Casinos don't always bring dollars


Just because an Amerindian tribe gets a casino doesn't always mean the problems are solved
As I watch factions of the Diné (Navajo) fight it out over a proposed casino, I am glad I saw this piece.

-- Ka-ching fact No. 1: Casinos have not made all, or most, American Indians wealthy.
They certainly have not made most California American Indians wealthy. A study by the Center for California Native Nations at UC Riverside (financed by the Pechanga Tribal Government, which has a very successful casino) concludes that casinos in California do help tribal members overall. "Between 1990 and 2000, tribal governments with gaming in California saw a significant reduction in the percentage of families in poverty, from 36 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 2000." A 26 percent poverty rate? Hardly a jackpot.

The report also says the state's casinos (55 at last count) are not as ubiquitous as some people believe; only 11 percent of Californians live within 10 miles of "a gaming facility." Furthermore, those facilities had "significantly positive" economic impacts on neighboring communities, especially low-income ones.

Yet a misperception about rich Indians has caused at least three problems. For Indians, that is. It has led to attempts to get casino tribes to pay more to the state and has cut funding for programs meant for, so to speak, poor Indians. (In California, many American Indians have no affiliation with any California tribe, nor with any tribe that has a casino.) Also, the misperception has hurt fundraising for American Indian nonprofit groups, according to people who work for them. The well is going dry because of the gusher in the background.

<snip>

-- Ka-ching fact No. 2: Indian casinos vary enormously in revenue. The universal reason: location, location, location.

Casinos near urban centers can do fabulously well, as in the most publicized case: the Pequot's Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, near the New York City metropolitan area.

Casinos aren't the answer for most tribes. In the case of the Navajo tribe, the Eastern part of the reservation wants the revenues, but the Western side doesn't think casinos are such a good idea.

Oh, and the best locations such as near the Grand Canyon or at Lake Powell are on the Western side.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - February 17, 2007 at 02:43 PM  Tag


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