Indian Gaming Regulation Act

871 Words2 Pages

According to Congress, Indian Gaming Regulation Act (IGRA) was created in 1988 as a way of helping tribes from falling below the poverty level. 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. Since its establishment, hundreds of tribes are able to negotiate an agreement with the governments to operate casinos on reservation lands (“Gaming Tax Law and Bank Secrecy Act Issues for Indian Tribal Government”). Although Congress says that the real purpose of IGRA is to allow Indians to open casinos, it is merely a set of laws that limits the tribe’s right on gaming.

The views of IGRA are differed among the Native Americans and the non-natives. To many American, IGRA is a compromise between the American government and the tribal government because it enables tribes to support themselves, while it meets the Congress’ intention of opening more jobs to control poverty-related crimes. According to a survey by the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) in 2006, as much as 75% of Americans believe that Indian benefits from gaming (The Economic Impact of Indian Gaming in 2006). “The federal National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) reported that the Indian gaming industry generated $16.7 billion in revenue in 2003,” and has created over 550,000 jobs (Light and Rand, 85). Even though there is only a small change in the number of crimes as a result of casinos, it is enough to conclude that “crime rates were reduced, but not in an overwhelming way” (Light and Rand, 97). On the contrary, Native Americans believe that it is a “one-sided negotiations” that gives the state and federal government pow...

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...nd the type of gaming tribes can conduct, IGRA also set a rule for how tribes should use their gaming profit. Tribes may spend gaming revenues only for five general purposes: to fund tribal government services, operations and programs, to promote tribal general welfare, to promote tribal economic development, to make charitable donations, and to help fund local government agencies (The Economic Impact of Indian Gaming in 2006). They are also required to pay tax as a condition of the tribal-state compact. Most of the payments are based on the percentage of gaming revenue. In 2003, California tribes pay zero to 13 percent of slot revenue based on the number of slot machines. In New York, tribes begin to pay at 18 percent and increased to as much as 25 percent in just seven years. In 2003, tribes paid, in total, approximately $759 million to state and local governments

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