Published Sunday | January 20, 2008
Casino near Omaha would join booming Indian gambling industry
Starting in bingo halls and armed with an act of Congress, Indian tribes have built gambling into a booming, $25 billion business over the past two decades.
Tribes collect $4 of every $10 Americans wager at casinos.
Many tribes say they have benefited from the cash generated by hundreds of casinos that have opened on reservations across the country, triggering economic rebirth in some of the poorest places in America.
But, like any gambling operation, they can bring an increase in problem gambling, experts say. And in most cases, the legally sovereign tribes aren't required to pay the state and local taxes that are levied on non-Indian casinos.
The National Indian Gaming Commission - the federal agency that regulates tribal gambling operations - counts 117 such establishments in the upper Midwest region that stretches from Wyoming to Michigan.
Those generated about $4 billion in revenue for the tribes in 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Three full-blown casinos in Iowa are operated by tribes, while four tribal casino operations in Nebraska offer only electronic bingo machines.
Last week, federal regulators cleared the way for the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska to pursue building a casino on five acres it owns in Carter Lake, between downtown Omaha and Eppley Airfield.
Aside from financial and logistical obstacles, the Ponca project still could face legal challenges from the State of Iowa.
Because the Missouri River's course has shifted over time, Carter Lake is part of Iowa but it's now situated on the west side of the river. If built, a Ponca casino would become the first Indian casino near Nebraska's largest city.
The tribe won the right to pursue gambling on its Carter Lake land under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, a 1988 law that, for the first time, set guidelines for gambling on Indian lands.
At that time, about 100 tribes nationally were generating some $100 million a year through bingo operations. Only Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., allowed full casino gambling.
The Indian gambling law was viewed as a way to stimulate growth on reservations through small-scale gambling operations. Instead, it kick-started a remarkable growth industry.
The federal law allows a tribe to offer any gambling that is legal elsewhere in the state where its land is located.
As many states - including Iowa - liberalized gambling laws to allow riverboat casinos, more and more Indian tribes became eligible to offer casino gambling.
The Nebraska Constitution forbids gambling other than keno and charitable games such as bingo and pickle cards. Efforts to allow casinos have been rejected.
Because of that, Indian tribes can offer only electronic bingo machines at four operations in Nebraska that they call casinos. Two of Nebraska's four tribes - the Winnebago and the Omaha - do run full-blown casinos on land they own in Iowa.
The National Indian Gaming Commission does compile revenue reports from most tribes. And economist Alan Meister publishes an annual Indian Gaming Industry Report that's based on public records, information provided confidentially by tribes and informed projections.
According to Meister's latest report, Indian gambling has steadily increased its market share, rising from 19.5 percent of total casino spending in 1994 to 41.9 percent in 2006.
Non-Indian casinos' market share has dropped from 80.2 percent in 1994 to 52.1 percent in 2006. The remaining 6 percent in 2006 went to combined non-Indian race track-casino operations.
Indian casinos in 2006 provided about 327,000 jobs and $11.3 billion in wages, Meister's report said.
For many tribes - which have long suffered widespread unemployment and poverty on reservation lands - the casinos have meant a shocking boom of wealth, including for tribal members who often share in the profits.
Alan Kelley remembers growing up poor on dirt roads on the reservation belonging to the Iowa Tribe of Nebraska and Kansas, located near White Cloud, Kan.
Today, the reservation is crisscrossed with new asphalt, Kelley said, and the tribe supports fire and police departments, a health clinic and a day-care center with funds from its Casino White Cloud.
"Without the casino, we wouldn't have any jobs, we wouldn't have our roads, we wouldn't have anything," said Kelley, vice chairman of the tribal council.
The tribe's casino employs about 300, with at least half of them tribal members, he said.
The Poncas are Nebraska's smallest tribe and have no reservation. But they have established health, housing and economic development offices across a wide area of Nebraska and Iowa, including in Omaha, Lincoln and Carter Lake.
Larry Wright of Lincoln, the Ponca tribal chairman, said casino profits would offset dwindling federal funding for college scholarships, health clinics, housing facilities and cultural programs the tribe runs.
National studies indicate that the growth of Indian casinos has reduced state welfare costs, decreased Indian unemployment and strengthened Indian tribal governments, said I. Nelson Rose, a gambling expert at the Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif.
"When this (Indian gambling) act passed in 1988, I gave a speech and said 'This is the best thing to happen to tribes in 100 years,'" Rose said. "There's no doubt tribes have benefited from this boom."
Still, the net effect of Indian casinos on states and communities is not as clear, Rose said.
