Gaming and Gambling (L32)

1
Gaming and Gambling (L32)

• Dr. Anton Treuer
• Bemidji State University

2
Traditional Games

• Lacrosse for wager, dispute resolution,
  Pontiacs War
• Moccasin game
• Foot races
• Bagese
• Typically gendered games

3
Sovereignty Recap

• Constitution Only Congress shall
• Domestic Dependent Nation (Marshall Trilogy)
• Plenary Power Doctrine
• Public Law 280 limited civil and total criminal
  jurisdiction on Indian land to some states

4
Bryan v. Itasca County, 1976

• State cannot tax their motor home
• Affirmed tribal sovereignty
• Clarified limits to state authority over Indians
  on Indian land

5
Florida Seminole

• Violated state gaming law 2x per week, 100
  jackpots, charitable purposes only (church bingo)
• Sheriff Butterworth came to shut them down, 1981
• Tribe file for an injunction, appealed through
  the circuit court

6
Seminole Tribe v. Robert Butterworth, 1981

• Tribes are sovereign
• Gaming is a matter of tribal law on reservations
• States cannot control tribal law or practice
• Still a question about PL 280

7
California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians,
1987

• State cannot ban tribal gaming when it allowed
  gaming elsewhere in the state
• Sovereignty affirmed
• Within 2 years, every tribe in Minnesota had high
  stakes bingo or casino operation

8
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 1989

• Clarified that PL 280 could not empower states to
  stop tribal casinos
• Required states and tribes to sign compacts
• Did not empower states to refuse to sign compacts
  to press for terms

9
Economic Impact

• Wide variation in impact
• Unemployment rates dropped from 50 to 20 in
  Leech Lake and many other areas (still twice the
  state average)
• Dakota communities have 250-350 members and large
  communities near the metro
• White Earth has 20,000 enrollees and one casino
  in a rural area

10
Tribal Management of New Resources

• Mille Lacs hospitals, schools, ceremonial dance
  halls, language camps, repurchase land,
  scholarship programs
• Red Lake and others used no outside management
• St. Croix and Mille Lacs had malfeasance issues
  with outside management
• Chip Wadena, and some cases of tribal malfeasance

11
Grand Casino Hinckley
12
Per Capita Payments

• Dakota have eliminated poverty
• But at what price? What effect on education?
• Three Ojibwe reservations now offer small per
  capita payments Mille Lacs, Grand Portage, Fond
  du Lac
• Others considering per caps even if they cannot
  afford them

13
Community Impact

• Gambling addiction
• Source of alcohol in some casino
• Impact on tribal enrollment
• St. Croix, golden parachutes, politician salaries
• Perception in nonnative community is that all
  Indians are rich, negative impact on funding

14
Political Power Resurgent

• Tribal political lobbies in Washington
• Money for language and culture revitalization,
  although promised more than delivered
• Potential is tremendous
• When US has Iran-Contra, Watergate, or other
  scandals nobody question its right to exist
  same logic should apply for tribal government
  when there is a problem sovereignty is paramount

15
Future of Tribal Gaming

• Taxation?
• State competition?
• Taxation?