Exploring the Purpose of the Indian Gaming Regulation Act

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When the word “Native American” is mentioned, the first thing most people will think of is Indian gaming. As many people know, only Native Americans can conduct gaming while people from other ethnicity cannot. This leads to the belief that it is an indirect way for the American government to repay the tribal government for taking their lands. This is partially true. The right to conduct gaming on reservations begins with the Indian Gaming Regulation Act (IGRA). Since its establishment in 1988, hundreds of tribes are able to negotiate an agreement with the governments to operate casinos on reservation lands. However, this is not the only intention of IGRA. Although Congress says that the real purpose of IGRA is to allow Indians to open casinos so tribes can support themselves, it is merely a set of laws that limits the tribe’s right on gaming. According to Congress, the goal of IGRA is to use gaming as a mean of “[promoting] tribal economic development, self-sufficiency, and strong tribal government,” while ensuring that gaming is conducted fairly and honestly (“Gaming Tax Law and Bank Secrecy Act Issues”). Congress created this act for several reasons. First, they thought that Indian gaming was established as a way to strengthen tribal government, but tribes had been opening casinos solely as a way of making money for tribal government. Second, they believed that tribes had cross the boundary of the contract many times, but the federal government cannot do anything to them because the previous contract was not very clear on how tribes should operate Indian gaming. Lastly, they felt that tribes had been given too much power for being able to regulate gaming exclusively on their own without any prohibition from the federal or stat... ... middle of paper ... ...need this kind of rights. Before IGRA was established, tribes already have the right to conduct gaming as defined by tribal government. When IGRA comes into play, the tribe’s right to conduct gaming is limited greatly. It reduced the tribe’s authority to govern its people and its right to freely control its gaming industry. Furthermore, it sets a law on the type of gaming that tribes can conduct and what tribes have to do to conduct a certain type of gaming in their casinos. In addition, it also governs how tribes should spend their gaming profit. In other words, tribes cannot spend their revenue on things other than those that are stated under IGRA’s lists. Although Congress mentioned that IGRA was created to help tribes with their economic problems through gaming, it really is just a set of rules that limits the tribe’s power to control their gaming industry.

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