Because tribal casinos are not required to pay state or local taxes, many states and communities have negotiated revenue-sharing plans with them.
Without revenue sharing, a community like Carter Lake could see a huge increase in visitors - straining the local infrastructure - but no boost for city coffers, Rose said.
Adding a casino to a community also has been shown to increase problem gambling, he said. Indian casinos are not required to fund efforts to combat gambling addiction, as most non-Indian casinos are, although some tribes do so.
The positive and negative aspects of Indian gambling have a special resonance for the Rev. Cynthia Abrams.
Abrams is the program director for the alcohol, other addictions and health care work area of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. She's also the daughter of a full-blooded member of the Seneca tribe, which operates casinos in western New York.
From her work on addiction problems, Abrams knows the ills that gambling can bring: the bankruptcies, the divorces. But she also has seen how some tribes have used casino dollars to build other businesses, create economic self-sufficiency and address problems such as inadequate health care.
Abrams said she initially opposed her own tribe's move into the casino business, but she can't deny that it has brought some benefits.
"I've got family members who work at my casino on my reservation who were unemployed," she said. "My grandmother received (casino-funded) senior citizen benefits to help her live beyond subsistence."
Still, she said the effect of gambling on people and their families must be taken into consideration.
"It brings into people's backyards an addiction," she said. "There is a problem on the one hand of creating economic self-sufficiency for Indians, but my question is: 'At what cost?' "
Indian casinos provided a total of 327,000 jobs and $11.3 billion in wages in 2006.
Many tribes say they have benefited from the cash generated by hundreds of casinos that have opened on reservations across the country, triggering economic rebirth in some of the poorest places in America.
But, like any gambling operation, they can bring an increase in problem gambling, experts say. And in most cases, the legally sovereign tribes aren't required to pay the state and local taxes that are levied on non-Indian casinos.
The National Indian Gaming Commission - the federal agency that regulates tribal gambling operations - counts 117 such establishments in the upper Midwest region that stretches from Wyoming to Michigan.
Those generated about $4 billion in revenue for the tribes in 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Three full-blown casinos in Iowa are operated by tribes, while four tribal casino operations in Nebraska offer only electronic bingo machines.
Click to enlarge.
Aside from financial and logistical obstacles, the Ponca project still could face legal challenges from the State of Iowa.
Because the Missouri River's course has shifted over time, Carter Lake is part of Iowa but it's now situated on the west side of the river. If built, a Ponca casino would become the first Indian casino near Nebraska's largest city.
The tribe won the right to pursue gambling on its Carter Lake land under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, a 1988 law that, for the first time, set guidelines for gambling on Indian lands.
At that time, about 100 tribes nationally were generating some $100 million a year through bingo operations. Only Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., allowed full casino gambling.
Click to enlarge.
The federal law allows a tribe to offer any gambling that is legal elsewhere in the state where its land is located.
As many states - including Iowa - liberalized gambling laws to allow riverboat casinos, more and more Indian tribes became eligible to offer casino gambling.
The Nebraska Constitution forbids gambling other than keno and charitable games such as bingo and pickle cards. Efforts to allow casinos have been rejected.
Because of that, Indian tribes can offer only electronic bingo machines at four operations in Nebraska that they call casinos. Two of Nebraska's four tribes - the Winnebago and the Omaha - do run full-blown casinos on land they own in Iowa.
About the Ponca Tribe
Enrolled tribal members: 2,600
Members in Nebraska and Iowa: more than 1,000
Headquarters: Niobrara, Neb.
Reservation: None, though the tribe provides programs in designated "service areas" where members live.
Service areas: Knox, Boyd, Holt, Lancaster, Douglas, Sarpy, Wayne, Madison, Stanton, Platte, Burt and Hall Counties in Nebraska; Charles Mix County in South Dakota; Woodbury and Pottawattamie Counties in Iowa
Satellite offices: Omaha; Lincoln; Norfolk, Neb.; Carter Lake; and Sioux City, Iowa Ponca landmarks
1877: Removal from home in Nebraska to reservation in Oklahoma
1879: Trial of Standing Bear. A famous Ponca chief, Standing Bear was jailed after he returned to Nebraska from the Ponca reservation in Oklahoma. The trial led to a landmark ruling that American Indians are persons in the eyes of the law. It also allowed some Poncas to return to their homeland, eventually creating a separate wing of the tribe, the Northern Poncas or Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
1966: The government terminates the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska as a legal entity.
1990: Congress restores legal recognition of the tribe.
With their unique status as sovereign entities, Indian tribes are not required to make public most data from their gambling operations.Enrolled tribal members: 2,600
Members in Nebraska and Iowa: more than 1,000
Headquarters: Niobrara, Neb.
