Roy Burton: Montana tribe puts its people at risk with gaming

Only 15 percent of the tribal casinos generate 85 percent of tribal gaming revenues. These casinos are generally coastal high density population areas. If not coastal they are located near interior large population areas. This means the rest (85 percent) of tribal casinos share only 15 percent of the total revenues generated in all tribal casinos. For example, Spokane casinos have a greater population in a 50 mile radius around their casinos than the entire population of Montana; plus, Spokane is a major business hub of the interior northwest.

Of those casinos that are of the lower income ones the main pro is that they do generate some low income jobs on reservations that have high unemployment. However, most are minimum wage jobs without any employee benefits (annual, sick or holiday leave or retirement). Most of those tribes do not see any significant income for their tribal government.

When the Indian Gaming Act was passed it defined what could be classed as Class II games. It excluded electronic gaming machines but included bingo and similar types of gambling. Someone discovered a gray area and companies like Rocket developed an electronic gaming machine that also included a bingo top prize. This requires those tribes using it to enter into an agreement with the electronic company and their machines in order to have bingo on their machines and sneak around the Indian Gaming Acts definitions. There is and has been steady attempts to declare those machines illegal under the acts definitions, and will continue to be. Those challenges won’t go away. If those machines are eventually declared illegal, Class II gaming as we know it will no longer exist.