At its annual report the National Indian Gaming Commission’s outgoing Chairman Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri reported that Indian gaming on 2017 experienced its seventh straight increase in profits, a 3.9 percent uptick from 2016, from nearly 500 casinos.
“All of Indian Country has worked very hard to maintain a flourishing and constantly growing gaming industry,” said Chaudhuri. “The successes of Indian gaming in the 30 years since IGRA prove that the foundational principles of federal Indian law should remain at the forefront of any future public policy discussions.”
The industry reached $32.4 billion last year, said the report, which was released at a press conference in Washington D.C.
Several Indian leaders at the event said that tribes are closely watching the progress of legalizing sports betting in several states, with the main interesting being to preserve tribal sovereignty.
Chaudhuri said existing tribal state gaming compacts will play a vital role in that progress, depending on the state.
Three weeks ago, the Mississippi Choctaw became the first tribe to approve sports bettering, making its three casinos the first tribal casino to offer it—although a rollout date hasn’t been announced.
Last month when the Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting, Chaudhuri released a statement that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, “… explicitly recognized that a principal goal of federal policy is to promote tribal economic development, tribal self-sufficiency, and strong tribal government.”
The report showed that California remains the largest tribal gaming state by a wide margin. The Sacramento region, which includes California, recorded a 7.3 percent last year, which was the largest of any region. The Golden State brought in nearly $9 billion. NIGC doesn’t break the figures down into state, and the only reason that California’s is known is because the Sacramento region includes it and a small piece of Nevada.
The Washington D.C. region, which includes Florida, Connecticut, North Carolina and New York, had a total of $7.2 billion – but only a 1 percent increase over 2016.
This year NIGC announced it will add an eighth region, dividing the St. Paul Region into two with the new region based in Rapid City, South Dakota. That new region will include gaming in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The report listed 494 casinos, ten more than in 2016.
Only one time has Indian gaming not registered an increase. That was in 2008 and 2009, during the Great Recession. The last four years the industry has increased in value by 12 percent.
The chairman declared, “All of Indian Country has worked very hard to maintain a flourishing and constantly growing gaming industry. The successes of Indian gaming in the 30 years since (the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act) prove that the foundational principles of federal Indian law should remain at the forefront of any future public policy discussions.”
National Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr., who attended the meeting, praised the “hard work, dedication, and compassion of those throughout Indian Country committed to advancing economic self-determination through gaming.”
This year marks the 30th year under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA.)