Reservation: None, though the tribe provides programs in designated "service areas" where members live.
Service areas: Knox, Boyd, Holt, Lancaster, Douglas, Sarpy, Wayne, Madison, Stanton, Platte, Burt and Hall Counties in Nebraska; Charles Mix County in South Dakota; Woodbury and Pottawattamie Counties in Iowa
Satellite offices: Omaha; Lincoln; Norfolk, Neb.; Carter Lake; and Sioux City, Iowa Ponca landmarks
1877: Removal from home in Nebraska to reservation in Oklahoma
1879: Trial of Standing Bear. A famous Ponca chief, Standing Bear was jailed after he returned to Nebraska from the Ponca reservation in Oklahoma. The trial led to a landmark ruling that American Indians are persons in the eyes of the law. It also allowed some Poncas to return to their homeland, eventually creating a separate wing of the tribe, the Northern Poncas or Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
1966: The government terminates the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska as a legal entity.
1990: Congress restores legal recognition of the tribe.
The National Indian Gaming Commission does compile revenue reports from most tribes. And economist Alan Meister publishes an annual Indian Gaming Industry Report that's based on public records, information provided confidentially by tribes and informed projections.
According to Meister's latest report, Indian gambling has steadily increased its market share, rising from 19.5 percent of total casino spending in 1994 to 41.9 percent in 2006.
Non-Indian casinos' market share has dropped from 80.2 percent in 1994 to 52.1 percent in 2006. The remaining 6 percent in 2006 went to combined non-Indian race track-casino operations.
Indian casinos in 2006 provided about 327,000 jobs and $11.3 billion in wages, Meister's report said.
For many tribes - which have long suffered widespread unemployment and poverty on reservation lands - the casinos have meant a shocking boom of wealth, including for tribal members who often share in the profits.
Alan Kelley remembers growing up poor on dirt roads on the reservation belonging to the Iowa Tribe of Nebraska and Kansas, located near White Cloud, Kan.
Today, the reservation is crisscrossed with new asphalt, Kelley said, and the tribe supports fire and police departments, a health clinic and a day-care center with funds from its Casino White Cloud.
"Without the casino, we wouldn't have any jobs, we wouldn't have our roads, we wouldn't have anything," said Kelley, vice chairman of the tribal council.
The tribe's casino employs about 300, with at least half of them tribal members, he said.
The Poncas are Nebraska's smallest tribe and have no reservation. But they have established health, housing and economic development offices across a wide area of Nebraska and Iowa, including in Omaha, Lincoln and Carter Lake.
Larry Wright of Lincoln, the Ponca tribal chairman, said casino profits would offset dwindling federal funding for college scholarships, health clinics, housing facilities and cultural programs the tribe runs.
National studies indicate that the growth of Indian casinos has reduced state welfare costs, decreased Indian unemployment and strengthened Indian tribal governments, said I. Nelson Rose, a gambling expert at the Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif.
"When this (Indian gambling) act passed in 1988, I gave a speech and said 'This is the best thing to happen to tribes in 100 years,'" Rose said. "There's no doubt tribes have benefited from this boom."
Still, the net effect of Indian casinos on states and communities is not as clear, Rose said.
Because tribal casinos are not required to pay state or local taxes, many states and communities have negotiated revenue-sharing plans with them.
Without revenue sharing, a community like Carter Lake could see a huge increase in visitors - straining the local infrastructure - but no boost for city coffers, Rose said.
Adding a casino to a community also has been shown to increase problem gambling, he said. Indian casinos are not required to fund efforts to combat gambling addiction, as most non-Indian casinos are, although some tribes do so.
The positive and negative aspects of Indian gambling have a special resonance for the Rev. Cynthia Abrams.
Abrams is the program director for the alcohol, other addictions and health care work area of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. She's also the daughter of a full-blooded member of the Seneca tribe, which operates casinos in western New York.
From her work on addiction problems, Abrams knows the ills that gambling can bring: the bankruptcies, the divorces. But she also has seen how some tribes have used casino dollars to build other businesses, create economic self-sufficiency and address problems such as inadequate health care.
Abrams said she initially opposed her own tribe's move into the casino business, but she can't deny that it has brought some benefits.
"I've got family members who work at my casino on my reservation who were unemployed," she said. "My grandmother received (casino-funded) senior citizen benefits to help her live beyond subsistence."
Still, she said the effect of gambling on people and their families must be taken into consideration.
"It brings into people's backyards an addiction," she said. "There is a problem on the one hand of creating economic self-sufficiency for Indians, but my question is: 'At what cost?' "
