Tribal gaming in Wyoming could lose $20 million a year and hundreds of jobs as a result of recent legislation passed in the legislature that allows legal commercial slot machines to operate in retail operations.
That’s the conclusion drawn by gaming expert and former Wind River Hotel and Casino CEO Jim Conrad, who was interviewed by CDC Gaming Reports. That casino, operated by the Northern Arapaho Tribe, previously took in millions of dollars in profits. No figures are available for the last two years.
Besides losing that money, the tribe has lost 350 jobs, most of them families living on the Wind River reservation.
The money has been lost to truck stops and other retail operations that operate slot machines that were legalized by the legislation.
Conrad said, “I don’t know what’s going to take to stop gaming from advancing to the point where the whole state is involved – to where there are little casinos in every major town, big enough to take care of the whole population in every area.” Because some of the money collected from each slot machine is distributed to municipalities, they have an incentive to allow them within their jurisdictions, he said.
Those machines were temporarily legalized when the legislature created a gaming commission this year to study the viability of long-term legalization. The machines had been operating largely in the shadows before then.
The tribe has operated without a tribal state gaming compact since 2002, the result of the state failing to negotiate in “good faith” according to a federal judge.
Said Conrad, “I think because of shortfall in gas and oil tax,” said Conrad, “the state is looking for whatever they think could help them. But I don’t think the popularity of gaming has changed.”
