While the prospect of the national expansion of legalized sports betting has many states’ gambling operators seeing dollar signs, Indian gaming leaders said Monday the upside might not be worth the risk for tribal casinos.
The Native American officials, celebrating 30 years since the enactment of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) brought legalized gambling to sovereign tribal nations, met for the Tribal Leadership Roundup panel discussion on the first day of the 18th annual Global Gaming Expo at the Sands Expo.
With an estimated 26,000 in attendance, the gathering continues through Thursday.
Under Indian gaming authority Victor Rocha’s moderation, the panelists spent little time reminiscing about the long, complex path to prosperity under IGRA in favor of a thorough discussion of the complexities and possibilities of adding sports betting to the gambling options currently available at tribal casinos – all of which operate under dramatically different state compacts.
At Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resorts Casino, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Chairman Rodney Butler said he received a phone call from Governor Dan Malloy’s office in May, immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). The law had effectively limited legalized game sports betting to Nevada.
Months later, everyone is still talking.
The Pequot tribe has come a long way since 1986, when even optimists thought its members were kidding themselves by dreaming of turning swampland and forest into a super-sized bingo parlor, a plan that rapidly evolved into the record-setting Foxwoods.
Butler called for caution before embracing sports betting, reminding those present that despite all the hype, gambling on games remains only one of many options.
“There’s not a casino in Vegas that was built on sports betting,” he said. “It’s a great amenity.”
The Mashantucket Pequot have an exclusivity other tribes don’t enjoy. In California, Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians Chairman Mark Macarro called for caution, out of a concern that competing tribes — already under mounting political pressure from outside forces seeking to gain control of lucrative legalized gambling — might regret reopening their state compacts in an attempt to add sports betting.
Macarro also noted that investing in brick-and-mortar infrastructure at a time when sports betting’s technology is rapidly changing may prove more costly than profitable for tribal operators.
He accused California gaming regulators of not being strict enough at enforcing the rules governing the state’s 70 active card rooms.
He also warned that some powerful interests in the state would like nothing better than to enter the gaming market.
“We know that’s out there,” he said. “There’s an undercurrent out there” that wonders aloud why the tribes should have a monopoly.
In Minnesota, tribal casino gambling has been an economic boon, but one that increasingly puts stress on the state compact, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin told the audience. As ever, politics plays a role, despite the existence of legal agreements made with the state in 2017 that approved the use of proceeds from “electronic pulltabs,” which closely resemble slot machines, to help service the debt on U.S. Bank Stadium, home to the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
After slow going initially, the pulltabs have become so popular that the state was expected to bring in more than $250 million by the end of the fiscal year in June, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
But Benjamin said that, in a political atmosphere, it was important for the tribes to decide what constituted an important and real long-term threat to their gaming facilities. She said they are monitoring developments in the mid-term elections.
“We’ll at least have a seat at the table,” she predicted.
National Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. said there was much to celebrate three decades after IGRA’s enactment. The trust that the then-up-and-coming members placed in the wisdom of tribal leaders has been rewarded beyond most predictions.
And, he quipped, Monday was also a celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day throughout much of the United States.
He reminded those in attendance that Indian gaming boosts the economy both on and off tribal land, that it directly employs 300,000, and that it indirectly keeps another 700,000 working.
Stevens also made a point of noting that, in addition to casino gambling, tribal governments looking to diversify their holdings have developed 48 percent of the hotel rooms in Minneapolis.
“That’s progressive,” he said, adding that tribal officials have emerged as industry leaders who must be politically active and business savvy while maintaining their traditions.
“We need to hold our ground,” Stevens said.
Contact John L. Smith at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.
