The Indian Gaming Association announced Thursday that attendance surpassed 7,000 for its annual conference and tradeshow in San Diego.
IGA Executive Director Jason Giles said that when the final numbers are tallied, they’ll either match or exceed the 2025 total of 7,200. Booth sales were also slightly up over 2025.
“It’s all in line with last year’s numbers (in San Diego), if not a slight increase,” Giles said. “We’re very happy with that, given the state of the economy and what’s going on with job creation.”
A year ago, the federal shutdown impacted tribes showing up to the conference, reluctant to budget money when that occurs, Giles said. This year, people had to deal with travel issues from a partial federal shutdown involving the TSA.
The highest conference attendance was in Las Vegas with 8,800 in 2018, Giles said. The highest attended show in San Diego was about 8,000 coming out of the pandemic in 2023.
The show is returning to Las Vegas in April 2027, before returning to San Diego in 2028. It will go back to Las Vegas in 2029 and return to San Diego in 2030, where it’s scheduled to be through 2032. The 2027 show is April 19-22 to ensure it misses Easter, Giles said.
Giles said the preference is to have the show in San Diego, but the southern California coastal city is in high demand and trade shows that have 50,000 or more people are “higher on the pecking order” in getting the dates they want. “We would love to stay here, but they can’t always accommodate us. Once we get as big as those guys, we’ll have some clout.”
Giles said the words to describe this year’s conference among tribes are “positive, optimism, and strong resolve. Everyone came together and we’re finally getting a unified understanding after educating tribal leaders on the prediction market threat. We’re also trying to understand what’s going on in the economy nationally. Canadian tourism to the United States is impacting tribal nations negatively. We also know it’s impacting Las Vegas and everyone else across the country just as badly.”
Giles was asked what he thought the takeaway headline would be at the conference a year from now in Las Vegas.
“The headline will be prediction markets in full retreat either through the courts or Congress. Beyond that, if we stay at $100 a barrel oil (from the war with Iran), we’re all in big trouble.”
