The National Indian Gaming Association is exiting the sidelines and joining the movement to repeal the federal ban on sports betting.
While many tribal governments are ambivalent about the competitive impact on their casinos should states begin legalizing sports betting en masse, NIGA apparently has decided that a seat at the table is their best insurance.
“As one of the key stakeholders in these discussions we want to ensure that if legalized, our members have the opportunity to offer this activity as part of their overall entertainment package,” said association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr.
He added that joining the American Sports Betting Coalition, an advocacy group formed by the American Gaming Association, “will enable us to coordinate with and provide feedback to the AGA with regard to tribal gaming concerns as the coalition advances its policy objectives.”
Stevens backtracked the next day, however, after several tribes expressed displeasure at the announcement.
“I want to clarify that the NIGA board has not taken a position on the issue of sports betting legalization. We realize that legalizing any new form of gaming, at any level of government, impacts our tribal gaming industry’s economic interests. NIGA also realizes that as a national organization, taking a position on a particular form of gaming requires input from all of our member tribes. These types of gaming issues raise provincial concerns unique to each and every tribal government engaged in gaming. One of the key tenets of NIGA’s decision making under my chairmanship is an emphasis on consensus building, if not complete unity, on gaming issues. Despite media mischaracterizations, I was clear in my statement on NIGA’s joining the sports betting coalition. To emphasize, I stated that, ‘Of chief concern to NIGA is to ensure that tribal interests are protected, particularly avoidance of negative impacts on existing tribal-state compacts and exclusivity clauses, and to ensure that if a new form of gambling is legalized in the United States-that tribal governments be provided an equal opportunity to participate in and regulate the new industry.’”
The Washington, D.C.-based AGA, the commercial casino industry’s federal lobbying arm, has brought together a cross-section of private- and public-sector interests to serve in the coalition, the goal being to prevail on Congress to repeal the U.S. Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The act was passed in 1992 to forestall a perceived threat to the integrity of sports if gambling on games were to spread unchecked. States were given a year to regulate it, but none did. The result is that 25 years later sports betting is legal in only the four states?Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana?that regulated it when the act was passed, and only as it existed when it was grandfathered in, so only Nevada permits betting on single games.
Currently, legalization bills are making the political rounds in some 13 states, but those efforts are likely to face potent challenges as long as PASPA stands.
AGA President and CEO Geoff Freeman hailed NIGA’s decision to join the fight.
“We have a window of opportunity to get this done and the National Indian Gaming Association is critical to making it happen. Tribal engagement will help to move the needle forward, and as the industry further unites we will be able to end the failing ban on sports betting and allow our industry to grow.”
The decision comes amid recent warnings by some tribes that attempts to expand sports betting could conflict with tribal-state gaming compacts?which in many cases afford tribes the exclusive right to operate casino-style gaming.
NIGA, which represents a $31 billion industry comprised of 148 gaming tribes, attempted to address this, saying its “chief concern” in joining the coalition is to “ensure that tribal interests are protected, particularly avoidance of any negative impacts on existing compacts and exclusivity clauses.”
California, home to a $7 billion-plus tribal gaming industry, has been a hot bed of this debate for years. Given its wealth and population it’s considered one of only a handful of markets where intrastate betting could thrive. As recently as July, Steve Stallings, who chairs the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, specifically warned against a proposed amendment to the California Constitution that would legalize it should PASPA be repealed.
“Historically, the association has opposed bills that expand the scope of gaming in California in violation of tribal compacts limiting casino-style games to tribal reservations,” he told GamblingCompliance, an industry news site.
He repeated those concerns in a recent interview with Legal Sports Report, suggesting that it would likely require the compacts of each of the state’s 62 gaming tribes to be renegotiated.
“You wonder where we’re even going with this. It’s premature,” he said. “There’s no thought being given to all these implications. There’s been no consultation with anyone in the industry. Why do this when there are so many unanswered questions?”
