Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Equity in gaming long overdue

April 18, 2003
The Minnesota Gaming Equity Act is the “big news” in Minnesota Indian country this week. The intent of the bill is, obviously, to provide for more equity in the distribution of revenues from Indian gaming in the state, which is long overdue. It is also obvious that the bill is being used by some to break the casino monopoly currently enjoyed by Indian tribes in Minnesota.

Current estimates of annual casino net income by tribe are as follows: Shakopee - $400 million; Prairie Island - $200 million; Mille Lacs - $120 million; Fond du Lac - $40 million; Lower Sioux - $20 million; Leech Lake - $6 million; Bois Forte - $4 million; Upper Sioux - $4 million; Grand Portage - $2 million; Red Lake - $2 million; and White Earth - $2 million.

Considering that two tribes totaling six hundred people at Shakopee and Prairie Island receive about $600 million in net profits a year, while more than 90% of Minnesota’s sixty to eighty thousand Indians, and 99.9% of Minnesota’s citizens receive no benefits at all from Indian gaming, it’s no wonder that after twelve years, there is finally a serious effort to made the situation more equitable.

Projection of potential growth in the Twin Cities metro area include estimates of population growth exceeding five hundred thousand. Proponents of the Gaming Equity Act are looking not only at the present population and income distribution in Minnesota, but also planning for projected future growth. They counter Indian establishment advocates’ claims that a metro area casino will “hurt rural employment” by pointing to rapid metro area population growth, as well as noting that the largest Indian casinos are already in the metro area.

Opponents of the Minnesota Gaming Equity Act are claiming that they are “opposed to expansion of gambling,” even though the “big three” Indian casinos are almost continually expanding their operations, and – as published in this issue of Press/ON – Mille Lacs and other casinos are seriously considering expanding into other gambling enterprises like horse racing.

The “racino” bill that has passed several house committees thus far, and will likely be considered on the floor of the Minnesota House next week, is a “foot in the door” for certain vested interests, but it really does not address the issues of equitable distribution of gambling proceeds that the Minnesota Gaming Equity Act does.

In this column I have long advocated a more equitable distribution of Indian gaming proceeds, and have suggested that tribes do this on a voluntary basis, which they have not heeded. Now, the green buffalo has gotten loose. It is very likely that whether or not there is any form of tribal participation, like in other states a fast-growing number of legislators and policy-makers in the state of Minnesota are determined to break the Indian gaming monopoly currently held by just a few people. Their motivation comes both from the state’s serious budget problems, and from the inequities currently obvious in Indian gaming. These are even causing the “noble savage mentality” crowd to re-examine their whole attitude.

Whether the green buffalo chip moguls are dethroned by the legislature establishing a state-run casino, forcing renegotiation of the compacts, or both, it’s clear that despite millions of dollars in campaign contributions by Indian casino interests and their employment of over sixty lobbyists in the Minnesota state legislature, they are not going to hold onto their monopoly much longer.

Demands to share in the estimated $800 million dollars in annual Indian gaming revenues are increasing: Minnesota citizens are looking at that revenue, looking at a state budget awash in red ink and hemorrhaging program budget cuts. With the shift in political power it’s becoming much harder to justify continuing legislative support for enormous monopoly-based incomes benefitting just a few Indians.

With the changing political environment, there is also an increased emphasis on accountability in government, and the Indian casinos’ longstanding policies of secrecy, continuing to assert “rights” to state and federal program monies despite substantial gaming income.

There have been a number of longstanding problems at Indian casinos, including civil rights violations, immunity from lawsuit because of ‘sovereign immunity, lack of accountability, and in some instances enormous problems with lack of fair labor practices.

When Minnesota negotiated the Indian gaming compacts back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were negotiated quickly, outside of public purview by legislators and others who did not understand what they were doing, and without any experience with Indian gaming. Former Governor Perpich and the people he was working with had no idea of what they were getting into, and in consequence Minnesota ended up with some of the most inequitable gaming compacts in the U.S. It’s time that the problems which have been a part of Indian gaming since the outset be addressed,

The Gaming Equity Act was open to participation by any tribe that wanted to participate, and those who claim that it would have an adverse impact on employment or revenue certainly had an opportunity to join it. Their arguments have not been very persuasive. It’s only because they have made millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and are now trying to ‘call in their chips,’ that the Gaming Equity Act is meeting such fierce opposition from Democrats, who are breaking their longstanding tradition of standing up for the rights of the poor and are now protecting the rights of the rich few Indian gaming moguls.

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