Native Americans and tribal gaming have a huge stake, and significant influence, in the course their communities and the United States take in coming years, panelists said on Indigenous Peoples Day.
“We’re in the middle of a renaissance in media, in politics, across the board,” said Holly Cook Macarro, principal at The Angle consulting firm in Washington, D.C. “Tribal gaming has fueled so much of that. We’re sending our kids to college. We’re giving our kids the opportunity to see people in places they’ve never seen them before. Indian Gaming, with that stability and economic revenue, has put us there.”
Cook spoke Monday at “The Next Era of Tribal Gaming: Politics, Policies, and Opportunities,” one of the opening sessions at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. David Z. Bean, vice chairman of the Indian Gaming Association, and Erica M. Pinto, chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village of California, also served on the panel. Victor Rocha, conference chairman for the Indian Gaming Association and owner-publisher of Pechanga.net, moderated.
Pinto said gaming has been a big success, but her small tribe sees a need to diversify. “We should think beyond gaming,” she said, because tribal exclusivity might not last. The Jamul tribe recently bought 161 acres with an eye toward building as many as 75 houses and establishing a commercial district, possibly featuring a general store, feed store, gas station, and other businesses. “That’s what we do with our revenue. We diversify, because we have to.”
Even with the renaissance Macarro cited, all four agreed that tribal sovereignty faces recurring attacks, which also threaten Indian gaming. Bean cited Maverick Gaming’s challenge of Washington state’s agreement to allow sports betting only on tribal grounds. A U.S. District judge threw out the lawsuit, but Maverick is appealing. A court victory for Maverick could undermine “long-established principles of tribal sovereignty and self-determination,” the state attorney general’s office said.
Macarro predicted the battle to choose a successor to deposed U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., could last “quite a while.” That process and the specter of a federal government shutdown amid congressional wrangling over the budget could cause enough economic uncertainty to affect consumer spending and reduce tribal gaming revenue, she said.
“Our communities benefit from the profits from Indian gaming,” she continued. “We’re not a commercial-driven or stockholder-driven industry. We’re going to see those impacts right away in terms of jobs and revenue and those immediately begin to affect our tribal community programs.”
Macarro said Indian voters will be crucial to the winner of the 2024 presidential race, as well as in electing members of contested House and Senate seats.
Bean recalled that tribes in Washington State worked together to educate voters when then-U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton was up for re-election after trying to penalize tribes’ exercising self-governance. The group’s bus tour visited all 29 tribes in the state, emphasizing the importance of each individual voting and getting two friends or family members to vote as well.
Macarro said Montana, Arizona, and New Mexico, each with a sizable Indian population, will be key to the 2024 presidential and Senate elections. “The Native American vote has the ability to swing the majority in the U.S Senate,” she said.
Pinto, who was among the last of her family to grow up with dirt floors, said each generation faces unique challenges. “But we had this vision that we needed to change our lives. Indian gaming has done just that, but it wasn’t without barriers,” she said. “We’re resilient. We have to be. We have no other choice.”
