The National Indian Gaming Commission reported tribal gaming revenue of $43.9 billion for fiscal year 2024, reflecting a 4.6%, or $2 billion, increase over $41.9 billion in 2023.
But according to a panel of experts assembled for a CDC Gaming roundtable, there are dangerous headwinds that could disrupt tribal sovereignty and how tribes operate.
Victor Rocha, Conference Chair of the Indian Gaming Association, said that prediction markets, sweepstakes gaming, offshore sites and cryptocurrency are among the issues that tribes have to confront.
“Caution becomes paralysis and paralysis means you are behind,” Rocha said. “Nobody’s waiting for the tribes. Tribes in California are talking about 2028. If sweepstakes gets knocked out by the end of 2025, that’s two years you’re going to have to wait, and nobody’s waiting for them. … I guess the way to frame that is that the technology is moving faster than the tribes and tribal gaming.”
While technology has kept tribal operators striving to keep pace, there are other ways for them to compete. Kelli Weaver, who runs KDW Consulting, says it’s important for tribes to mitigate their weaknesses and emphasize their strengths.
“I look at things like what is the room like,” she says. “The restaurants. How easy is it to get the elevator, the gaming floor, the conference center. What are the amenities? What kind of soap is used, what does the room or air smell like.
For “You look at all these things that go into the hospitality experience and how you bring those smaller tribal properties up to speed, because they’re already struggling with the technology side of it.”
For Raving Consulting CEO Deana Scott, the main issue is existential. She is worried tribes are increasingly being asked to surmount hurdles their commercial brethren don’t have to overcome.
“There have been 105 executive orders that the NIGC (National Indian Gaming Conference) has had to review,” Scott says during the first sixth months of the current administration.
Arguments that sweepstakes are legal are one thing. But will sweepstakes operators be held to the same standards as tribal gaming operators?
“Are they going to play by the rules that we have?” Scott says. “Such high standards have been placed upon us and tribal gaming, and everyone needs to comply by them. When I worked in background screenings, and I did that for almost a decade, the difference in a screening that we had to conduct for tribal gaming cost three, four times as much as that for a commercial gaming operation because of all the standards that are in place.”
Scott credits Rocha with being the “canary in the coal mine,” with bringing attention to the changing landscape.
“But most of the tribes are so inwardly focused about what they need to sustain their tribal government that they’re not really looking at what is the business going to need to be successful long term,” Scott says. “Knowing that this technology online, whatever that looks like, is coming our way, it will change the business. Sports betting alone is changing it. You can see the change of how people are connecting with our product, or what the future demographic is going to expect.
“We’re going to have these big box buildings that aren’t going to speak to anybody, and they’re going to be like the Nordstrom downtown and the strip malls if we don’t start thinking strategically about what is the market, and what is our product going to be and look like.”
But even as the tribes face huge challenges in 2025, Rocha is convinced tribes are in a “better position to survive” than they ever have.
“Deana is absolutely right,” he said. “The smaller tribes are going to have a hard time, because if you’re just running your business for jobs and stuff like that, well, you still have to be innovative. Because like the movie theaters (who have adapted with new offerings including more food choices and comfortable seating), people are looking to be entertained in different ways.
“You have to let people know you’re there. You can’t rely on the old gray hairs and silver backs, because there’s not that many of them anymore, or there won’t be in the next 20 years. So, you gotta bring in the generational people. I say that as a person of silver hair, too.”
“Business evolves and entertainment evolves, and just you have to be able to do that in general,” Scott said. “It’s not even because tribes are doing anything wrong. It’s just the nature of business.
“Understand your demographic,” Weaver added. “Who’s coming in and how can we cater to them?”
