You can’t say state governments weren’t given ample time to legalize iGaming before the tribes within some of those states started figuring out a way to offer iGaming themselves.
The emergence of Class II mobile gaming on tribal lands is a story with roots going all the way back to the 1988 passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, but mobile gaming wasn’t even a twinkle in Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye’s eye when he introduced the bill that became IGRA.
A few years later, along came the World Wide Web, then the smartphone, and now regulated U.S. online casino gaming is a more-than-$10-billion-a-year industry — to say nothing of the billions generated in countless unregulated channels.
But the gaming tribes have slowly, patiently charted their own path, while all but a handful of state legislatures sat back and did nothing. It’s a story of bingo balls, geolocation, and games that are nearly indistinguishable from many of the slots you can find at any major brand-name iCasino.
