid off: in 1993, there were about 100 class III gaming facilities operating on the Indian lands of 91 tribes, generating $6 billion in revenues. By 2013, there were 420 facilities on the Indian lands of 240 tribes, generating $27.9 billion in revenues.