Tracie Stevens, the chairwoman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, reviews the agency's actions under the Obama administration:
Over the past two and a half years, by working together, tribes and the National Indian Gaming Commission have furthered compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and NIGC regulations throughout Indian Country by implementing the A.C.E. initiative, a three-step approach to regulation of Indian gaming. A.C.E. stands for assistance, compliance and enforcement, in that order. The commission believes that the NIGC’s responsibility as the federal prong of Indian gaming’s three-tiered regulatory structure is, first and foremost, to assist tribes to comply with federal regulations and maintain high levels of security and integrity within their operations. Enforcement actions, though necessary in some circumstances, can be prevented in most cases with proper assistance. Thus, the commission is dedicated to assisting tribes to prevent problems requiring NIGC enforcement action. One of the biggest challenges we faced at first was figuring out how to remedy problems before they became critical. To that end, we developed four priorities to implement the A.C.E. initiative: consultation and relationship building, training and technical assistance, regulatory review, and agency operations review.Get the Story: