Anyone interested in casino gambling in the United States knows there are two general categories: standard commercial casinos and Indian casinos.
Until the 1990s, there was only one category, commercial. Nevada and New Jersey were the only states with legal casino gambling. Then the flood gates opened. First, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) passed in 1988. It was followed by laws in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, and Illinois authorizing riverboat gambling and, in Colorado and South Dakota, limited-stakes gaming in 19th-century mining towns. That was just the first of several waves since then, so that now most people in the country have casinos somewhere close by.
At the same time the commercial casinos were expanding, so was Indian gaming. Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and New York were the first states to sign compacts with tribes that allowed them to offer casino gambling.
Even standing on the sidelines and watching, the expansion of gaming across the country was stunning.
Indian gaming may have been the most surprising of it all. IGRA was the result of several court cases favoring the tribes. They’d been operating bingo games for years and IGRA created a mechanism to operate more types of games. Once the tribes could offer casino games, the whole game changed and Native casinos started to produce significant revenues for the tribes. Some lived in remote locations and their casinos attracted attention, but not the huge crowds that those close to major cities drew. Casinos with good locations may have started in tents or sprung structures, but they quickly moved into buildings that resembled the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
Thirty years ago, the Oneida Tribe of New York opened its first casino. It was the first legal casino in New York state, but not the first tribal casino in the country. At the time, a tribal spokesperson said it was the beginning of the rebirth of the Oneida Nation. It was a prophetic statement and one that applied to many tribes.
Indian gaming has been a catalyst for tribal economic development. That was what Congress intended when IGRA was passed and rarely does federal legislation succeed so well. In 2022, 519 Indian casinos were operated by 244 tribes in 29 states and Indian gaming generated $41 billion.
The week before its 30th anniversary on July 20, Oneida announced a $370 million expansion. The tribe has been constantly expanding and improving its property, but this will be the largest investment in 20 years. For federal-reporting purposes, the region that includes Oneida is the District of Columbia, in which 41 casinos generated $9.0 billion in 2022.
Oneida’s story is much like those of other tribes with good locations. The Seminole Tribe of Florida started as Oneida did with a bingo hall. Today, the Seminole own Hard Rock casinos, with nearly 20 of them outside Florida. They’re successful everywhere, but the home state is still probably the best location. Florida is in the D.C. region, so the Seminole casinos, along with Oneida’s Turning Stone and Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods in Connecticut, probably produced the lion’s share of the $9 billion.
As one would expect with the largest population, California generated the most GGR, $11.8 billion in 2022. Of the 87 casinos in the state, 10 have more than 2,500 slot machines; they’re clustered around San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
Oklahoma has about the same number of big casinos as California. Winstar is the largest with 7,000 slots. The 146 casinos in Oklahoma in two regions generated $6.6 billion in 2022. The St. Paul region, which includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan has 96 casinos with $5.0 billion in GGR. The Portland region has 55 casinos that generated $.5 billion in GGR. The Phoenix region has 51 operations and $3.7 billion in revenue. Not all regions are so productive. The Rapid City region, which includes Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota, has 43 casinos and $500 million in revenue.
In just 30 years, Indian gaming has grown from tribal bingo hall with a few tables and slot machines in someone’s garage to a huge industry. Of course, at the same time, the commercial gaming industry was growing as quickly. In 2022, the total GGR including casinos, sports betting, igaming, and video lottery terminals was over $60 billion. The key for both categories has been location. Any casino, Indian or commercial, near a large urban population is a guarantee of success. On the other hand, casinos located on remote reservations on the carry no such guarantee. But even for those tribes, Indian gaming has been beneficial.
It has been a dramatic 30 years and we should thank Oneida for reminding us just how far the casino industry has come since 1993.
