Gaming and Gambling (L32)
Dr. Anton Treuer
Bemidji State University
Traditional Games
• Lacrosse: for wager, dispute resolution,
Pontiac’s War
• Moccasin game
• Foot races
• Bagese
• Typically gendered games
Sovereignty Recap
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Constitution: “Only Congress shall…”
Domestic Dependent Nation (Marshall Trilogy)
Plenary Power Doctrine
Public Law 280: limited civil and total criminal
jurisdiction on Indian land to some states
Bryan v. Itasca County, 1976
• State cannot tax their motor home
• Affirmed tribal sovereignty
• Clarified limits to state authority over Indians
on Indian land
Florida Seminole
• Violated state gaming
law: 2x per week, $100
jackpots, charitable
purposes only (church
bingo)
• Sheriff Butterworth came
to shut them down, 1981
• Tribe file for an
injunction, appealed
through the circuit court
Seminole Tribe v. Robert Butterworth,
1981
• Tribes are sovereign
• Gaming is a matter of tribal law on
reservations
• States cannot control tribal law or practice
• Still a question about PL 280
California v. Cabazon Band of Mission
Indians, 1987
• State cannot ban tribal gaming when it
allowed gaming elsewhere in the state
• Sovereignty affirmed
• Within 2 years, every tribe in Minnesota had
high stakes bingo or casino operation
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 1989
• Clarified that PL 280 could not empower
states to stop tribal casinos
• Required states and tribes to sign compacts
• Did not empower states to refuse to sign
compacts to press for terms
Economic Impact
• Wide variation in impact
• Unemployment rates dropped from 50% to
20% in Leech Lake and many other areas (still
twice the state average)
• Dakota communities have 250-350 members
and large communities near the metro
• White Earth has 20,000 enrollees and one
casino in a rural area
Tribal Management of New Resources
• Mille Lacs: hospitals, schools, ceremonial
dance halls, language camps, repurchase land,
scholarship programs
• Red Lake and others used no outside
management
• St. Croix and Mille Lacs had malfeasance
issues with outside management
• Chip Wadena, and some cases of tribal
malfeasance
Grand Casino Hinckley
Per Capita Payments
• Dakota have eliminated poverty
• But at what price? What effect on education?
• Three Ojibwe reservations now offer small per
capita payments: Mille Lacs, Grand Portage,
Fond du Lac
• Others considering per caps even if they
cannot afford them
Community Impact
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Gambling addiction
Source of alcohol in some casino
Impact on tribal enrollment
St. Croix, golden parachutes, politician salaries
Perception in nonnative community is that all
Indians are rich, negative impact on funding
Political Power Resurgent
• Tribal political lobbies in Washington
• Money for language and culture revitalization,
although promised more than delivered
• Potential is tremendous
• When US has Iran-Contra, Watergate, or other
scandals nobody question its right to exist –
same logic should apply for tribal government
when there is a problem – sovereignty is
paramount
Future of Tribal Gaming
• Taxation?
• State competition?
• Taxation?