NIGC reports 'stable' growth in $28B tribal gaming industry

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Tribal gaming revenues topped $28 billion for the first time in 2013. Source: National Indian Gaming Commission

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Tribal casinos took in $28 billion in revenues in 2013, the National Indian Gaming Commission reported on Monday.

The figure represents just a 0.5 percent gain in revenues from 2012. But NIGC officials said the industry has been growing steadily for the past four years after seeing a slump in 2009 during the national economic recession.

“In 2013, the Indian gaming industry saw the growth of its gross gaming revenues for the fourth consecutive year,” NIGC Vice Chair Jonodev Chaudhuri said in a press release. “This stable, positive trajectory underscores the ongoing significance of Indian gaming to larger tribal nation building and self-determination efforts.”

"Indian Gaming topped $28B for the first time since the passage of IGRA, added NIGC Associate Commissioner Daniel Little, referring to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. "It's a testament to the trust the gaming public has placed on this industry and it reinforces the fact that this industry has the most comprehensive regulatory structure in the business."

Nearly every region in Indian Country saw growth in 2013. Source: NIGC

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Nearly every area of Indian Country saw growth in 2013, according to the NIGC. Tribes in the Oklahoma City region, which includes 60 gaming operations in western Oklahoma and Texas, saw a 3.6 percent boost in revenues, the largest gain.

However, the region did not maintain the same level of growth in 2012, when revenues jumped 5.8 percent. The same was true in five other areas, including Tulsa, where tribes in eastern Oklahoma and Kansas, only saw a 0.9 percent gain in 2013, compared to a whopping 6.6 percent in 2012.

However, tribes in every region were unable to maintain the level of growth they saw in 2012. Source: NIGC

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And in the St. Paul region, which includes tribal casinos in 9 states, revenues fell 1.1 percent in 2013, the NIGC reported. The area had seen 5.1 percent growth in 2012 so the decline appears even more dramatic.