Opinion: Catawba Nation entitled to casino in North Carolina

While many officials have fully embraced the job-creating gaming operations of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, some other officials have expressed opposition to the Catawba Indian Nation’s proposal to create another 4,000 gaming-related jobs in Cleveland County. These officials cite a totally unfounded fear that the establishment of a Catawba gaming operation would lead to a dramatic expansion of Indian gaming across the state. To the contrary, Federal law imposes such severe limits on the expansion of Indian gaming that no tribes, other than the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Catawba Indian Nation, are eligible to do so in North Carolina.

In 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which regulates the gaming operations of virtually every tribe in the country (with the Catawba’s being perhaps the lone exception). This act imposes sharp limits on where Indian gaming operations can be established, essentially making it impossible for any tribe, other than the Eastern Band and the Catawbas, to establish gaming operations in North Carolina.