Native America Calling: Tribes challenge states on remaining roadblocks to gaming

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Native America Calling: Tribes challenge states on remaining roadblocks to gaming

Thursday, April 17, 2025

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Tribes challenge states on remaining roadblocks to gaming

The state of Alaska is actively working to shut down a gaming hall just opened by the Native Village of Eklutna.

The Chin’an Gaming Hall is doing a brisk business with pulltabs and 85 bingo machines in an unassuming building just outside of Anchorage. But state officials maintain the operation is illegal because the tribe does not control the land it is on.

Elsewhere, in Maine, tribes are also working against state resistance to expand gaming. They face a regulatory reality that is different from tribes in other states because of legislation in 1980 limiting Maine’s tribes’ gaming enterprise ability.

Guests on Native America Calling

Aaron Leggett (Dena’ina Athabascan), president of the Native Village of Eklutna, a federally-recognized tribe in Alaska

Aaron Dana (Passamaquoddy), Passamaquoddy Tribal Representative in the Maine Legislature

Chez Oxendine (Lumbee), staff writer for Tribal Business News