While Native American casinos passed commercial casinos this year in total revenues, there are plenty of tribes that are challenged to accrue enough revenues to keep progressing, leaders said during a Monday morning G2E session featuring top tribal heads from around the country.
And they define progress not by bigger houses or cars, but by providing optimal health care and education to members, they said.
“Some are still living in poverty, and it’s hard to have meaningful discussion with policy makers when they have this notion that all tribes are rich,” said Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga tribe in California.
Added moderator Ernie Stevens, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association: “We’re still trying to negotiate with folks who don’t understand what a good trade-off is.”
A report released earlier this year by Alan Meister stated that Native American Casinos garnered $30.5 billion in 2015, compared to $29.8 billion for hotel-resort “commercial” casinos.
He breaks out racetrack casinos into a third category; those facilities took in $8.5 billion via gambling.
Stephanie A. Bryan, tribal chair and CEO of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama, noted that gaming has “provided health care, education and built stronger and safer communities.”
“As you know, health care in this nation is in a total disarray and we’re able to offer health care to our constituents,” she said. “I remember receiving dental services in a little bus that stopped at the reservation. Now we have a state-of-the-art health facility, 65,000 square feet.”
Macarro said it’s important that gambling creates a revenue stream for cultural and sacred sight protection.
He says the tribe had a 2,000-year-old live oak endangered by a power line about 15 years ago. Another time a mining company was going to build a pit near a cultural site.
“We were able to get that mine to go away, and the power line was moved to more than 200 feet away from the tree,” Macarro said. “Those two things would not have been possible without Indian gaming.”
Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said the biggest positive he has seen is movement toward “my lifelong goal of destroying historical trauma one generation at a time.”
“I’ve seen how gaming – when leadership funds it into the right purposes – serves the three most important parts: our language, our culture and our borders,” he said.
Any tribal member than earns a high school diploma or a GED receives a full scholarship to anyplace in the world, Cladoosby said.
“In one generation those kids won’t be on welfare, on food stamps, nor drug dealers, nor in jail,” he said. “They won’t be a drag… I tell politicians, ‘give me a dollar today and I’ll save you $20.'”
Stevens then asked the panelists to address sports betting, fantasy sports, Internet gaming, and social gaming.
Macarro said, “In terms of what we’re doing, we need to protect our brick and mortar. Everything flows from that.” But he also cited population stats declaring that the U.S. has 78 million Baby Boomers, 69 million Gen Xers, and 100 million Millennials.
“So knowing when the shift happens is going to be critical, and we need to be ready for that,” he said.
Referring to the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on sport betting, he added: “One scenario we think might be likely is it could open the door for states or tribes to try to path forward. [In California], we’d need to go to voters to amend the state constitution, though, which is always an expansive proposition.”
Bryan agreed that “It’s also very important we protect our brick and mortar.
“But with sports betting, Indian country could be afforded the same opportunity. But it’s very, very important to protect the integrity of Indian gaming. We should be involved and be at the forefront.”
And Cladoosby said what many on all gambling fronts have been saying: “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”
