Indian Reservations and the American Casino Culture- A Brief History

The subject of the Native Americans and the United States is as old as the country itself and goes back to the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock. From the outset of the European arrival to the American shores, a controversy of mistreatment and corruption has taken stride. Present-day’s social commentators still relate many of today’s difficult issues facing the Native American culture and its difficult relations with the rest of America to those early events.

Presently listed there are 562 federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States. Of that number there are 297 Indian Reservations. An Indian Reservation is defined as “land which is managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. The FBI has assigned various divisions to be responsible of what is termed “Indian Country” due to an assortment of crime concerns and other societal issues.

The issue of gambling on the Indian Reservations began in the late 1970’s with a Florida-based tribe, opening a high-stakes bingo operation on its land. The location was an instant hit with visitors to the reservations and immediately incited controversy in Florida’s courts. Through various other court cases in the United States in the 1980’s it was eventually decided to permit Indian Reservations to host gambling centers on their territories so long as the state in which the reservation is located in has some sort of legalized gambling. And such began what is today a business that brings in $19.4 billion dollars a year.

The Temptation

From the figures mentioned above it is clear to see how opening a casino is a powerful allure to a reservation. The original bingo center generated $100 million in its first year alone and the numbers in the following years speak for themselves. So enticing is the option of opening a casino that even tribes which are not officially recognized by the American government are petitioning for official recognition just so they can go ahead and open a gambling center.

For those tribes which don’t benefit from the large sums of casino income, life on the reservations is extremely difficult. Indian Reservations in the Midwest of the country are some of the poorest counties in the United States and poverty and illiteracy bring with them crime and early pregnancy. The great rift between the Indian Reservations which have lagged on to the gambling craze of America and those who have stayed in more traditional times is extremely evident.

The Industry

Currently the money generated by Indian Reservation casinos brings in more money than Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined. Recent statistics indicate that there are approximately 367 Indian gaming establishments in the United States. As some tribes have more than one gaming enterprise, this figure represents only 224 federally recognized tribes. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Mashantucket, Connecticut presently owns the largest casino in the United States, the Foxwoods Casino.

The casino revenues for the Indian Reservations are geographically spread in the following way: about $5 billion for casinos in the eastern United States. Central United States grosses another $5 billion, and those in the Western United States bringing in close to $9.5 billion. It is not only gaming operations that are located in or near metropolitan areas that bring in the big dollars. Going against common thought, more secluded areas such as Oklahoma and certain areas of California currently represent the fastest growing sector of the Indian gaming industry.

Today

The Indian gaming Industry has been both a curse and a blessing to the Native American civilization. Due to its population’s uneven distribution across the United States (some states have no reservations on them while others have several) the fruits of the gaming industry have not benefited the entire community. Even those reservations that have hosted and benefited financially from their casinos have seen organized crime and underworld violence come along with the millions of dollars.

A young generation of Native Americans has moved out of the reservations and into the cities. With that they have changed their names or adapted more American names while entering anything from the arts to local politics. Scars and ramifications of early injustices and corruptions are just surfacing recently. The issue of Native American Reservation casinos will continue to be a hot and much-discussed topic for years to come.